Cornell students protest against university's handling of frat rape

Crowds of Cornell students throng a campus plaza in Ithaca, New York, to demand more accountability and transparency over the university's response to the gang rape complaint at a fraternity house.

The Ivy League school's Day Hall building was splashed with graffiti and damaged overnight as a firestorm grows on campus and beyond over an alleged gang rape at Chi Phi fraternity house.

Students, faculty members and others swarm the student centre, holding signs that read "support survivors, expel rapists" and "Justice 4 every Jane Doe."

Some hold a banner with messages as "Burn Down the Patriarchy" in front of the administration hall.

Demonstrators have blamed Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff and his administration for placing the university's reputation before students' safety.

John Hartnett from "Students for a Democratic Cornell" says, "The two most important demands are the expulsion and revoking of all degrees with the perpetrators associated, and the reform of the Cornell conduct system, the judicial system here, into an independent institution."

Junior student Grace Xia says: "It's important to be here because if we don't make a noise, we are not seen, and then nothing is going to change. The administration will just put this under the rug again, and we want to see change."

Cornell spokesperson responds in a statement that while a probe is ongoing, "damaging property is not the answer" to Cornellians' "frustration and strong emotions."

On September 16, a woman known as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against the seven perpetrators who raped her using alcohol and the drug ketamine in October 2024. She told investigators last year: "I felt like a bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a totally debilitating place to be in."

An investigation was reopened and Cornell backed the decision.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul last week named the state attorney general to take over the case and pressed for an independent review of the university's handling of the matter.