NICE TO SEE SOME FACULTY PUSHBACK: 19 Cornell Law Professors: Dismiss Title IX Complaint Against Graduate Student and Give Him His Ph.D.

Nineteen Cornell Law School professors signed onto a letter condemning the University’s decision to withhold a student’s Ph.D. because of the “mere filing” of a Title IX complaint against him. They urged University officials to immediately dismiss the Title IX complaint — filed just three days before the physics graduate’s anticipated graduation — and to award the student, Yogesh Patil, his diploma.

The professors’ June 3 letter, sent to Cornell’s president, lead counsel and two Title IX officials, said the complaint against Patil is rife with “glaring factual errors” and, even if true, does not amount to a Title IX offense. Patil’s accuser, a woman identified as LA, says he retaliated against her for filing a Title IX complaint against Patil’s advisor, Prof. Mukund Vengalattore, by operating a website which includes information about that complaint.

“All the website did was publicly discuss a case of immense academic importance,” Prof. Kevin Clermont, law, the letter’s author, wrote. “If Yogesh is guilty of retaliation, then so is anyone who discusses Title IX proceedings at Cornell even without identifying details.”

Indeed. I think the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights should look into this.