Cornell University reported an increase in the number of sexual abuse incidents on its campus in the wake of a high-profile lawsuit filed by a former student claiming she was sexually assaulted during a frat party.
This comes amid national debate over the lawsuit, which alleges that seven male students took advantage of the plaintiff while she was intoxicated.
From NBC News:
More than 35% of female undergraduates surveyed at Cornell University reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force, threats of force or incapacitation, according to a poll conducted last year, a figure that was up from 23% in 2023.
Overall, the survey found that 15% of all of the respondents reported such experiences, compared with about 11% in 2021 and 2023 surveys.
Cornell notes in its survey that a total of 6,000 students received email invitations to participate and only 926 responded, resulting in a 15% response rate, with 519 of those responding identifying as women. According to the report, the 2025 response rate was lower than in previous years.
The findings are drawing renewed attention after the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office said it was reopening a criminal investigation into allegations of a gang rape at a Cornell fraternity house in 2024.
Eight universities that surveyed their students on nonconsensual sexual contact using the Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness Survey in 2024 showed rates lower than 30%.
In that survey, Washington University in St. Louis reported a result of 26.9% of respondents saying they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force or the inability to consent or stop the actions. Georgetown University reported 25.3% on the same issue in the same survey. Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, which reported rates of 14.4% and 16.7%, also account for nonconsensual “penetration or sexual touching.”
Bums Rush The appointment of New York State Attorney General Letitia James as Special Prosecutor in the Cornell-7 gang rape case is the worst possible news for Cornell University, not to mention its generations’ old Greek life, the 50 or more participants in this disgusting crime-that-will-live-in-infamy, and most of all, for the seven named defendants in perhaps the most egregious, or certainly the most notorious college gang rape in recent history. James is a terror on a tear now. She is a hungry politician who aspires to bigger things, like the Governorship or Senate. Just ask former Governor Andrew Cuomo how she rolls, or President Donald J. Trump, who will tell you how she cares only about her political career. “Letitia James is a corrupt person,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “I feel bad for whoever she's looking at because they won't get a fair shake.” She campaigned for AG on the grounds that as her first order of business she would seek Trump’s indictment, She got buckets full of them, on a nebulous real estate valuation case and another on falsely categorizing payments made to Trump’s alleged mistress Stormy Daniels. James got Trump indicted and convicted in 34 felony counts that Trump will have to litigate when he leaves office, assuming he can not appeal them away. Ambitious, even ruthless, she happens also to be on the right side in the outrageous gang rape case. So, I am putting aside my misgivings, fairly certain she will find a legal avenue to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable in this searing case. What makes it inexcusable is how badly it was handled when Jane Doe went to the authorities in 2024. Importantly, the victim was never interviewed by prosecutors. The local DA relied on the local police report. The cops, for their part, did a superficial, highly moralistic botch-up that effectively insured the victim would not understand the shaky legal grounds she was in, legally. The fact the prosecutor never looked the victim in the eye during those crucial early hours, never sat down face-to-face with her, is probably the reason the DA’s analysis of the victim and her complaint never received the urgency demanded. Practically speaking, and this happens everyday in criminal law, if the District Attorney had explained New York State law to the alleged victim and explained how she may have misremembered or been too embarrassed to explain exactly what had happened this may have been a whole different story. For God’s sake she was effectively held hostage for seven hours, in and out of sleep, in and out of consciousness, helpless, exhausted, embarrassed, alone. In anointing ruthless Ms. James, New York Governor Hochul has made probable indictments of the frat bros who wrecked their own lives as well as Jane Does'.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) October 5, 2026
Sexual assault remains an unresolved issue on many American college campuses where students report unwanted sexual contact more often than schools are imposing their strongest punishments. USA Today reported that Cornell’s Title IX office received over 1,200 reports of sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking between 2018 and 2024. The office filed only 162 disciplinary charges in those cases.
Drugs and alcohol are typically tied to these incidents.
A former student identified in court documents as Jane Doe sued Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity and seven men in September, alleging members of the fraternity drugged and sexually assaulted her back in October 2024.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten reopened the criminal case after the lawsuit and Gov. Kathy Hochul turned the matter over to Attorney General Letitia James. Van Houten’s office initially declined to review additional evidence that campus police gathered beyond a six-page statement the plaintiff signed in 2024.
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