There were fiery testimonies, voices lurching, and pleas for action from school leadership. There were fingers pointed angrily at Cornell University’s internal investigators, including by a woman who faced her student government representatives and said, emphatically: “I am also speaking as Jane Doe.”
Cornell’s student government convened a public hearing on sexual assault Thursday, and some 100 people turned out to share their raw emotions in a student union auditorium, Cornell flags and chandeliers hanging overhead.
Some broke down in tears, channeling the churning emotions of the broader campus. They walked forward, one by one, to offer testimonies, facing a semicircle of somber-faced student assembly representatives who were surrounded by backpacks and soda bottles.
“I cannot pretend this is a normal Thursday,” said Sophia Riley, a junior, remembering that as a freshman in 2024 she was shattered to hear that a student said she was assaulted at the Chi Phi fraternity house. “I cried about it then, and I’m still equally devastated now.”
In the days since a lawsuit and rape allegations put Cornell in the national spotlight, the school’s Ithaca campus has been consumed by the news. The meeting gave students a chance to denounce administrators, saying that they had mishandled the allegations of assault, though few school leaders were in the room and the university president, Michael Kotlikoff, was absent.
Some students expressed rage about the fraternity culture cited in the lawsuit. The suit had prompted the Tompkins County district attorney to reopen the investigation into the claims by a woman known only as Jane Doe that she was sexually assaulted by seven men at a fraternity house.
University officials have defended their disciplining of the defendants in the lawsuit and denied that the consequences were not strong enough, saying that “false narrative” could make assault survivors feel less safe and less likely to report crimes.
None of the men accused in the lawsuit has been charged with a crime, and they all have denied any wrongdoing. Four said that they had consensual sexual contact with the woman at the party, and the others denied any participation. Two were expelled, and others received lesser penalties.
Along with the students, the forum brought together faculty members and a smattering of Cornell parents. Eeshaan Chaudhuri, the student body president, began the event by addressing the room.
“We’re absolutely ashamed of the events that happened on campus,” Mr. Chaudhuri said, before inviting members of the community to line up and make comments. “I think we’ve made it abundantly clear for the past couple of days that we as a campus community stand with victims of sexual violence.”
A stream of ideas and proposals followed from students, some of whom feel besieged by national media and eager to shift the focus to solutions. Students urged administrators to improve the required workshops and trainings that teach students about consensual sex. And they asked for their classmates to be supported if they can’t complete homework and exams this week, because of distress about the case.
“Students should not have to choose between grieving and keeping up with their academic responsibilities as if nothing had happened,” said Ms. Riley, declaring that the campus is in a “mental health crisis.”
While the majority of the meeting was declared off the record so students could come forward and candidly share their reflections, a handful shared their stories in front of reporters gathered for the public portion.
Emotions heightened as a woman came to the front of the room and said she, too, had reported a sexual assault at Cornell and felt let down by the university’s Title IX process, which investigates complaints of sexual assault on campus. She saw her own experience reflected in the accuser’s reports, of having an assault claim mishandled.
“When I filed my Title IX case in the midst of all of my mental, physical and emotional recovery from the assault,” Jane Wang, a junior, said, “I was also met with an abundance of paperwork, very little instruction on how to navigate it and no follow-up from our Title IX office of an outcome.”
Ms. Wang said that for students like herself to feel comfortable coming forward to report assault, they need to know the institution will act on it. “Through this event, we have witnessed the complete opposite,” she said.
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