🇺🇸 Cornell is in full crisis mode after a former student sued, alleging she was drugged and gang-raped by 7 members of the Chi Phi fraternity in 2024.
The local DA has now reopened the criminal case, while Cornell agreed to an independent review of its handling after Gov. Hochul demanded one.
The lawsuit claims she was raped for more than 4 hours, and that Cornell went easy on the accused, with her lawyer saying 2 were expelled while the rest got suspensions, workshops, or written assignments.
Cornell calls that a “false narrative” and says it handed out expulsions and suspensions after a months-long investigation.
All 7 men deny wrongdoing, with 4 saying the encounter was consensual.
The DA originally declined to charge, saying her 2024 statement to police was “dramatically different” from the lawsuit, while her lawyer says she never spoke to anyone beyond the officer who took her first report.
At a packed student hearing yesterday, students broke down in tears, with one woman telling the room she’d also reported an assault and felt let down by Cornell’s process.
The university’s own 2025 survey found 35% of undergraduate women reported experiencing sexual assault during their time at Cornell. That number should have been a scandal on its own.
The fallout is now hitting the university where it hurts, with at least 600 alumni vowing to halt donations, a petition to withhold them topping 25,000 signatures, and students at elite NYC high school Stuyvesant dropping Cornell from their application lists.
But Cornell is betting its Ivy League prestige will outlast the outrage, and history sadly says it usually does.
Sources: NYT, Cornell Daily Sun, ABC News, CNN / Writer: Julie
