Cornell University said Tuesday it is suspending all parties and social events at fraternity houses in Ithaca through the end of the academic year, a response to a lawsuit from a former student who says she was gang raped at a fraternity house in October 2024.
The ban, which takes effect days before Homecoming weekend, applies across a campus where roughly one-third of students belong to Greek life. Cornell also pledged to bring in independent sexual assault investigators to work alongside campus police and to add staff to its civil rights office.
Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff acknowledged the university’s handling of the case fell short in a letter sent to the campus community.
“I am deeply sorry for the harm Jane Doe suffered in 2024, and appalled that this act of sexual violence occurred within our Cornell community,” Kotlikoff wrote.
Anne Smalling, chair of Cornell’s board of trustees, called the moratorium a chance to rethink how students socialize.
“It’s incumbent on us to try and find other ways for these kids to engage in social settings,” Smalling said.
How the case unfolded
The woman, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, was interviewed at length by Cornell University Police in November 2024. But her account was condensed into a six-page summary sent to the Tompkins County District Attorney’s office that omitted her statement that she was “100 percent certain” she had been raped, according to reporting by the New York Times.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to bring charges at the time and turned down an offer from police to review additional evidence. He reopened the case in late September after Doe filed her lawsuit. New York Attorney General Letitia James has since taken over the investigation at the request of Gov. Kathy Hochul. Hochul, James and Van Houten are all Democrats.
Van Houten has said Doe’s sworn 2024 statement described her drug use and sexual conduct that night as “voluntary, conscious, and consensual,” an account he says conflicts with the lawsuit she filed nearly two years later. None of the men accused have been criminally charged, and all deny wrongdoing.
Fallout on campus
Cornell’s own Title IX disciplinary process took up the case separately. After 12 days of hearings in March 2025, the university expelled two men, suspended two others, and ordered the remaining three to write what the school called “reflection papers.” The fraternity involved, Chi Phi, remains barred from operating on campus.
The episode has shaken confidence in university leadership. Cornell’s faculty senate has given notice of a rare no-confidence resolution against the administration, adding to pressure on Kotlikoff and the board as the case continues to draw scrutiny from state officials in Albany.
