As the District Attorney’s Office reopens its investigation into the alleged gang rape of a 20-year-old Cornell University coed by seven fraternity brothers at the Ivy League school, many on campus are frustrated and angered by the response into the attack, according to two undergrads who spoke to The Independent.
uncertain
who → reopen → Independent
“I’m sort of surprised that people are so surprised by it,” one said Monday.
asserted
one → say → it
“I don’t think there is a single person that’s surprised there’s a rape culture in fraternities.
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that → think → fraternities
If they are, then they should probably go outside more.”
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they → go → ?
“Mary,” a young woman who lives on campus at Cornell and did not want her real name to be used, slammed the extended network of enablers she believes are also culpable.
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she → live → enablers
“Think about how many people knew about this incident, or knew the people who were involved,” she continued.
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she → think → people
But at the same time, it’s not just these seven guys.
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it → ’ → time
The university endorsing this frat culture – maybe not rape culture, but this sort of bro-ey, hypermasculine culture that these frats create – it’s all very accepted.”
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it → endorse → that
Among Mary’s friends at Cornell, a large number of them have been preyed upon at fraternity gatherings, she claimed.
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she → prey → gatherings
“Based on my experience, everyone has a story,” Mary said.
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Mary → base → story
She and others “don’t have a lot of faith” in the Cornell administration’s effort to tackle the issue, Mary contended, asserting that it is “in the school’s best interest to make this story go away.”
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story → have → interest
“The thing I've always heard is that if something happens on campus, don't go to the administration,” Mary went on.
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Mary → hear → administration
“Go to the police or to some other outside resource, because the school’s number one priority is not to help the victim.
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priority → go → victim
The school just wants, as much as possible, to protect their reputation…
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school → want → reputation
If, God forbid, something happened to me, I would seek outside counseling, not Cornell Mental Health.
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I → forbid → counseling
She said there are plenty of “well-meaning individuals” there, but slammed Cornell for suspending students who protested the conflict in Gaza while the suspects accused of drugging and raping their unnamed victim at a fraternity party were reportedly penalized only with an essay-writing assignment about what they had done.
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they → say → what
(The school denies this, claiming that a hearing panel had in fact “issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions.”)
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which → deny → expulsions
After “Jane Doe” filed a lawsuit on September 16 against her alleged attackers, as well as the Chi Phi fraternity and a host of others, Tompkins County DA Matthew Van Houten restarted his office’s probe into Jane Doe’s allegations.
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Houten → file → allegations
Doe’s 101-page complaint alleges she was intoxicated and visiting a friend at Chi Phi in October 2024 when two fraternity members coerced her into snorting ketamine then sexually assaulted her.
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members → allege → her
One of the men then allegedly sent a message to the frat’s Snapchat group, alerting the other to “free p****” upstairs and inviting them to join, according to the complaint.
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One → send → complaint
Incapacitated, Doe was subsequently subjected to a brutal hours-long gang rape by seven Chi Phi brothers, the complaint states.
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complaint → incapacitate → brothers
Three weeks later, Doe reported the incident to the Cornell University Police Department in upstate New York, and an internal Title IX investigation began in January 2025.
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investigation → report → January
Attorney Thomas Giuffra, who has previously represented women sexually assaulted by hip-hop icon Sean “Diddy” Combs, said the Cornell cops never followed up with Doe.
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cops → represent → Doe
No criminal charges have been filed in the case, though the DA is looking at the case again after Doe filed the civil suit garnering widespread attention.
“Her dreams were destroyed by a group of men who sought to abuse and humiliate her,” Giuffra said.
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Giuffra → file → her
“She was subjected to unspeakable horrors that I have not seen in my 30 years of handling abuse cases.”
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I → subject → cases
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, on the other hand, said in a Monday press release that Doe gave investigators a sworn statement that “described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.”
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that → say → use
To Mary, “It doesn't feel like the cards are stacked very well for a victim in this type of situation.”
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cards → feel → situation
In the days after the incident itself, other Cornell students expressed similar views, according to contemporaneous reporting in the school newspaper.
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students → express → newspaper
On the afternoon of November 8, 2024, a Friday, Jane Doe’s alleged gang rape was announced to the student body in a campus-wide Crime Alert email, according to senior Benjamin Leynse.
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rape → allege → Leynse
Leynse, a journalism student who broke the initial news of the alleged rape for The Cornell Daily Sun, told The Independent that the immediate aftermath was a grueling period for all.
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aftermath → break → all
That weekend, Cornell sophomore Winter Knutson was found dead at the bottom of one of the area’s many gorges, an apparent suicide; another Cornell student was grievously injured that same day and had to be airlifted to a hospital in Pennsylvania after an accidental fall into the same gorge.
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student → find → gorge
That Monday, a Cornell custodian was arrested and charged with murder after allegedly stabbing his wife to death.
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custodian → arrest → death
Campus groups for a mental health day, a proposal which was rejected by the administration, according to Leynse.
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which → reject → Leynse
One friend of Knutson’s called Cornell’s actions at the time “impersonal and perfunctory.”
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friend → call → time
Another undergraduate described the atmosphere as “anxiety-ridden and tense,” and said people “felt like they’ve had to fend for themselves and haven’t received much support.”
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they → describe → support
Undergraduate Alia Amer told the Sun, “[T]here needs to be more communication about what the administration plans to do to help students rather than just throwing QR codes and links at us.”
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administration → tell → us
Leynse said the “emotional weight” of the goings-on was palpable, and recalled a “somber mood” among the student body.
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weight → say → body
There were calls for fraternities at Cornell, where about 30 percent of the student population is involved in Greek life, to be abolished, according to Leynse, who said the Chi Phi house was splashed with red paint and egged by a campus activist group calling itself Riot Moon.
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house → be → itself
A letter left behind by Riot Moon, an anonymous, decentralized organization with no stated leader, read, “Fraternities were created to consolidate white male power and perpetrate violence, abuse, and rape in our communities.
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Fraternities → leave → communities
We no longer tolerate a culture that teaches men to rape, the use of sexual violence to subjugate others, or a ‘justice system’ that continually forces survivors to relive their trauma and leaves abusers unpunished and un-shamed.”
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that → tolerate → abusers
…and 21 more, not listed.
The Aporia
