Content warning: The following story deals with themes and personal narratives of sexual assault. Doane offers free counseling for students. Additionally, the Hope Crisis Center, serving southeast Nebraska, can be reached anytime at 1-877-388-HOPE(4673).
In September, a former Cornell University student filed a lawsuit alleging that she had been raped by a group of men at a fraternity house party in 2024. The investigation has been reopened, sparking national attention and criticism of how sexual assaults at universities are handled.
According to the 101-page complaint, anonymous Jane Doe, then 20 years old, began drinking at her sorority house before going to a bar with her sorority sisters on Oct. 20. She was intoxicated by 11 p.m. where she headed to the Chi Phi fraternity house to see “a friend,” one of the men who would later be named in the suit. She consumed more alcohol, smoked marijuana and was allegedly pressured into snorting ketamine. Doe was taken to a room where two fraternity members sexually assaulted her while she said she was “incapable of consent.” After a Snapchat message was sent to other men in the fraternity, more came into the room. In total, Doe alleges that seven fraternity members sexually assaulted her that night.
After the alleged incidents of that night, Doe saw comments on an online forum about Chi Phi brothers gang raping a sophomore. According to The New York Times, she would tell investigators that it was the first time “I had ever heard the narrative change that I wasn’t a whore and that I was assaulted.” On Nov. 7, Doe went to an emergency room and requested a rape kit. The following day, she reported the incident to Cornell University police. Doe reports collecting evidence, including photos of bruises allegedly caused by one of the men hitting her and the dress she had worn that night.
A Title IX case was opened Jan. 14, with hearings held in May. Cornell reports the investigation led to suspensions and expulsions; some of the accused were made to write reflective papers, and the Chi Phi chapter was closed. The county district attorney did not bring charges to the case.
On Sept. 28, District Attorney Van Houten announced his office is reopening the case; however, on Oct. 1, Governor Kathy Hochul appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor, saying she had “lost faith” in Van Houten’s ability to conduct the investigation.
In the past month, Cornell’s campus has become a space for sit-ins, protests and support groups. The homecoming concert was cancelled, and fraternity house parties have been banned for the rest of the year amid the case’s fallout. On Sept. 21, the Cornell Daily Sun published an editorial titled “Cornell Won’t, We Will,” where the paper’s editorial board wrote, “This is not a dark chapter in Cornell’s history, it’s a morbid pattern, only rectified with thorough criminal investigations in the hands of parties independent of the University.”
