NewzA gang rape allegation at Cornell University has brought fresh scrutiny of fraternities at the Ivy League school, which has a history of misconduct cases followed by efforts to reform the Greek system. Authorities reopened an investigation Monday as outrage built over a woman’s lawsuit filed Sept. 16 against the Chi Phi fraternity, the university and the seven students she says assaulted her.
She told police in November 2024 that she was assaulted at the fraternity house the month before, and prosecutors decided at the time not to prosecute anyone. The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted. The woman’s lawsuit uses a pseudonym for her.
The Chi Phi chapter has been barred from campus, and its national organization said Wednesday that the Cornell chapter unanimously voted to remove the accused members from its rolls within days of the woman filing a police report. Cornell has said its investigation had led to some students being disciplined or expelled. It’s a horrifying but familiar story on many campuses, said Elizabeth Allan, a professor of higher education at the University of Maine and director of the school’s Hazing Prevention Research Lab.
She said failed reforms show “how entrenched some of the behaviors are and that we need to take an approach that’s transformative.” The university in Ithaca, New York, has rolled out reforms in response to hazing deaths, lawsuits and arrests in its Greek system. In 2019, Cornell required Greek life chapters to hire independent event monitors and submit to random security spot checks, among other changes, after freshman Antonio Tsialas was found dead at the bottom of a gorge. His parents’ lawsuit said he and other fraternity pledges were hazed by being forced to drink dangerous amounts of alcohol.
Cornell has had fraternities — and problems — since its founding in 1865, said Adam McCready, a University of Connecticut associate professor who studies fraternities and sororities. One of the first confirmed hazing deaths happened at Cornell in the 1870s, he said. Over time, the fraternities built what he described as “palatial mansions that dictate the social environment on campus.” Fraternities have a long record of hazing and abuse cases In 1997, a Cornell student alleged in a lawsuit that he suffered weeks of paddling and beatings.
The following year, a half dozen Cor… The woman’s lawsuit uses a pseudonym for her.The Chi Phi chapter has been barred from campus, and its national organization said Wednesday that the Cornell chapter unanimously voted to remove the accused members from its rolls within days of the woman filing a police report. The following year, a half dozen Cornell stude…
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