TV host Bill Maher has called for the abolition of fraternity houses following the Cornell Seven case.
The Cornell Seven case has received widespread, international attention after a student, identified only as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit alleging that she was raped by seven members of the Cornell University Chi Phi fraternity back in 2024. Doe, who was 20 at the time that the alleged incident unfolded, says that she was given marijuana, ketamine and alcohol.
Speaking about the case on Friday’s episode of his show Real Time, Maher declared: “Any place that’s all male, no girls allowed, just doesn’t function without depravity. Just ask the Catholic Church. Ask the Taliban.”
The comedian, who is a Cornell alumnus, continued by slamming the very concept of fraternity houses themselves, suggesting that they worsen existing bad behaviors.
“Everything that’s inherently bad about men gets worse if you put them in a fraternity,” he suggested. “The drinking gets worse, the cruelty, the treatment of women, the tribalism, the peer pressure, one-upmanship, conformity, segregation, nepotism, bullying, elitism, and just general a**holery… boat shoes, for example.”
Doe filed her lawsuit on September 16, 2026. She reported the incident to Cornell University Police back in November 2024, around three weeks after the alleged incident took place.
Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County District Attorney, says that Doe’s 2024 statement did not allege that she was drugged or gang raped, instead suggesting that her drug use and sexual conduct were consensual.
In light of the September 2026 lawsuit, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed Attorney General Letitia James as an independent special prosecutor in the alleged gang rape case.
The case has continued to become an international talking point, sparking discussions around the existence of fraternities - with Maher being just one of those to call for their abolition.
“Human nature is bad, and the best we can do is create institutions that don’t make it easy to be worse,” he said on the show. “And a great place to start would be getting rid of Greek life.”
Maher went on to show a series of fraternity mission statements that use the word “gentlemen,” before suggesting that the alleged behavior in the Cornell Seven case does not live up to the meaning of that word.
“A young woman made a bad decision, as 20-year-olds do, when she went to a frat house drunk and did ketamine,” he began. “And for that, she claims to have paid a price no woman should have to pay.”
Maher added, “No one was there… knows what happened, but I do know what a gentleman is - a gentleman, gentleman, is someone who in that situation doesn’t exploit the woman; he saves her.”
Continuing his criticism of modern fraternity culture, Maher pointed to statistics from HazingInfo tracking deaths relating to incidents of hazing - an activity defined by the organization as something “expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them - regardless of that person’s willingness to participate.”
The organization says that the practice has led to 128 deaths since the year 2000.
Concluding, Maher also called for the abolition of sorority houses, suggesting they worsen “cliques, popularity contests, mean girlism (sic), social climbing, insecurity, backstabbing, bodyshaming”.
In a September statement, Cornell Vice President for University Relations Kyle Kimball said that the university was aware of the allegations in the Cornell Seven case but could not comment on its disciplinary response due to federal privacy laws.
“We take sexual violence extremely seriously,” the statement continues. “The Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault was launched shortly after this incident and issued a REPORT in March 2026.”
