{"id":2197,"date":"2026-10-06T11:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2026-10-06T11:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:03:45","slug":"cornell-students-stage-anti-rape-rally-in-support-of-jane-doe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2197","title":{"rendered":"Cornell students stage anti-rape rally in support of ‘Jane Doe’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Cornell University students staged a mass rally on Monday, voicing solidarity with a classmate whose gang-rape \u200ballegations<\/a> have ignited a national uproar and demanding that the Ivy League school take firmer action against sexual violence on campus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The protesters called for \u200can external inquiry into how Cornell\u2019s administration has handled the matter, independent hearings and uniform minimum sanctions for all sexual assaults on campus, and better training for campus police in responding to complaints of sexual violence and harassment.<\/p>\n

The alleged gang-rape victim, identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, has said the university failed to adequately investigate and punish campus fraternity members who were involved.<\/p>\n

Some demonstrators also called \u200bfor the resignation of Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff and other members of his administration, saying their policies have perpetuated what protesters called a \u201cculture of rape\u201d on \u200bcampus.<\/p>\n

In a lawsuit filed last month, Jane Doe said she was plied with drugs and alcohol and then sexually assaulted by \u2060several members of the campus chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024 after she had become incapacitated.<\/p>\n

Doe, who was 20 at the time, named seven Chi \u200bPhi members as defendants in the suit, along with the fraternity chapter, a local bar, her own sorority, and the university.<\/p>\n

She had reported the alleged assault to police several \u200bweeks after the fact, leading to an internal university investigation and a law enforcement probe, but the local prosecutor declined to bring criminal charges in the case.<\/p>\n

Cornell, which has defended its response to the original report, shut down the Chi Phi chapter and imposed a range of discipline on the fraternity members involved, including expulsions and other sanctions.<\/p>\n

The men all denied any wrongdoing, some saying the \u200bsexual activity was consensual and others disputing their participation, the New York Times<\/em> has reported, citing Cornell documents.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit criticised the university for having offered some of the \u200balleged perpetrators a chance to mitigate their penalties by writing essays.<\/p>\n

The demonstrators on Monday demanded that Cornell expel or revoke the degrees of any student found complicit in the alleged gang \u200crape.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Special prosecutor appointed<\/strong><\/h3>\n

New York Governor Kathy Hochul last Friday appointed the state\u2019s attorney general, Letitia James, as a special prosecutor to take over a newly reopened criminal investigation, saying she was \u201cdeeply disturbed\u201d by how local authorities originally dealt with the case.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s boisterous but orderly demonstration included a march by several hundred students, faculty supporters and community activists \u2014 perhaps 1,000 or more \u2014 through the campus in the upstate New York town of Ithaca.<\/p>\n

The protesters, chanting \u201cOne struggle, one fight\u201d and \u201cNo justice, no peace,\u201d filled the central pedestrian plaza on campus, \u200band spilled over into adjacent spaces.<\/p>\n

Many \u200bcarried signs with slogans such as \u201cJustice \u2060for Jane Doe,\u201d \u201cWe Stand for Survivors\u201d, and \u201cPrison Sentences, not Topic Sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The march ended at Cornell\u2019s main administration building, which was defaced in Monday\u2019s predawn hours by unknown activists who smashed two glass panes of the front door and spray-painted graffiti on the entryway, \u200bincluding one message that read: \u201cAT CORNELL RAPISTS ARE PROTECTED.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independent student newspaper the Cornell Daily Sun<\/em> reported receiving a statement from the \u200bactivists saying their vandalism \u2060was an act of protest against the alleged assault and \u201cglobal systems of power that allowed this to happen in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rally came a day after Doe and her lawyer said they had received multiple threats<\/a> since filing the lawsuit, which has prompted a public outcry, particularly on social media under the banner \u201c#IamJaneDoe<\/a>,\u201d over why law enforcement declined to pursue charges \u2060in 2024.<\/p>\n

The \u200buproar also stirred a backlash from others who have questioned whether keeping Doe anonymous was fair because \u200bit denied those implicated in the matter the chance to publicly face their accuser.<\/p>\n

Addressing the controversy on Saturday, Kotlikoff promised in a video message to examine the role of fraternities and sororities on campus, saying, \u201cbeing part \u200bof a group can never diminish individual responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cornell University students staged a mass rally on Monday, voicing solidarity with a classmate whose gang-rape \u200ballegations have ignited a national uproar and demanding that the Ivy League school take firmer action against sexual violence on campus. The protesters called for \u200can external inquiry into how Cornell\u2019s administration has handled the matter, independent hearings and uniform minimum sanctions for all sexual assaults on campus, and better training for campus police in responding to complaints of sexual violence and harassment. The alleged gang-rape victim, identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}