Fraternities on Cornell’s campus will not be allowed to host parties or events for the remainder of the academic year.
Jeongyoon Han for NPR
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Jeongyoon Han for NPR
Cornell University has banned parties and social events at fraternities for the rest of the school year and will bring in sexual assault investigators to its police unit, in response to a former student’s gang rape allegation in 2024.
The changes came Tuesday as the university said it was committed to addressing a “deeply disturbing” culture of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as an increase in sexual violence on campus following a civil lawsuit filed by a former student, Jane Doe, that sparked national outrage and a crisis at Cornell.
“I am deeply sorry for the harm suffered by Jane Doe in 2024 and dismayed that this act of sexual violence occurred within our Cornell community,” Cornell President Michael I. Kotlikoff wrote in a letter to the campus Tuesday. “It’s clear that women on our campus continue to wonder if they are safe. We must overcome this moment by recognizing our failures and taking meaningful action.”
The lawsuit, which Doe filed nearly a month ago, alleges Doe was given ketamine and sexually assaulted by members of the Chi Phi fraternity at a party in October 2024. Details of the allegations, which revealed how fraternity members used a Snapchat group chat to discuss the woman and the events of the party with openly foul language, sparked fury across the country.
Doe’s attorney, Thomas Giuffra, told media outlets that Doe had received death threats and police had invaded her family’s home since she filed the lawsuit.
The administration’s changes come after student groups staged protests last week on campus.
“The administration is clearly feeling the pressure and needs to act,” says John Hartnett, a sophomore at Cornell who has helped organize protests. He called the changes a “half-measure” and said banning fraternities was not a long-term solution to the university’s systematic problems.
The Faculty Senate is considering a vote of no confidence in the university administration at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday. This is a rare decision that demonstrates the deep frustration and distrust stemming from the 2024 affair.
“Trust is still eroded on campus — that hasn’t changed,” says Julia Chang, associate professor of Hispanic studies in the Department of Romance Studies. “The fact that these changes are happening now – two years later – is a testament to the power of the student movement and the global debate it has sparked, not to the integrity of the administration.”
The moratorium on fraternity events is expected to impact campus, where about a third of all students participate in fraternities and sororities. The university’s ties to Greek life, Kotlikoff said, have in part created a toxic culture on campus that requires a serious course correction.
“While this is not a problem unique to Cornell, we are committed to setting higher standards in education, monitoring, and enforcement of safe social behavior and citizenship,” Kotlikoff wrote.
Ray Epstein, who works with a consent education company and is one of the organizers of a rally planned for Tuesday just steps from Cornell’s campus, said that while Cornell’s measures are “overall a victory,” they are also a “face-saving effort.”
“What I think they should do is operate first rather than as a business, as they do now, as institutions that are supposed to educate and keep their students safe,” Epstein said.
Kotlikoff said that in addition to improving bystander training programs, the university will also improve its services to sexual assault survivors by increasing staffing in its civil rights office, which would help individuals navigate the process of reporting incidents.
Additionally, the university will work with New York State Police criminal investigators on sexual assault investigations on campus. This decision allows investigators, independent of the university, to take charge of cases in which survivors file complaints.
The university plans to bring in professors with expertise in sexual assault and rape culture to help reform the Presidential Task Force on Sexual Assault through listening events with the Cornell community.
Kotlikoff’s letter does not explain why these events are only being released now — two years after Cornell administrators learned of the allegations in 2024.
Although the district attorney did not pursue charges in 2024, Cornell’s Title IX office conducted an investigation in 2025. In March 2025, a group of Cornell staff and faculty decided to expel or suspend some of the men. The panel asked the remaining men to write “essays” in addition to other sanctions.
Cornell also banned the Chi Phi fraternity chapter, which was closed in 2024.
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