Fraternity parties suspended and new safeguards

On Tuesday, 13 October, Cornell University announced that all parties and social events at fraternity houses within the Interfraternity Council are suspended for the rest of the academic year. President Michael Kotlikoff said in a statement that any fraternity breaking the ban faces an immediate emergency suspension. The university will add sexual assault investigators to its campus police force and extra staff to the Cornell Office of Civil Rights. New York State Police criminal investigators will also look into allegations on campus. Kotlikoff further promised to work with students and faculty on safer social alternatives to fraternity party culture.

Reports differ on how long the ban lasts. Deutsche Welle says it runs to the end of the 2026-2027 academic year, while tagesschau reports it lasts until mid-May. A proposal would speed up the implementation of recommendations that a university working group issued in March on sexual assault. Earlier in October, Kotlikoff gave former US deputy attorney general Sally Yates the task of an independent review of the university's policies on preventing sexual abuse.

The allegations and the 2024 case

The case centres on a former student who uses the name 'Jane Doe'. She says that on the night of 19 to 20 October 2024, at the Chi Phi fraternity house, she drank alcohol and was pressed to sniff ketamine. She says that while under the effects of both, she was gang raped for hours by seven members of the fraternity. The fraternity is now defunct, according to The Independent.

She filed a civil lawsuit in September 2026 against the seven men, two fraternities and the university. The local prosecutor decided not to bring charges, and none of the men has been criminally charged. All of them deny wrongdoing. According to tagesschau, Jane Doe went to campus police about two years ago, and only two of the seven men had to leave Cornell, while she herself left the university.

Kotlikoff admits he knew

In an interview with The New York Times, published on Tuesday, 13 October, Kotlikoff admitted that he knew in 2024 that a student had reported being gang raped at a fraternity, but he never followed up. He did not learn whether any of the accused men were punished, and he did not know she had left Cornell until she filed her lawsuit in September.

The fact that Jane Doe experienced what she experienced at Cornell is something that I am personally sorry for.

Kotlikoff said he would not step down, even though trust in his leadership has suffered and some have called for his resignation. He pointed to a presidential task force on sexual assault that he created in February 2025, and said it introduced orientation training on sexual assault and bystander responsibilities for all new students this year.

Protests and criticism

According to tagesschau, about 1,000 protesters gathered in the city centre of Ithaca, many of them travelling from other university towns. Demonstrators called for immediate change. Maishay Causey, a student and member of the student parliament, said the university leadership had ignored the trust placed in it, and she predicted that students would soon express their own distrust. Professor Julia Chang said the measures do not go far enough.

Kotlikoff's statement on the case reads: 'It is clear that women on our campus continue to question whether they are safe.'

Trump and the political dimension

NZZ reports that US President Donald Trump has expressed sympathy for the students. The newspaper links his involvement to his earlier dispute with New York prosecutor Letitia James, who had held him liable in a fraud case two years earlier and is now investigating the 'Cornell 7'.