Martha E. Pollack

Cornell’s Failure of Transparency and Accountability

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Beginning in 2017, The Sophie Fund repeatedly warned Cornell University administrators about the need for robust new policies to end the cycle of sexual assault on their campus. We pointed to Cornell’s own student survey statistics that amply demonstrated their failure to curb the school’s persistent prevalence of sexual violence.

Cornell University administration headquarters

On September 14, a former student sued Cornell, alleging that she was gang raped at the Chi Phi fraternity house on the Cornell campus in 2024. The lawsuit, which also seeks a jury trial for seven men accused of committing “heinous criminal sexual acts,” argues that Cornell breached its duty to protect her from foreseeable dangers. On September 28, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced he would reopen a criminal investigation into the allegations.

Specifically, the civil lawsuit accuses Cornell of:

“Failure to protect Plaintiff from a known danger; failure to have sufficient policies and procedures in place to prevent sex abuse and assault being committed by any of their students; failure to properly implement policies and procedures to prevent sex abuse and assault; failure to take reasonable measures to ensure that policies and procedures to prevent sex abuse and assault were working; failure to investigate risks of sexual assault; failure to properly train the employees at their facilities; failed [sic] to have any outside agency test their safety procedures; and failure to train its employees properly to identify signs of sexual abuse and sexual assault.”

The lawsuit’s narrative echoes the lack of transparency and failure of accountability that The Sophie Fund has witnessed in the Cornell administration’s handling of student mental health. 

The Sophie Fund strongly advocated for a task force to comprehensively review Cornell’s mental health policies and practices and make recommendations for improvement.

In an April 2017 letter asking then-President Martha Pollack to appoint a task force, we noted:

“[Cornell’s] failure to develop a policy and strategy that addresses the disturbing mental health-related problem of sexual violence against Cornell students and provides effective support for victims of sexual violence.”

—“A lack of institutional accountability for Cornell’s mental health policies, programs, and practices.”

—“An institutional mindset reflecting complacency and defensiveness that appears to prioritize Cornell’s public image over the welfare of students struggling with mental disorders.”

—“A system of accountability would include a zero-tolerance program with robust measures to fight against rape and sexual violence, and hazing, and equally robust legal and psychological support services for victims.”

—“31.6 percent—nearly 1 in 3—reported being victims of rape or sexual battery during their years in college; 9.8 percent of undergraduate female students participating in a recent campus climate survey reported having been the victims of rape or attempted rape since enrolling at Cornell.”

Pollack finally commissioned a Mental Health Review task force in 2018, and the task force issued its report with recommendations in 2020.

A year ago this week, The Sophie Fund published a blog post about current Cornell President Kotlikoff’s refusal of its request to inform the Cornell and Ithaca communities about the outcome of those recommendations. Kotlikoff was interim president at the time of the alleged gang rape in October 2024; Pollack had abruptly resigned her post effective June 30 of that year.

In a presentation to the Mental Health Review task force in 2019, The Sophie Fund urged:

“The review teams should consider recommendations aimed at forcefully ending the cycle of sexual assault and hazing violence in the Cornell community and ensuring the maximum mental health support for victims at risk of life-long psychological disorders as a result of their trauma.”

 In a 2020 presentation to the task force, The Sophie Fund called on Cornell leadership to “develop new and effective strategies to combat the serious problems of sexual assault and hazing within its student body.”

The presentation added:

“Research indicates that victims of sexual assault and hazing are at risk of life-long mental health problems. Data indicates that the prevalence of sexual assault and hazing at Cornell has reached levels that no civilized institution should accept. Past and present strategies have failed to eliminate or even reduce the problems. To allow these problems to continue without a robust and effective response is a serious abrogation of responsibility.”

Among some 130 recommendations, the Mental Health Review report encouraged the Cornell administration to continue what it endorsed to be the university’s unspecified “substantive reforms”—at the time—to address sexual assault and “usher in positive changes that will provide a safer environment for students.”

In The Sophie Fund’s post-report presentation in 2021 to the Cornell Executive Accountability Committee then charged with implementing recommendations but since disbanded, The Sophie Fund urged Cornell to:

“Introduce new zero-tolerance university regulations and implement robust new campus education and awareness programs with the publicly stated goal of terminating the stubborn normalization of sexual assault and hazing violence among Cornell students, in recognition that previous initiatives have failed to stem student sexual violence or end the destructive hazing culture; ensure that perpetrators of violence, intimidation, and criminal recklessness are held strictly accountable under university regulations, and ensure perpetrators are also held accountable under applicable local, state, and federal laws; mandate the vice president for Student & Campus Life to issue annual reports on steps addressing sexual assault and hazing violence, the results of those efforts, and identifying necessary further steps to be taken.”

In April 2025, after waiting for Cornell to honor its stated commitment to inform the Cornell and Ithaca communities about the implementation of the task force’s recommendations, we wrote to President Kotlikoff asking him to issue a report detailing the results of the implementation work.

We wrote: 

“Transparently fulfilling a commitment to hold itself accountable will enhance confidence and respect in how Cornell is supporting its students’ well-being and acting as a responsible and valued part of the greater community.”

Kotlikoff rejected our request, arguing that the Cornell administration had moved on from the 2020 recommendations in favor of a “Health Promoting Campus initiative.”

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On September 24, The Sophie Fund requested information on the Chi Phi gang rape investigation from relevant campus and community authorities. Here are our questions and their responses.

Kyle Kimball, Cornell University Vice President for Community Relations (No response to The Sophie Fund as of September 29; Kimball issued a statement on September 21 and a statement on September 28)

1. What is Cornell’s response to the allegations contained in the lawsuit?

2. After “Jane Doe” reported the gang rape to the Cornell University Police Department on or about November 8, 2024, what actions has Cornell taken from November 8, 2024 to date in response to her allegations, specifically:

2a. To investigate the allegations?

2b. To address the alleged perpetrators and their alleged actions?

2c. To address the alleged behavior of the Xi Chapter of Chi Phi Fraternity?

3. What is the current status and/or outcome of Cornell’s actions related to the above 2a, 2b, and 2c questions?

4. Can you provide the number of sexual violence incidents reported to Cornell authorities in the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026?

5. Does Cornell assure Cornell students that actions such as alleged in the gang rape lawsuit will not occur in the future?

6. What steps has Cornell taken in the aftermath of the alleged gang rape at the Xi Chapter of Chi Phi Fraternity to ensure that sexual violence include rape will no longer occur at Cornell?

Eric Stickel, Chief of the Cornell University Police Department (No response to The Sophie Fund as of September 29)

1. What steps has the Cornell Police Department taken to investigate the alleged gang rape reported by a Cornell undergraduate student to the Cornell University Police Department on or about November 8, 2024?

2. What is the current status and/or outcome of any steps the Cornell Police Department has taken to investigate the alleged gang rape?

3. Can you provide the number of sexual violence incidents reported to the Cornell Police Department in the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026?

Katie King, Assistant Vice President, Cornell Office of Civil Rights (No response to The Sophie Fund as of September 29)

1. What were the findings of the Office of Civil Rights’ investigation?

2. What conclusions or recommendations did the Office of Civil Rights make based on its investigation?

3. What actions were taken by the university in response to the investigation by the Office of Civil Rights?

4. Why has the Formal Complaints page of the Office of Civil Rights not been updated for the 2024-2025 or 2025-2026 academic years when the outcome of this case would have been recorded?

Thomas J. Kelly, Chief of Ithaca Police Department (No response to The Sophie Fund as of September 29; IPD issued a statement on Facebook on September 28)

1. Was the alleged gang rape reported to the Ithaca Police Department; and if so, when, and by whom?

2. What specific steps if any has the Ithaca Police Department taken to investigate the alleged gang rape?

3. What is the current status and/or outcome of any steps the Ithaca Police Department has taken to investigate the alleged gang rape?

4. Can you provide the number of sexual violence incidents involving Cornell University students reported directly to the Ithaca Police Department in the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026?

Matthew Van Houten, Tompkins County District Attorney (Van Houten provided a statement on September 28)

1. It is reported in the media that the “Tompkins County District Attorney said his office ‘conducted a thorough review of the police investigation,’ but ‘there was insufficient evidence to support criminal charges.’ Is this statement attributed to the District Attorney correct?

2. The new civil lawsuit contains a significant amount of detail regarding the alleged gang rape—including the names of the alleged perpetrators and their specific alleged acts, and a screenshot of a text message inviting fraternity members to join the alleged sexual assault. If it is correct that the District Attorney reviewed the Ithaca Police Department’s investigation, can you explain what was lacking in its available evidence that prompted the District Attorney’s decision not to bring criminal charges against any of the defendants identified in the new civil lawsuit? Put another way, what evidence from the investigating police department would be required for the District Attorney to bring charges following the alleged victim’s sexual assault police report?

3. The lawsuit also states that “the matter is also still being investigated by the Ithaca Police Department.” If this is correct, and in light of the details of the alleged rape contained in the new lawsuit, has or will the District Attorney’s office reopen its review of the matter?

—By Scott MacLeod and Susan Hack

Scott MacLeod and Susan Hack are co-founders of The Sophie Fund, established in memory of their daughter Sophie, who died by suicide in Ithaca in 2016 during a health leave of absence from Cornell.

Commending Cornell’s Mental Health Recommendations

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The Sophie Fund, in a presentation to Cornell University on March 1, supported the Cornell Mental Health Review’s recommendations for addressing student mental health and commended Cornell administrators for launching a process to implement them.

Download: Cornell University’s Mental Health Review Final Report

The Mental Health Review, initiated by President Martha E. Pollack in 2018, and carried out by internal and external review teams, made 60 recommendations comprehensively calling for improvements in mental health and medical services, academic life, student well-being, and mental health awareness and proactive support.

The Cornell administration released the review’s 34-page Final Report in October; at the same time, it announced the creation of an Executive Accountability Committee led by senior academic officials as well as senior administrators overseeing Student & Campus Life and Cornell Health to evaluate and implement the recommendations.

“We commend the mental health review teams for recognizing the seriousness of the challenge and, through extensive research and analysis, providing valuable detailed recommendations to comprehensively address it,” Scott MacLeod and Susan Hack, co-founders of The Sophie Fund, said in a written presentation to the Executive Accountability Committee. “We wholeheartedly support the Final Report’s recommendations. The Final Report provides the road map for Cornell to establish a gold standard for collegiate mental health.”

MacLeod and Hack, who established the nonprofit advocacy group in 2016 after the suicide death of their daughter Sophie, who was on a health leave of absence from the School of Architecture, Art, and Planning, thanked Pollack and Vice President for Student & Campus Life Ryan Lombardi for “recognizing the need for continuous attention to student mental health.” They also thanked undergraduate and graduate student organizations who sought change for “representing the voices of Cornell students and especially those in need of mental health support.”

The Sophie Fund presentation agreed with the Final Report’s call for “an enhanced version of excellence, which has as its foundation a healthy educational environment” and with recommendations for academic policies and practices, faculty and staff training and resources, campus collaboration, and communication.

The presentation said that “these recommendations recognize that 1) supporting student mental health requires the coordinated involvement and commitment of administrators, faculty, staff, and students across the schools and the campus; 2) it is a false premise to expect Cornell Health/Counseling and Psychological Services alone to shoulder the responsibility for student mental health; 3) schools and departments must support student mental health through practices that foster community, eliminate undue academic stress, discourage unhealthy competition, and support struggling students; and 4) effective student mental health support today requires a culture change with strong institutional leadership and structured cross-campus collaboration.”

The presentation highlighted 13 priority areas for action as the Executive Accountability Committee considers the Final Report’s recommendations, stressing the need to emphasize “providing real tools, ensuring their actual use, setting concrete goals, and measuring the outcomes and impact.”

“An all-faculty email stressing the value of student mental health gatekeeping may check a box, but it would likely have little, if any, tangible effect,” the presentation said. “Similarly, offering mental health gatekeeper training for faculty would be an excellent step, but it would be meaningless if nobody signed up for it.”

The presentation called on Cornell to ensure “strong leadership and direction from the senior administration to marshal the human effort and financial resources needed to implement improvements and ultimately achieve culture change.” MacLeod and Hack commended Cornell for “quickly establishing” the Executive Accountability Committee to drive improvements.

The Sophie Fund suggested creating a student advocacy office “dedicated to helping students navigate specific institutional challenges and obstacles in academic practices and mental health services, including the Health Leave of Absence process and insurance barriers, that may negatively impact or further undermine their mental health, spoil their positive college experience, and threaten their trajectories into fulfilling adult lives.”

The presentation also stressed the need for new zero-tolerance university regulations and new campus education and awareness programs with the publicly stated goal of terminating the “stubborn normalization” of sexual assault and hazing violence among Cornell students.

Other priority areas cited in The Sophie Fund’s presentation: mandatory training for faculty, staff, and students in ways to identify and help students in need of mental health support; academic policies affecting undergraduate and graduate student wellbeing; clinical best practices; referrals to community mental health providers; health leaves of absence; suicide prevention; healthy campus community life; mental health communications and education; student organizations; and the role of parents and families.

The Final Report cited Cornell PULSE/CUE surveys indicating that the proportion of Cornell undergraduates who reported that they were unable to function academically—missing classes, unable to study or complete homework, etc.—for at least a week in the past year due to depression, stress, or anxiety increased from 33 percent in 2015 to 42 percent in 2019. From Fall 2015 to Fall 2018, individual therapy encounters at CAPS increased 19 percent, the report added.

The 13-member internal Mental Health Review Committee, which included five students, was headed by Marla Love, currently interim dean of students, and Miranda Swanson, associate dean for student services in the College of Engineering. The External Review Team consisted of Michael Hogan, a former commissioner of mental health for New York State, Ohio, and Connecticut (chair); Karen Singleton, chief of Mental Health and Counseling Services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MIT Medical; and Henry Chung, senior medical director of care management organization at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

Click here to read or download The Sophie Fund’s “Perspectives on the Mental Health Review Final Report” presented to the Cornell Executive Accountability Committee on March 1, 2021

Aiming for a Student Mental Health “Gold Standard” at Cornell

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The Sophie Fund’s co-founders, saying that they are encouraged by Cornell University’s launch of a comprehensive review of student mental health policies and practices, called on the review teams to set the ambitious goal of creating a gold standard for collegiate mental health.

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100-year-old statue of Cornell founder Ezra Cornell in the Arts Quad

Scott MacLeod and Susan Hack, who created The Sophie Fund in 2016 as a mental health advocacy group after the suicide death of their daughter Sophie during a health leave of absence from Cornell, made the statement in a 25-page presentation on August 23 to the two review teams containing their personal perspectives and main concerns. The review is taking place during the 2019-2020 academic year.

“At times, we have expressed frustration over delays in launching Cornell’s comprehensive review,” they wrote. “But it is important now to look forward and help ensure that it brings about the greatest possible support for student mental health.” The Sophie Fund founders said they “are encouraged by Cornell Health Executive Director Kent Bullis’s commitment to creating a ‘healthier and more supportive campus environment with improved support resources and clinical services for our students.’” MacLeod and Hack wrote to President Martha E. Pollack in April 2017 asking for an independent, external-led task force of experts to assess the university’s approach to student mental health and make recommendations for improvements.

Click here to download The Sophie Fund’s “Perspectives on Student Mental Health at Cornell University: A Presentation to the Mental Health Review Committee and the External Review Team.”

Highlights:

Scope of the Comprehensive Review of Student Mental Health

We encourage the review teams to set the ambitious goal of producing a model package of findings and recommendations enabling Cornell to establish a gold standard for collegiate mental health.

Cornell University’s Institutional Mindset

We encourage the review teams to review prevailing attitudes toward student mental health in the university’s leadership echelons; and consider recommendations for changes in institutional mindset and leadership culture as a necessary prerequisite for effectively addressing student mental health challenges.

Campus Climate and Institutional Accountability

We encourage the review teams to review the broad cross-campus framework for supporting student mental health and wellness, and consider recommendations for strengthening accountability; streamlining policies, programs, and practices; and enlisting schools, faculty, staff, and students in a comprehensive, coordinated, results-oriented effort that prioritizes student mental health, healthy living, and unqualified support for every student’s academic success.

Cornell University Student Mental Health Policies

We encourage the review teams to inform their findings and recommendations with a review of all current Cornell policies related to or affecting student mental health.

Cornell University Budgetary Resources

We encourage the review teams to review how university resources are allocated for student mental health; to explore potential new sources of funding; and consider budgetary recommendations based on what is needed to fully implement best practices.

Student Mental Health Data

We encourage the review teams to inform their findings and recommendations with a review of key data providing insights into the prevalence of mental health challenges and the means utilized to address them.

Cornell University Student Input

We encourage the review teams to actively seek and receive maximum input from students in order to fully understand the mental health challenges students face, which include seeking and receiving psychological counseling, navigating academic pressures that exacerbate mental disorders, and taking leaves of absence due to mental health crises; and consider recommendations strongly informed by student input.

Clinical Best Practices

We encourage the review teams to review the mental health policies, programs, and practices at Cornell Health and the Counseling and Psychological Services unit, and consider recommendations that ensure alignment with current best practices.

Mental Health Leaves of Absence

We encourage the review teams to review the university’s policies, programs, and practices for mental health leaves of absence; and consider recommendations for better supporting students in the process as they consider, take, and return from leaves.

Ithaca Community Resources

We encourage the review teams to undertake a review, including substantive discussions with Ithaca community stakeholders, of the practice of referring students to community service providers; and consider recommendations that better safeguard the mental health interests of students as well as community members.

Trauma at Cornell University

We encourage the review teams to review the prevalence of student sexual assault and hazing, the mental health consequences for victims, and the practices in place to address the problems and support the victims; and consider recommendations seeking an end to the cycle of student-inflicted trauma and ensuring maximum support for victims.

Alcohol and Other Drugs

We encourage the review teams to review the university’s Alcohol and Other Drug policies, programs, and practices; and consider recommendations for enhancing prevention and intervention strategies, treatment, and recovery support.

Prevention and Early Intervention, and Crisis Intervention

We encourage the review teams to review the university’s policies, programs, and practices for creating a safe community; preventing student suicides; supporting at-risk populations; and aiding students in crisis; and consider recommendations for improvements.

Mental Health Education

We encourage the review teams to review policies, programs, and practices for communicating knowledge and tools on mental health and fighting stigma; and consider recommendations for improvement.

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Are you a Cornell student or a member of the Ithaca community? You may provide your comments and ideas to the review teams by emailing the Mental Health Review Committee (MHRC) at this address: mhrc@cornell.edu.

The heads of the Mental Health Review teams are:

External Review Team:

Michael Hogan, consultant at Hogan Health Associates

Mental Health Review Committee:

Marla Love, senior associate dean of students in the Office of the Dean of Students, Student and Campus Life

Miranda Swanson, associate dean for Student Services in Cornell Engineering

Cornell will soon be publishing an online survey about student mental health available here.

 See also:

Launching Cornell’s Comprehensive Review of Student Mental Health

 

 

Launching Cornell’s Comprehensive Review of Student Mental Health

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In the six years that I’ve been at Cornell University, we have seen an unprecedented growth in the need for campus mental health services. While the Cornell administration has been extremely generous in increasing our clinical resources in recent years, it remains a challenge to keep pace with the growing need for care. And we’re not alone: universities across the country are struggling with similar challenges.

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Michael Hogan, leader of External Review Team

Beginning in 2018, I was part of many campus conversations—with students, colleagues, and campus leaders, including President Martha E. Pollack and Vice President Ryan Lombardi—about the need to find new ways to engage our community in addressing the environmental factors contributing to student distress, and to seek new perspectives on the services and resources available to students on campus.

In September 2018, these conversations and others led President Pollack to commit the university to a Comprehensive Review of Student Mental Health, to begin in 2019.

The Campus Health Executive Committee (CHEC) oversaw the development of the review’s scope and planning during the Fall 2018 semester. Feedback was solicited from a wide range of student, staff, and faculty stakeholders, including members of the university-wide Coalition on Mental Health. The consensus was that the comprehensive review should focus on two themes: how to meet the growing clinical needs of students facing mental health problems, and how to improve the campus environment and culture to better support student mental health.

In Spring 2019, CHEC announced the members of the two groups charged with conducting the review: an internal university Mental Health Review Committee tasked with examining Cornell’s academic and social environment, climate, and culture related to mental health, and an External Review Team responsible for reviewing the university’s clinical services and campus-based strategies.

The internal committee, made up of 13 students, faculty, and staff, is led by Marla Love, senior associate dean of students in the Office of the Dean of Students, and Miranda Swanson, associate dean for Student Services in the College of Engineering.  Love and Swanson are seasoned student affairs professionals who are relatively new to Cornell, bringing a fresh perspective to the review process. Love joined Cornell in October 2017 after serving for 15 years at various institutions across the country including Scripps College and Phillips (Andover) Academy, and most recently at Azusa Pacific University. Swanson came to Cornell in December 2017 from the University of Chicago, where she spent 16 years as dean of students in the Physical Sciences Division and working with graduate students in the Humanities Division.

Members of the internal team include Catherine Thrasher-Carroll, mental health promotion program director for Cornell Health’s Skorton Center for Health Initiatives; among the four students in the group is Chelsea Kiely ‘20, of the College of Arts and Sciences, who is president of Cornell Minds Matter, a student mental health promotion organization.

The External Review Team, comprised of three highly respected leaders in the field of mental health, is led by Michael Hogan, who served as mental health commissioner in New York, Connecticut, and Ohio over a span of 25 years. He is a member of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s executive committee, and was a developer of the Zero Suicide Model for healthcare. Hogan chaired President George W. Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health and has served on the board of the Joint Commission, an independent organization that accredits healthcare organizations and programs in the United States.

The other members of the external team are Karen Singleton, associate medical director and chief of Mental Health and Counseling Services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MIT Medical; and Henry Chung, senior medical director of Behavioral Health Integration Strategy at the Care Management Organization of Montefiore Health System, and professor of psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Listening tours and focus groups will be held through the Fall 2019 semester, and the final report of findings and recommendations will be submitted in Spring 2020. Updates about the reviewers’ process and progress—in addition to the final report—will be posted on the Mental Health Review website.

I have also asked the members of both review teams to provide ongoing feedback to Cornell’s leadership as the review proceeds, including recommendations specific to our work at Cornell Health.

It is important for the Cornell community to note that we will not be waiting for the completion of the review to begin implementing important changes to our clinical services. A new counseling appointment model—which will include brief same-day appointments, and more options for follow-up care—will begin in Fall 2019. We look forward to the opportunity to gain valuable feedback and to identify opportunities for improvement.

I am grateful to President Pollack and Vice President Lombardi for prioritizing this university-wide review in support of student campus health. And I am confident that the review will result in a healthier and more supportive campus environment with improved support resources and clinical services for our students.

—By Kent Bullis

Kent Bullis, MD, is the executive director of Cornell Health

Photo credit: Suicide Prevention Resource Center (video screenshot)

Cornell’s Student Mental Health Review: “Disappointing”

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In a letter emailed to Cornell University students on March 20, Ryan Lombardi, vice president for Student and Campus Life, announced long-awaited plans for a “comprehensive review” of student mental health.

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We support all steps to improve student mental health. We sincerely hope these plans will produce significant improvements. But it is with regret that we must express our disappointment with Vice President Lombardi’s announcement.

Nearly two years ago, after looking closely at student mental health policies and practices across the nation as well as at Cornell, we wrote to President Martha E. Pollack to respectfully seek a robust, independent, external-led review of the mental health challenges facing Cornell’s students as well as the university’s policies, programs, and practices to address them.

We wrote that we had observed systemic failure in Cornell mental health policy and practice, topped by a failure by Cornell administrators “to fully and openly recognize the magnitude of the mental health challenges facing Cornell, and to address them with best practices backed by human and financial resources commensurate to the scale.”

Our concerns are based partly on Cornell’s own data. The 2017 Cornell PULSE Survey of 5,001 undergraduates reported that 71.6 percent of respondents often or very often felt “overwhelmed,” and 42.9 percent said that they had been unable to function academically for at least a week on one or more occasions due to depression, stress, or anxiety. Nearly 10 percent of respondents reported being unable to function during a week-long period on five or more occasions. Nine percent of the respondents—about 450 students—reported “having seriously considered suicide at least once during the last year,” and about 85 students reported having actually attempted suicide at least once in the last year.

Vice President Lombardi’s announcement falls very short of what is needed to address Cornell’s mental health crisis and of what the Cornell administration promised when President Pollack announced the decision last September to conduct a review.

In brief, Vice President Lombardi’s announcement said that the review will be handled by two separate entities. One is an “external review team” to look at clinical mental health services—Cornell’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). The other is a “university committee” comprised of students, faculty and staff to examine “the ways in which the campus environment and culture contribute to mental health challenges at Cornell.” 

Lack of urgency; lack of a holistic approach; lack of independence, transparency, and accountability; lack of full mandate, scope, and goals; such aspects of the announcement highlight our concerns about the strength of the Cornell administration’s commitment to student mental health.

Lack of Urgency

Some background puts the March 20 announcement in perspective. President Pollack announced in September 2018 that Cornell would undertake a “comprehensive review” of student mental health. It was then only last week, seven months into the academic year, that the Cornell administration finally outlined plans for the review in a late-night, mid-week, out-of-the-blue email to students.

It may also be noted that after we first wrote to the Cornell President seeking a review of student mental health, it took 10 months for the administration to respond with a clear answer, and President Pollack’s answer at that time was “No.”

In that January 2018 response, President Pollack pointed instead to an “external assessment” then being conducted by The JED Foundation, JED’s on-site visit to the Cornell campus in the summer of 2017, and Cornell’s “ongoing engagement with the foundation to ensure we are providing holistic support.”

We wrote to President Pollack again in August 2018, arguing that the JED review was “plainly insufficient.” We noted that the review (or the parts of it that Cornell had chosen to make public) included no findings, and that its recommendations had not addressed 1) CAPS services; 2) Cornell’s suicide prevention policy; 3) community mental health provider services to Cornell students; 4) academic workloads; 5) or faculty and staff handling of students in distress.

Throughout 2018, two student organizations—the undergraduate Cornell Mental Health Task Force and Cornell Graduate Students United—made extraordinary efforts to seek an independent review and to advocate for specific improvements for student mental health.

With the March 20 announcement, the Cornell administration seems to have lost an entire academic year of time for a comprehensive review. Cornell’s 10-day spring break starts this week, and then only five weeks are left until the last day of spring semester classes.

Lack of a Holistic Approach

Vice President Lombardi’s announcement suggests that the Cornell administration has decided against going forward with a true comprehensive review; the announcement indicates a preference instead for a review that is modest and incremental.

The plans outlined on March 20 fragment the review into at least two compartments, rather than establishing a centralized task force to review all Cornell mental health matters in their “comprehensive” entirety. This is at odds with President Pollack’s statements that Cornell would undertake a “comprehensive” and a “holistic” review of student mental health.

We along with others have called for a task force to conduct a comprehensive review due to the interconnectedness and complexity of student mental health challenges. The challenges deal strongly with CAPS clinical services but hardly with CAPS alone; the scope of a comprehensive review must examine university policies, administration commitment, academic culture, campus climate, community mental health services—and the intersection of all these areas.

Lack of Independence, Transparency, and Accountability

The March 20 plans lack a structure or mechanism to ensure the independence of the review, such as the appointment of a recognized external expert as task force chair (or co-chair), who would oversee all elements of the review and report directly and only to the Cornell President; the Cornell administration, rather, seems intent on a review with ambiguous lines of authority and accountability that is guided and closely controlled by the administration itself.

The March 20 announcement said nothing about the charge that the review teams have been given; about who authorized the fragmented review plans; about who appointed the members of the two entities that will conduct the review; or about which university authority the review teams will report to, and by what deadline.

The announcement also failed to identify all but two members of the review teams—nothing was said about the appointment of specific external mental health experts, student leaders, or Ithaca community stakeholders. This lack of transparency (or efficiency) suggests the absence of a strong mandate.

Vice President Lombardi did announce the appointment of co-chairs for the campus environment committee—two associate deans who are both new to Cornell and to Ithaca. Typically, university officials at the vice president and vice provost levels have been assigned leadership roles on mental health task forces at peer institutions.

The March 20 announcement made no commitment to transparently releasing all reports related to the review.

Lack of Full Mandate, Scope, and Goals

The March 20 announcement said nothing about the mandate, scope, and goals given to the clinical mental health services external review team and the campus environment committee. The announcement makes no mention of mandating the two review entities to report findings or make recommendations.

Vice President Lombardi said that the clinical mental health services external review team will “evaluate our services.” With such a vague and narrow mandate, the team may not be empowered to review the many budgetary and other policies that affect the services, or the services provided to Cornell students on referral off campus by community providers.

Vice President Lombardi said that the campus environment committee “will gather information” about the environment and culture at Cornell. With such a meager mandate, the committee may not be empowered to examine the plethora of policies and practices related to mental health (suicide prevention, student disabilities, academic pressure, alcohol and other drug services, residential life, sexual assault, hazing, vulnerable population groups, education and awareness, emergency response)—and their interconnectedness—with the required rigor and vigor.

Lack of Resolve

All this leads us to worry about a lack of resolve in addressing student mental health at Cornell. We continue to have concerns about “an institutional mindset reflecting complacency and defensiveness,” as we wrote to President Pollack nearly two years ago.

We are disappointed by the President’s hesitation and delays in moving forward with a comprehensive review. We were surprised when she declined our request in 2017 to meet with us to discuss our concerns and suggestions. In December, Robert S. Harrison, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees, also declined our request to address the board on student mental health at its meeting in Ithaca scheduled for March 22.

Last fall, we welcomed President Pollack’s announcement that Cornell would conduct a comprehensive review of student mental health. What we said then remains our belief—and our hope:

“There is a mounting mental health crisis facing our young people today, and the goal of the comprehensive review should be not merely to tinker with the existing system but to create a gold standard for supporting student mental health in the years to come. As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Cornell should expect no less of itself.

“We continue to stress the importance of a truly independent, robust, and transparent review, led by an external expert—a recognized public health authority with a strong background in mental health and without any current or previous ties to Cornell. This is vital, both to ensure the best possible outcome and to win the confidence of Cornell students and the wider campus and Ithaca communities that the university administration is doing its utmost to support student mental health.”

—By Scott MacLeod and Susan Hack

Scott MacLeod and Susan Hack are co-founders of The Sophie Fund, a non-profit organization supporting mental health initiatives aiding young people in the greater Ithaca community. The Sophie Fund was established in memory of their daughter, Sophie, a Cornell fine arts student who died by suicide in 2016 while on a health leave of absence.

UPDATE 4/1/19

Cornell Health posted further information about the mental health review on its website:

Cornell’s comprehensive review of mental health

In September of 2018, the Office of the President announced that the university would be conducting a comprehensive review of student mental health, stating that “Cornell Health will work with the campus community during the fall 2018 semester to determine the appropriate scope for a comprehensive review of student mental health at Cornell, anticipating that such a review could potentially begin in early 2019.”

Over the course of fall 2018, feedback was solicited from a wide range of student, staff, and faculty stakeholders, including the university-wide Coalition on Mental Health.The consensus was that the comprehensive review should include two broad themes:

Exploring how best to meet the growing clinical needs of students facing mental health problems

Identifying ways in which the campus environment / campus culture might change to better support student mental health

Cornell’s comprehensive review will be conducted by two different groups working in concert with each other:

A university Mental Health Review Committee composed of staff, students (undergraduate, graduate, and professional), and faculty
An external team of expert evaluators (members to be announced soon)

Upcoming timeline:

This spring 2019, the university is in the process of finalizing membership in the Mental Health Review Committee, and will convene the committee and refine questions to explore with key stakeholders. The committee co-chairs (Miranda Swanson, Associate Dean for Student Services in the College of Engineering and Marla Love, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Equity in the Dean of Students Office) will also develop a plan for gathering campus input and collaborate with external reviewers to plan site visits. Between Fall 2019 and Spring 2020, the Mental Health Review Committee will conduct a ‘Listening Tour’ of campus; the external reviewers will conduct their site visits, and submit a written report.

More details will be added to this page soon.

Cornell Health also posted information about “Upcoming changes to Cornell Health’s counseling services”:

Cornell Health is planning changes to student mental health services to provide more rapid access to care. These changes are in response to student feedback and a growing demand for services, and were first announced in a message to the student body on March 20, 2019.

We are adapting a model of care currently in place at Brown University that has proven successful in supporting seamless and rapid access to mental health services.

Beginning in Fall 2019:

Students can have access to same-day counseling appointments (or next-day appointments, if they contact us in the afternoon)
Students will have flexibility in who they see: they can select a therapist based on convenience (i.e., whomever has an opening on a given day at a specific time), or wait to see a therapist of their choosing
Students who are interested in continued counseling will be able to select half-hour or hour-long appointments (students’ counselors will partner with them in determining the frequency and length of appointments that will meet their needs)
Students will have increased access to psychotropic medication management services

How we plan to accommodate these changes:

Beginning fall 2019, every therapist’s day will include time slots for same-day appointments. These same-day appointments will be focused on addressing immediate needs and problem-solving. We will gain much of this time in the schedule by converting the “brief assessment” telephone screenings and the traditional “CAPS intake” appointments into times that can be scheduled to directly address the student’s concern.

Additionally, we will offer half-hour counseling appointments along with the traditional hour-long appointments to increase the number of appointments available each day. We anticipate the rapid access and the flexibility built into this new model will be a welcome change for students.

More details will be added to this page soon.