As Cornell’s Rape Case Draws National Attention, Students Want Accountability.
Por Jeannine Chiang — The Nation » Article
A new lawsuit alleging that a former student was drugged and gang-raped by Chi Phi fraternity members is sparking outrage in the Cornell community.
People walk through the Cornell University campus.
A new lawsuit alleging that a former Cornell student was drugged and gang-raped by several members of the Chi Phi fraternity has generated national attention after The Cornell Daily Sun broke the story. On September 14, the student, identified only as Jane Doe in court filings, sued Cornell University and law enforcement officials for neglecting to protect her and investigate the sexual assault case sufficiently. Among the civil complaint’s defendants are Cornell, Chi Phi fraternity organizations, and seven current and former students. An attorney for one of the individuals named in the suit has denied the allegations against his client.
After the alleged incident, which the plaintiff said occurred in October 2024 over the course of multiple hours, the university barred the Cornell Chi Phi chapter. However, according to the DA, none of the individuals allegedly involved faced criminal charges.
The student newspaper, The Sun, played a critical role in illuminating the school’s mismanagement of the 2024 sexual assault allegations. The paper’s reporting cited claims that the accused students were allowed to mitigate their conduct by writing essays, which fueled widespread community backlash and helped spark the media scrutiny preceding the Tompkins County District Attorney’s reopening of the case.
In a September 21 editorial, The Sun’s Editorial Board criticized the university’s handling of sexual assault and called for greater transparency surrounding the case.
“Cornell has failed to protect its students. Cornell has failed to address the growing issue of sexual assault on campus with its pathetic task force. Cornell has failed the student allegedly raped by those seven men at Chi Phi in October 2024. Cornell has failed her. Cornell has failed us,” the board wrote.
“To Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar: We know who you are and we refuse to let you benefit from this University’s concealment,” the editorial continued, listing all of the men named in the suit.
The editorial called on Cornell to publish the standard by which suspensions in sexual-assault cases are lifted and to share with Jane Doe the outcome of her Title IX investigation.
Inside Cornell, the allegations have fueled anger and demands for greater accountability from the university.
“As a female student, I am repulsed and disgusted by the Cornell administration’s response—or lack thereof—to the rape case,” said Cornell student Adalena Crotty. “Cornell, along with many institutions, needs reform in policy as well as leadership, not only in regard to sexual violence but as a system as a whole. This particular instance, which unfortunately is not unique or a lone occurrence, shines a light on the consistent protection of perpetrators and the brushing off of survivors.”
But the outrage was not contained to campus. Cornellians Only, a social media page that boasts more than 14,000 followers and mainly posts Cornell updates to the student body, knew the story had taken off when comments from the general public began flooding their Instagram posts from months and even years prior. The comments were all about the case. “We’re getting a notification almost every second,” an admin from the account said. The page has been actively reporting on the case as new details have been released.
In response to the uproar, Cornell publicly confirmed that its Title IX process resulted in expulsions and suspensions and said Chi Phi remained banned. On September 28, The Sun reported that Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten had reopened the criminal investigation, saying his office was reviewing whether additional evidence could change its earlier assessment. No decision on criminal charges has been made.
As the reporting about Cornell’s leniency spreads, students and community organizers have begun mobilizing in turn. Across social media, students have reposted information about the allegations, including a Cornellians Only statement quoting, “Cornellians Only stands with survivors of sexual assault and supports the right to speak openly about safety and accountability,” after Instagram first removed their post about the lawsuit. Others have created their own posts drawing attention to the case.
Harrison Stetler and June Loper
Ray Epstein and Shannon Porter
One Instagram video uploaded by Cornell student Nigel Tatem details the university’s track record of endangering its students—whether it be by targeting peaceful demonstrators or failing victims of sexual assault. In October 2024, the same month that Jane Doe was allegedly raped, Cornell issued three-year campus bans to four students who pushed past police officers at a pro-Palestinian protest.
Meanwhile, as of September 21, two of the accused perpetrators were listed as current students and one had reportedly graduated from Cornell. “They don’t care about [a] conviction. They care about control,” Tatem said.
In a comment that received more than 5,000 likes under his post, former Cornell student Claire Ting wrote: “Every year that I was at Cornell, I knew someone who had become a victim. Every single year.”
For other students, particularly women involved in Greek life, the case has also changed how safe they feel in their everyday social lives at the university.
“Any guy we surround ourselves with can commit an act like this,” said Sylvia Brock, a Cornell student involved in Greek life. “I know those guys in Chi Phi probably had close friendships with members of the sororities they mixed with before it all happened. You can never be too careful. Being in a sorority and spending time around a lot of fraternities, I don’t know if I can say that I feel protected by my school.”
A rally titled “We Demand Answers!” is scheduled for October 13 at 3 PM on or near Cornell’s campus and is being organized by activists unaffiliated with the university. “We are currently constructing a list of trauma-informed demands informed by Jane Doe for the walkout, advocating for things she wants,” said Ray Epstein, an organizer and sexual-assault prevention advocate. Epstein also founded Student Activists Against Sexual Assault while a student at Temple University.
Epstein hopes the case prompts universities to reconsider how they measure and communicate campus safety. “Rape is not a personal or campus issue. People need to realize this happens at their alma mater even if it’s not Cornell, and that it requires systemic change,” she said.
Finley Muratova, another organizer and Title IX advocate said, “The rally is being organized through the power of social media. We discovered a flyer [for the rally] from an advocate from New Jersey [on Instagram], and we all joined forces to organize the event. My personal mission is to ensure that Cornell knows that we are not going to back down. There needs to be reform in Title IX, the Cornell Division of Public Safety, and we must ensure that this never happens again. One victim is one too many.”
October 13 unfortunately falls during Cornell’s fall break, complicating the idea of a student “walkout.” A member of Students for a Democratic Cornell (SDC) said multiple Cornell student organizations were separately meeting to discuss a student-organized action at a later date.
That mobilization gained another dimension on September 27 when Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared in downtown Ithaca for a “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall co-hosted by More Perfect University, SDC, Cornell’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter, and Cornell Graduate Students United. The New York Representative began the event by discussing the lawsuit, condemning what she described as a “culture of rape” at elite institutions.
“AOC’s critiques of Cornell were really powerful, especially when she talked about the disgusting absurdity of letting rapists off with a slap on the wrist,” Jack Huber, a member of SDC, said. “It was a very strong choice to begin her remarks with Cornell’s rape case because it shows that she does really care about the Cornell community.”
For Huber, hearing a national political figure discuss the controversy changed the scale of what had been unfolding around him on campus.
“Having your strong beliefs being shared on the national stage is both reassuring and hopeful. When you have someone like Congresswoman AOC on stage going hard on Cornell for the atrocious mistakes it has made surrounding the culture of sexual violence and the suppression of student voices, the administration is terrified. Cornell is bleeding right now, and it was a very remarkable feeling to see that people are waking up.” Huber said. “They are going to pay attention.”
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Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation
Jeannine Chiang is a sophomore at Cornell University and a student journalist who has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and PBS VOICES.
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