Cornell case becomes latest flashpoint in America’s debate over campus sexual assault

Heather Ainsworth/AP

It was 7:05 p.m. on a Wednesday in mid-September when Jane Doe’s lawsuit hit the New York County Supreme Court docket. Within days, the 101-page, double-spaced filing had captured the nation’s attention, sparking outrage and controversy and refocusing attention on a longstanding issue: sexual assault on college campus.

The complaint was explosive, claiming that seven members of a Cornell University fraternity took part in the sexual assault of a 20-year-old sorority member during a drug-fueled, hours-long encounter in the fall of 2024. Included in the filing was a screenshot of a Snapchat message where one of the men wrote that there was “free p*ssy” and others responded gleefully, with comments like “CHI PHIII.”

Soon after the lawsuit’s filing on Sept. 16, a familiar pattern played out. Furious onlookers took to social media to demand accountability, flooded the district attorney’s office with complaints and shared photos and other identifying details of the fraternity members many have taken to calling “the Cornell 7.” Others, meanwhile, condemned the rush to judgment or urged caution in drawing conclusions from the allegations in the lawsuit, which a prosecutor said differ from what the alleged victim reported in 2024. Some hurried to try to unmask the anonymous woman behind the accusations.

There were flashes of politics and victim blaming, judgment and shame in a case that’s rife with unanswered questions and likely to evolve as more details come to light.

The issue of sexual assault on campus – and how allegations should be handled – has resurfaced again and again. An individual case grabs the attention of the nation and sets off a debate over where we are as a country and whether change is needed: Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz carrying a mattress to protest how her report was handled; Chanel Miller delivering a fiery victim impact statement at the sentencing of a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of assaulting her; Summer Willis crawling to the Texas state capitol on her hands and knees to secure a change to the legal loophole that allowed her assault to go unprosecuted.

Social media posts by actresses Florence Pugh and Mariska Hargitay helped thrust the Cornell conversation forward, gathering steam as commentary about the case flooded feeds.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke to students at More Perfect University’s fourth Students vs. Billionaires town hall about prosecutors reopening an investigation into a former Cornell University student’s allegations she was gang raped by seven members of a fraternity.

Sasha Pieterse, an actress known for her starring role in the hit show “Pretty Little Liars,” told CNN she herself is a survivor of sexual assault. It’s something she has not publicly spoken about until now.

Pieterse said she does not think people “understand the gravity of what happens around the aftermath: the fear, the shame, the level of physical and mental recovery.”

She said she hopes the spotlight on the Cornell allegations will help other victims feel less alone and show why consent laws should be standardized.

“I never want anything like what just happened at Cornell to happen to any other person,” Pieterse said.

Laura L. Dunn, a victims’ rights attorney with a specialization in campus assault cases, heard about the Cornell case almost immediately after the complaint was filed. People across her life sent it to her, reminded not only of her efforts to address the issue but also of her own personal connection to it: As a student athlete on the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s crew team in 2004, she reported being assaulted by two male teammates. No charges were filed.

“It’s a very painful moment in time, on many levels, to see a case that I could have read about 20 years ago happening again,” said Dunn, 41.

Attorneys for two of the seven alleged assailants at Cornell have denied the allegations and some observers have argued that what happened that night in 2024 did not qualify as a crime under New York law – a comment that has also been made by Tomkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten in defending his decision not to file criminal charges when the incident was reported. He said the alleged victim at the time described “her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious and consensual.”

Van Houten said this week he will reopen the case, adding that he recognizes “the reality that it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them.”

Others online have tried to tie the Cornell case to high profile incidents that were determined to be unfounded and the alleged perpetrators wrongly accused, such as cases involving Duke University lacrosse players and a fraternity at the University of Virginia that was the subject of a retracted Rolling Stone article.

Research has found that false allegations are rare, estimated to represent 2 to 10 percent of reports, according to one analysis.

Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Images

After her own assault, Dunn vowed to push for change – and felt in the 2010s that major progress was being made. A high point for her came in 2011, when the Obama administration reminded higher education institutions of their obligation under Title IX to address sexual violence and directed them to step up their investigations into reports.

Colleges and universities responded, she said, by doing more meaningful educational efforts and boosting their Title IX offices.

“There were all these efforts during that era to really turn the tide,” Dunn said.

More people began speaking out, and by 2014 several high-profile incidents – including Emma Sulkowicz’s – held the public’s interest and drove a desire for change. At the same time, some critics worried that the Obama-era guidance had gone too far, tasking college bureaucrats with investigating criminal allegations and diluting due process.

The first Trump administration withdrew it in 2017, citing concerns about due process. Title IX protections were expanded again under rules set by the Biden administration’s Department of Education, which survivor advocates said removed some of the barriers faced by victims of sexual assault . Those changes were again undone this week by Trump officials.

Ghosts of rape past: Can a survivor find solace in return to the crime scene?

The move cements a change the Trump administration had informally enacted last year to the federal law banning discrimination based on sex and governs how schools respond to complaints of sexual misconduct. The 2020 guidance narrowed the definition of sexual harassment, extended protections for students accused of sexual misconduct and added requirements like live hearings with the potential for cross-examination.

Emma Grasso Levine, a grad student and senior manager of Title IX policy and programs at Advocates for Youth, told CNN the move “sends a message that it’s not safe to speak out.”

Activists say recent years have seen a backlash to the Me Too movement, coupled with the rise of the “manosphere,” both of which have contributed to the climate around sexual assault on college campuses. National Organization for Women president Kim Villanueva described the content as often promoting women as objects and encouraging or glorifying rape culture.

Her team has been having conversations with college students about the Cornell investigation and the meaning of consent. She said it’s important to have conversations with young men about consent and how they view women in society.

“It will involve a lot of social change,” Villanueva said.

Lauren Petracca/Reuters

Saanya Agarwal was a sophomore at Cornell in 2024 when the university sent an alert about a reported sexual assault on campus. She remembers it mentioned several men allegedly being involved but that it was otherwise scarce on details – something she found unnerving as a female student sharing a campus with them.

Now a senior, she told CNN that her anger at what she considered a lack of transparency fueled her run for a student assembly position representing women. She was elected and spent last year talking to university administrators and Greek life representatives to try to advocate for more transparency.

“I think if you talk to people, especially women on campus, this question is always in the back of your head: What if that was me?” said Agarwal, who is a sorority member.

Reyes Almeida, a junior at Boston University, said the Cornell incident is appalling, but didn’t surprise her because of how “pervasive” sexual assault is on college campuses.

Almeida is president of BU’s chapter of ‘It’s On Us,’ an organization that supports sexual assault survivors on college campuses and tries to prevent assaults from happening through intervention training.

Many of the survivors their organization works with have chosen not to report their sexual assault to the university, Almeida said.

Her opinion is that some universities prioritize image over safety. “The only thing they want to do is keep their pristine image,” Almeida said.

At Rowan University, like others around the country, students receive notification when there is a reported sexual assault on campus in compliance with the federal Clery Act.

Tamyah Crafton, a college senior who founded Rowan University’s chapter of the National Council of Negro Women, appreciates these notifications, but wants more information surrounding them and town hall meetings to discuss the details.

“Like, what are you doing to make the campus safer?” Crafton asked.

At Cornell, administrators barred Chi Phi from campus and launched a task force on sexual assault, which issued recommendations earlier this year.

But Agarwal, the Cornell student, said the perceived lack of transparency from Cornell leaves students to wonder about exactly what happened – and whether someone involved might be sitting next to them in class or across from them at the local bar.

“There’s so much distrust and that also creates fear, understandably so, because we don’t know what’s going on,” she said.

CNN’s Jason Carroll and Linh Tran contributed to this report.

Heather Ainsworth/美联社

九月中旬的一个星期三晚上7点05分，简·多伊的诉讼案提交到了纽约州最高法院。几天之内，这份长达101页、双倍行距的诉讼文件就引起了全国的关注，引发了众怒和争议，并将人们的注意力重新聚焦到一个长期存在的问题上：大学校园性侵犯。

这份投诉内容劲爆，声称康奈尔大学一个兄弟会的七名成员在2024年秋季的一次吸毒后长达数小时的性侵事件中，对一名20岁的女大学生进行了性侵犯。诉状中还附有一张Snapchat消息的截图，其中一名男子写道“有免费的鲍鱼”，其他人则兴高采烈地回应，评论诸如“CHI PHIII”。

9月16日诉讼提起后不久，熟悉的模式再次上演。愤怒的旁观者涌入社交媒体，要求追究责任，向地方检察官办公室提交大量投诉，并分享了被许多人称为“康奈尔七人组”的兄弟会成员的照片和其他身份信息。与此同时，另一些人则谴责仓促下结论，或敦促谨慎对待诉讼中的指控，因为检察官表示，这些指控与所谓的受害者在2024年的报案内容有所不同。一些人急于揭开匿名指控者的身份。

在这个充满未解之谜、且随着更多细节浮出水面而可能发生变化的案件中，政治因素和对受害者的指责、评判和羞辱的情绪时有发生。

校园性侵问题——以及如何处理此类指控——一次又一次地浮出水面。个别案例往往能引起全国关注，并引发关于国家现状以及是否需要变革的辩论：哥伦比亚大学学生艾玛·苏尔科维茨扛着床垫抗议校方对她报案的处理方式；香奈儿·米勒在斯坦福大学一名前游泳运动员被判性侵案的量刑听证会上发表了慷慨激昂的受害者陈述；萨默·威利斯手脚并用地爬到德克萨斯州议会大厦，力求修改法律漏洞，以阻止对她的性侵指控进行起诉。

女演员弗洛伦斯·皮尤和玛莉丝卡·哈吉塔在社交媒体上发布的帖子推动了康奈尔事件的讨论，随着有关此案的评论涌入社交媒体，讨论的势头越来越强劲。

纽约州民主党众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯在“更完美大学”第四届“学生对抗亿万富翁”市政厅会议上向学生们讲述了检察官重新调查一名康奈尔大学前学生指控其被七名兄弟会成员轮奸一案的情况。

因出演热门剧集《美少女的谎言》而为人熟知的女演员萨莎·皮特丝告诉CNN，她本人也是性侵幸存者。此前，她从未公开谈论过此事。

皮特斯表示，她认为人们“并不了解事后发生的事情有多么严重：恐惧、羞耻、身心恢复的程度”。

她表示，她希望康奈尔大学的指控事件能够引起公众关注，帮助其他受害者感到不再孤单，并表明为什么同意法应该标准化。

“我绝不希望康奈尔大学刚刚发生的那种事情发生在任何人身上，”皮特斯说。

劳拉·L·邓恩是一位专门处理校园性侵案件的受害者权益律师，在康奈尔大学案件立案后不久，她就听说了此事。她身边的人纷纷将此事告知她，这不仅让她想起自己曾为解决这一问题所做的努力，也让她想起自己与此事的切身联系：2004年，作为威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校赛艇队的运动员，她曾举报遭到两名男队友的性侵。但最终并未提起诉讼。

“看到20年前我可能在书上读到过的案例再次发生，这在很多方面都令人非常痛苦，”41岁的邓恩说道。

康奈尔大学七名涉嫌施暴者中，有两名的律师否认了这些指控。一些观察人士认为，2024年那个夜晚发生的事情并不符合纽约州法律规定的犯罪行为——汤普金斯县地方检察官马修·范·豪顿也持相同观点，他为自己当初决定不提起刑事诉讼辩护时也提到了这一点。他说，当时的受害者称“她参与吸毒和性行为是自愿的、清醒的且双方同意的”。

范·豪顿本周表示，他将重新审理此案，并补充说，他认识到“性侵犯受害者可能需要多年的治疗和康复才能完全处理和理解发生在他们身上的事情这一现实”。

网上还有人试图将康奈尔事件与一些备受瞩目的事件联系起来，但这些事件后来被认定为毫无根据，所谓的肇事者也被错误地指控，例如杜克大学长曲棍球队员的案件，以及弗吉尼亚大学一个兄弟会的案件（该兄弟会曾是《滚石》杂志撤回的一篇文章的主题）。

研究发现，虚假指控很少见，据一项分析估计，虚假指控仅占举报总数的 2% 到 10%。

Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Images

在自己遭受性侵后，邓恩立志推动变革——她认为在2010年代，相关领域取得了重大进展。2011年，奥巴马政府提醒高等教育机构，根据《教育法修正案第九条》，它们有义务解决性暴力问题，并指示它们加强对相关举报的调查，这对她来说是一个重要的转折点。

她说，各高校对此做出了回应，开展了更有意义的教育工作，并加强了第九条办公室的职能。

邓恩说：“在那个时期，人们做出了种种努力来扭转局面。”

越来越多的人开始发声，到2014年，包括艾玛·苏尔科维茨事件在内的几起备受瞩目的事件引起了公众的关注，并激发了人们寻求变革的愿望。与此同时，一些批评人士担心奥巴马时代的指导方针矫枉过正，赋予大学官僚机构调查刑事指控的权力，削弱了正当程序。

特朗普第一任期于2017年撤销了该法案，理由是担心程序不正当。拜登政府教育部制定的规则再次扩大了第九条的保护范围，幸存者权益倡导者表示，这消除了性侵受害者面临的一些障碍。然而，这些改变本周又被特朗普政府官员推翻了。

强奸案的阴影：幸存者能否在重返犯罪现场中找到慰藉？

此举巩固了特朗普政府去年非正式实施的对联邦法律的修改，该法律禁止基于性别的歧视，并规范学校如何应对性行为不端投诉。2020年的指导意见缩小了性骚扰的定义，扩大了对被指控性行为不端的学生的保护范围，并增加了诸如举行现场听证会（可能进行交叉质询）等要求。

青年倡导组织 (Advocates for Youth) 的研究生兼第九条政策和项目高级经理艾玛·格拉索·莱文 (Emma Grasso Levine) 告诉 CNN，此举“传递了一个信息，那就是公开谈论此事是不安全的”。

活动人士表示，近年来“我也是”（#MeToo）运动遭遇反弹，加上“男性圈”（manosphere）的兴起，两者都加剧了大学校园性侵问题的氛围。全国妇女组织主席金·维拉纽瓦（Kim Villanueva）指出，这些内容往往将女性物化，并鼓励或美化强奸文化。

她的团队一直在与大学生们探讨康奈尔大学的调查以及“同意”的含义。她说，与年轻男性谈论“同意”以及他们如何看待社会中的女性非常重要。

“这将涉及很多社会变革，”维拉纽瓦说。

劳伦·佩特拉卡/路透社

2024年，萨尼亚·阿加瓦尔是康奈尔大学的一名大二学生。当时学校发布了一起校园性侵案的警报。她记得警报中提到有几名男子涉案，但除此之外几乎没有其他细节——作为一名与他们共用校园的女学生，她对此感到不安。

如今已是大四学生的她告诉CNN，她对学校缺乏透明度感到愤怒，这促使她竞选学生会女性代表的职位。她成功当选，并在去年与大学管理人员和兄弟会/姐妹会代表沟通，努力争取提高透明度。

“我觉得如果你和别人交谈，尤其是和校园里的女性交谈，你脑海里总会萦绕着这样一个问题：如果那是我怎么办？”身为姐妹会成员的阿加瓦尔说道。

波士顿大学大三学生雷耶斯·阿尔梅达表示，康奈尔大学的这起事件令人震惊，但她并不感到惊讶，因为性侵犯在大学校园里“非常普遍”。

阿尔梅达是波士顿大学“It's On Us”分会的会长，该组织支持大学校园内的性侵犯幸存者，并通过干预培训来防止性侵犯的发生。

阿尔梅达说，他们组织接触的许多性侵犯幸存者选择不向大学报告他们遭受的性侵犯。

她认为，一些大学将形象置于安全之上。“他们唯一想做的就是维护自己完美无瑕的形象，”阿尔梅达说。

与全国其他大学一样，罗文大学也按照联邦《克莱里法案》的规定，在校园内发生性侵犯事件时会通知学生。

塔米娅·克拉夫顿是一名大学高年级学生，她创立了罗文大学全国黑人妇女理事会分会。她很感谢这些通知，但希望获得更多相关信息，并希望举行市政厅会议来讨论细节。

“比如说，你们采取了哪些措施来确保校园安全？”克拉夫顿问道。

康奈尔大学的校方禁止 Chi Phi 兄弟会进入校园，并成立了性侵犯问题特别工作组，该工作组于今年早些时候发布了相关建议。

但康奈尔大学学生阿加瓦尔表示，康奈尔大学缺乏透明度，让学生们不禁想知道究竟发生了什么——以及涉案人员是否可能就坐在他们旁边上课，或者坐在他们对面的酒吧里。

“人们之间充满了不信任，这也造成了恐惧，这是可以理解的，因为我们不知道发生了什么事，”她说。

CNN的Jason Carroll和Linh Tran对本报道亦有贡献。