Cornell University has suspended parties and social events at fraternity houses for the remainder of the academic year, and will work with state police and their sexual assault investigators on future cases.

The changes came in response to outrage over a gang rape at the university in 2024 that has brought national attention to the issue of sexual violence on college campuses and the failures of administrations to address the problem.

Cornell’s President Michael Kotlikoff announced these changes on Tuesday, after weeks of protest against the administration’s mishandling of the 2024 case that have escalated into calls for Kotlikoff’s resignation.

In 2024, a Cornell student, known by the pseudonym Jane Doe, reported that she had been drugged and raped by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity on campus. Her case was initially dismissed by the district attorney after university police “summarized” her complaint while omitting mentions of sexual violence and drugging. In mid-September, Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against the university, the Chi Phi Fraternity, and the 7 men. Weeks later, NBC reported on court documents and text messages revealing conversations rife with the language of rape culture among the fraternity brothers. Subsequent reporting on the university’s mishandling of Jane Doe’s case prompted protests at Cornell and the reopening of her case by the district attorney.

“I have spent the past weeks listening to students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and trustees, who have shared their feelings of deep connection and sympathy with Jane Doe, anger and frustration that this could happen at Cornell, and outrage at the broader prevalence of sexual violence against women in our society,” Kotlikoff wrote in his announcement Tuesday.

In addition to suspending fraternity parties and working with New York State police “trauma-informed criminal investigators,” Koltikoff promised more staffing to support students who come forward with complaints of sexual assault.

But students at Cornell have called these measures insufficient.

Students for a Democratic Cornell (SDC), which organized a protest on campus on October 5 that was attended by thousands of students and faculty members, said that the measures demonstrate a refusal “to make institutional change on sexual violence.”

In a press release shared with Truthout, SDC explained that “Nowhere among these measures is the institutional change that students demand; specifically, there is no mention of reforming Cornell’s corrupt judicial system or an independent investigation not led by the Board of Trustees.”

The group contends that these measures allow the university to skirt the blame for its part in mishandling the 2024 case as well as its role in creating a “campus-wide epidemic” of sexual violence at Cornell.

Saya Taylor, a member of SDC, explained that the group “will continue to push until all of our demands are met – not just a select few that allow the administration to place blame on other parties.”

While the SDC does not view limiting fraternity parties as a useful measure in combatting sexual violence, other groups disagree – as was clear in the chants and slogans calling for banning frats entirely during the October 5 protest.

Kaori Quan of Cornell’s Graduate Student Union (CGSU) told Truthout that the barring of fraternity parties for the remainder of the academic year does not go far enough. “Stopping frat parties for a year does not address the systemic issues on campus that perpetuate rape culture,” she said, “namely, the intertwined nature of donor money and Greek life.”

“Until Greek life is off our campus entirely, Cornell will continue to prioritize the money it brings in over the health and safety of both students and workers.”

Referring to Cornell’s plan to work more closely with state police and investigators, Quan added that “so long as there is money in protecting Greek life, the campus police and the investigators they work with will answer to university administrators, not the students they supposedly protect.”

“CGSU’s stance is that working more closely with state police will do more harm than good,” Quan also told Truthout.

Police are most often found to be counterproductive, if not harmful, to victims of sexual violence. In a 2024 survey in the U.K., 73 percent of survivors of sexual violence said that their attempts to report the assault to the police worsened their mental health due to their treatment by law enforcement, with significantly worse treatment of Black survivors and survivors of color. A local 2026 report found that police sexual violence in New York City is widespread and rarely punished, and suggests non-carceral forms of intervention are needed.

Quan reiterated the CGSU’s demands for “the resignation of all administrators involved in the handling of Jane Doe’s case,” particularly Kotlikoff, “the expulsion of the Chi Phi brothers who raped her, the banning of IFC Greek life from campus, and an entirely new democratic judiciary system.”

“Koltikoff’s response does not meet any of these demands. It does not even qualify as an apology for the harm he and his administration have done,” she concluded.

University groups are undeterred in their campaign for structural changes at Cornell.

Taylor said SDC’s efforts will continue “to put pressure on the administration by working with the coalition we assembled with over 25 organizations on campus.” In addition to a seven-hour sit-in on October 10, the group has co-organized installations on campus about sexual violence – and is planning an action for Friday, October 16, when Cornell University trustees will be on campus for their annual summit.

Faculty, too, have been organizing, propelled by the students’ protests. On October 7, two days after the mass protest organized by SDC, Cornell faculty issued a resolution that it has “no confidence” in the administration’s ability to “effectively address the ongoing crisis of sexual assault at Cornell.” The resolution has been signed by over 100 faculty members.

On Wednesday, faculty members held the first of two debates on the no-confidence resolution, which will be voted on at the end of October. Several professors called on Kotlikoff to resign, though the president continues to state that he will not do so.

The case has also reinvigorated discussions about the problem of sexual violence at universities beyond Cornell. In October alone, students at George Washington University, Brown University, Harvard, UCLA, Columbia, and the University of Minnesota, among others, have protested their own university’s responses to rape accusations, against rollbacks to Title IX, and to call for an end to sexual violence.

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