Cornell University students gathered in a central campus plaza to protest the university's handling of allegations of sexual violence at a fraternity house. The university's main administration building was also sprayed with graffiti and damaged overnight.
At the demonstration, which filled and extended beyond the large plaza in front of the student center, students, professors and other participants wore purple ribbons and held signs with slogans like "Support Survivors, Expel Rapists" and "Justice for Every Jane Doe" - the pseudonym under which the woman who reported the alleged assault is known in court documents.
“Far too often we are met with silence, explanations and procedures – but not enough support,” student Athena Holloway told the crowd. “How much more has to happen before our university takes the side of the survivors?”
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Hispanic studies professor Julia Chang added to applause: “Rape should not be seen as inevitable.”
Speakers criticized fraternities, the university council and Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff. They accused him and his university management of putting protecting the university's reputation above the safety of students.
“Kotlikoff, resign!” the demonstrators chanted among other slogans as they marched to the damaged administration building to hand over a list of demands. In it, they called for, among other things, changes to the definition of sexual consent in the Student Code of Conduct, a fundamental reform of the disciplinary system and the expulsion or revocation of degrees of all students who are said to have been involved in the alleged attack on the woman known as Jane Doe in 2024.
“Down with the patriarchy!”
In front of the administration building, students held up a banner that read: “Burn Down the Patriarchy.”
The Ivy League university has been struggling for days to contain a storm of outrage — on campus and beyond — over its handling of the alleged 2024 gang rape. Early Monday morning, the university found traces of this anger directly on the walls of its administration, which had been spray-painted with graffiti.
A glass door was also damaged on Monday night. On the walls nearby were written in red messages directed against a patriarchy and the elite university's response to allegations of sexual assault, photos in news media showed.
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The university has launched an investigation into the vandalism, spokesman Kyle Kimball said. “Damaging property is not the answer to frustration and strong emotions,” he said. The graffiti was later removed and the damaged glass door was boarded up.
The woman, known as Jane Doe, accuses several members of the Chi Phi fraternity of sexually abusing her in October 2024 after she was pressured to drink alcohol and take drugs. At the time, she was a student at Cornell University.
She recently filed a lawsuit against the university, seven former students, the fraternity and other parties involved. The lawsuit states that she was completely incapacitated while members of the fraternity sexually abused her. One of the men also messaged others to let them know they could get involved.
"I felt like bait. I felt like I was surrounded by lions. It was just a completely degrading and paralyzing place," she told Cornell University investigators last year, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
“Abandoned by people and institutions”
The alleged victim, who goes by the pseudonym Jane Doe, recently sued the university, seven former students, the fraternity and other parties. Lawyers for two of the former students have denied their clients' involvement in the alleged gang rape. The AP news agency has not yet been able to reach the other accused men for comment. According to court documents, when interviewed by university investigators, some of the suspects said the sexual activity was consensual.
The lawsuit has caused a stir in the United States and raised questions about what the university, campus police and the district attorney in charge did when the plaintiff reported to police in November 2024 that she was absolutely certain she had been raped. To date there have been no criminal charges. The Chi Phi fraternity was discontinued. The university said it had expelled some students and suspended others. The university administration spoke of a “false narrative that there were hardly any consequences in this case”.
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New York State Governor Kathy Hochul asked the state attorney general's office last week to take over the criminal investigation into the case. Hochul also called for an independent investigation into how the university handled the case. Hochul explains that Jane Doe was “let down by people and institutions.”
The university's president, Michael Kotlikoff, expressed sadness about the alleged rape case in a video on Saturday. He said Jane Doe's report raises "shocking and deeply disturbing questions about sexual violence, dehumanization, and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use."
AP/gold
