Choosing which laws to enforce and which cases to pursue is an inherently political decision. Resources are limited, and priorities must be set. But when electing law enforcement officials, especially a state’s highest law enforcement official, voters should ask candidates to base their decisions on the facts and the law.
Page A213From§Eachthe morning edition — 15 October 2026
New York Times prints the university crisis playbook; Cornell and Chicago are already following it.
As it ran on the front
I read two stories filed under the same byline's logic this week: one explaining, step by step, how a university in trouble manages a crisis, the other showing a university in trouble managing one exactly that way. The paper invited its readers to notice the overlap. I didn't need the invitation. Cornell did the noticing for me.
The how-to piece names the moves a school under scrutiny tends to make: add rules, hire an outside investigator, and, sometimes, change the leadership. All together now — step one. On Tuesday, Cornell's president, Michael Kotlikoff, announced a ban on fraternity parties. Step two: on October 6, the university's trustees had already announced that Sally Yates, a former deputy attorney general, would review how Cornell handles misconduct complaints. All together now — step three: a resolution of no confidence, introduced by the Faculty Senate on October 6, was still waiting for its vote, the same day faculty members stood at a public meeting and told the president, politely, that a fraternity ban two years late does not return anyone's two years.…
…(cont) The two years matter. The lawsuit behind all of it says a Cornell student was given drugs and alcohol and then assaulted by seven men at a fraternity chapter house in 2024. The district attorney in Ithaca decided there wasn't enough evidence to bring charges. The lawsuit went forward anyway, filed in September, against the university and the fraternity. Everything above — the ban, the reviewer, the resolution — happened in the two years and the two months since that decision, in the order the paper says it usually happens.
The order is the part worth sitting with. On Sunday, at 1:50 in the morning, a 21-year-old woman reported being sexually assaulted at a fraternity house near the University of Chicago. The report on it does not call the timing a coincidence; it calls it what follows a gang-rape report at a fraternity house at Cornell. The playbook published this week was already running two states over before the paper that printed it had reached anyone's doorstep.
A document meant to describe a pattern turned out to be a form. Fill in the university's name, the fraternity's letters, the date of the Faculty Senate meeting. Leave the two years blank. That part fills itself in.
“This is the whole racket: write the manual after everybody's already memorized it. Cornell didn't need the New York Times to tell it what to do — it had already banned the frat parties, hired the Obama-administration lawyer, and sat through the no-confidence hearing before the ink was dry. The kid who got hurt gets a lawsuit; the school gets a flowchart.”
“Look, nobody's saying Cornell has a problem, we're saying the DA looked at the facts and decided there wasn't enough there — and fine, yes, the Washington Examiner says Letitia James "has never let the facts or the law get in her way," but that's not about Cornell, that's a totally separate point I'm bringing up for no reason. Did I say "no reason"? Forget I said that.”
The receipts
Alleged assault follows report of gang-rape at frat house at Cornell, which ignited national uproar and criticism online A 21-year-old woman reported being sexually assaulted last weekend at a fraternity house near the University of Chicago, as Greek life nationwide faces renewed scrutiny for recurrent misconduct. The incident allegedly…
Schools under scrutiny as Cornell is often follow a sort of public relations playbook, adding rules, hiring outside investigators and sometimes making leadership changes.
Police are investigating a newly reported sexual assault at an off-campus fraternity house near the University of Chicago. Lilia Luciano reports.
Ahead of a vote on a resolution of no confidence in Michael I. Kotlikoff, some faculty members said they were not swayed by steps he announced on Tuesday, including banning fraternity parties.
Exclusive video offers insight into Wednesday's high-stakes meeting at Cornell University.
Kotlikoff acknowledged some missteps, but also defended his leadership as he took questions from the university’s Faculty Senate.
· Cornell faculty plan no-confidence vote to increase pressure on president for handling of rape case from the morgue, 6 Oct 2026
· Cornell faculty prepare no-confidence vote against administration from the morgue, 6 Oct 2026
· Students protest Cornell University's response to gang-rape allegations – video from the morgue, 6 Oct 2026
· Cornell faculty senate introduces no-confidence resolution over handling of alleged 2024 sexual assault from the morgue, 6 Oct 2026
· Former Obama official will review Cornell’s handling of sexual misconduct complaints from the morgue, 6 Oct 2026
· Trump is fueling a culture of misogynistic impunity from the morgue, 6 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.