Cornell president says alleged gang rape deeply disturbing as prosecutors reopen case

The president of Cornell University, Michael Kotlikoff, has said the alleged gang rape of a woman student in 2024 was deeply disturbing. In an eight-minute video message, he said the case would weigh heavily on the community for years. He said his heart ached when he thought about what she experienced. He said it raised troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanisation and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use.

Kotlikoff promised greater transparency and a serious review of the role of fraternities and sororities. The move follows public backlash over how the university and the justice system handled the woman's complaint. He said the university did not have all the answers but was committed to investigating.

The woman is identified for legal reasons as Jane Doe. She is suing Cornell and seven men over the alleged assault. Prosecutors in New York have reopened an investigation into allegations that a 20-year-old woman was drugged and raped by seven men who were members of the same fraternity. The alleged assault took place in 2024.

According to the lawsuit filed in September, she says she consented to an initial sexual encounter with two of the men but was too intoxicated to consent to what happened afterwards. The lawsuit involves screenshots from a fraternity group chat which appeared to show one of the men saying there was a woman upstairs for free sex. She reported the attack to police a few days later and gave a full interview. But the campus police investigation merely summarised her allegations and left out a statement in which she said she felt 100 percent confident that she had been raped. Punishments for the alleged seven offenders varied from expulsion to being required to write an essay about what they had done. There were no criminal convictions. The seven men deny wrongdoing.

New York's governor has pushed back on claims that the woman never told campus police she had been raped. According to new reports, she could not have been clearer that she was 100 percent confident she had been raped, yet those words never made it into the account Cornell police sent to prosecutors. Among the names reported is Julio Lopes, who denies doing anything wrong. His lawyers have accused the woman's lawyer of manipulating the media so that Lopes is condemned before the evidence has been fully heard.

The case has prompted misinformation online and a campaign to stop trolls tracing the woman's identity. On social media, videos have appeared with women saying 'I am Jane Doe' to protect her anonymity. Reaction has snowballed, with students at Cornell expressing horror, and some high school students due to attend the university reconsidering or dropping out. Research shows that about one in four undergraduate women in the US experience sexual violence during college. A survey of female undergraduates at Cornell last year found that 35 per cent of respondents experienced non-consensual sexual contact involving physical force or threats of force.

The president's video has divided opinion. Some see it as a genuine admission of institutional failings, others as crisis management. He said he wanted to rebuild trust and promised that this would not be a moment that passes. Changing a fraternity culture often linked to heavy drinking, social status and powerful campus networks may be another matter. The case has also renewed a wider debate in the US, a decade after the Me Too movement, about what has changed and what has not changed in how society treats women who come forward with allegations.