Darren Lyn
14 October 2026•Update: 14 October 2026
Cornell University announced Tuesday that all fraternity parties would be banned for the remainder of the academic year as a high-profile gang rape case continues to rock its upstate New York campus.
"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," the university’s president, Michael Kotlikoff, said in a statement.
"All parties and social events in Interfraternity Council (IFC) houses at Cornell will be suspended for the remainder of the 2026-2027 academic year," he said, warning of "zero tolerance" for violations of the new policy.
"These measures will provide time for a thorough review of fraternity life at Cornell to determine whether and how it can safely continue," said Kotlikoff.
The move is part of a campus-wide measure to make sweeping changes in addressing the rape and sexual assault culture that has become prevalent on the Ivy League campus, which the university said included the use of drugs and alcohol.
"We must meet this moment by acknowledging where we have fallen short and taking meaningful action," said Kotlikoff, adding that Cornell University "must do better" to achieve "meaningful and lasting change" on campus.
Nearly one-third of Cornell students are part of the Greek life on campus, and Kotlikoff said that fraternity parties had become an even more central part of the student experience since the COVID-19 pandemic in the small town of Ithaca where Cornell is located around 220 miles (354 kilometers) northwest of New York City.
"There is an issue, post-Covid, of what are the options for students in a town like Ithaca," said Kotlikoff. "Many, many bars and venues went out of business and did not come back," diverting the drinking and partying to the fraternities located on campus.
Kotlikoff added that university officials aim to change the overall "social culture at Cornell" and said he believes problems on campus extend beyond the fraternity system.
"At its core is the specific context of social behavior and a deeply disturbing prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse,” he said, adding that campus police will hire "experienced, trauma-informed criminal investigators, who are independent of Cornell University" to investigate sexual assault allegations and to prepare "comprehensive investigative summaries for the appropriate law enforcement agency."
Thomas Giuffra, the attorney representing Jane Doe, who is identified by that name to protect her identity in the civil lawsuit against the seven Cornell Chi Phi fraternity members accused of gang raping her in 2024, said his client welcomed the measures put into place by Cornell but added that the actions by the university came too late to protect her.
"Ms. Doe’s goal in filing her lawsuit was not solely for herself. She wanted to achieve her aim of improving Cornell and its response to abuse claims," Giuffra said in an interview with the New York Post.
"While the steps announced today are helpful to achieve this goal, they are too late to protect Ms. Doe," he said. "However, these steps will hopefully go a long way to help ensure that there are no more Jane Does."
In the lawsuit, Doe alleged that she was coerced into taking ketamine and drinking alcohol before a consensual sexual encounter with two of the seven fraternity members, which she said devolved into a drug-fueled non-consensual gang rape.
Doe also accused Cornell University of failing to hand out significant punishments to any of her alleged rapists after two of the seven students were expelled and none of them faced criminal charges.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has since recused the local district attorney Matthew Van Houten from the reopened case and has appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James to lead the investigation.
