Cornell University plans to hire outside lawyers to investigate a woman’s claim that she was raped at a fraternity house near campus in 2024, amid growing pressure from students and politicians to explain how the case was handled.
The agreement to begin an independent investigation came Wednesday during a conversation between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Michael I. Kotlikoff, the university’s president, the governor said.
“I want answers,” Ms. Hochul said in posts on social media on Wednesday. “I want to know what happened.”
The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, said in a lawsuit filed this month that seven men plied her with drugs and alcohol until she was unconscious, then raped her for hours inside the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
Ms. Doe said in court filings that she had never heard back from the campus police or prosecutors after giving her initial statement about the encounter to police. Some of the men involved were expelled and others were suspended, according to the university, which has not disclosed the punishments that each man received, citing privacy rules.
The student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, published an editorial this month naming the seven accused men and criticizing the university’s leaders for their handling of the situation.
Political leaders, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York City, have joined many social media commenters in strongly worded critiques of the university and law enforcement officials, arguing that lax penalties for the accused men reinforce a culture of rape and violence at the Ivy League school.
Rebecca Valli, a spokeswoman for Cornell, confirmed the decision to begin an independent investigation. Ms. Hochul automatically became a member of Cornell’s board of trustees when she became governor in 2021. In her brief comments on Wednesday, Ms. Hochul appeared to acknowledge the widely held view that the university was in need of change.
“This culture has to stop,” she said.
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