A crowd of students protests Cornell's response to gang rape complaint
[October 06, 2026]
By LEAH WILLINGHAM and TASSANEE VEJPONGSA
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — Cornell students thronged a campus plaza to protest
the university's response to allegations of sexual assault at a
fraternity house, and the school's main administration building was
splashed with graffiti and damaged overnight.
At a demonstration that overflowed the large space in front of the
school's student center, students, faculty members and others wore
purple ribbons and held signs with such messages as “support survivors,
expel rapists” and “Justice 4 every Jane Doe" — the name by which the
woman who reported the assault is known in court papers. Other people
watched from pathways, windows and a nearby hill.
“Too often, we are met with silence, we are met with statements, we are
met with procedures, but not enough support,” student Athena Holloway
told the crowd. “How much does it take for our university to stand with
survivors?”
Hispanic studies professor Julia Chang added to applause: “Rape should
not be inevitable.”
Calls for Cornell president's resignation
Speakers faulted fraternities, the university trustees and Cornell
President Michael Kotlikoff, saying he and his administration have
prioritized protecting the university's reputation over students'
safety.
“Kotlikoff, resign!” demonstrators chanted, among other slogans, as they
marched to the damaged administration building to present a list of
demands. They included changes to how the student code of conduct
defines sexual consent, an overhaul of the student discipline system and
expulsions or degree revocations for all students involved in the
alleged 2024 assault of the woman known as Jane Doe, among other things.
The woman's account of being sexually assaulted by several fraternity
brothers has made clear, on and beyond campus, that “for all the strong
feelings about sexual assault, .... we do not do enough to prevent it,
nor to support survivors after it happens," student Madeline Gage said.
The group began disbanding with chants including “ban the frats!”
Graffiti and broken glass at an administration building
The Ivy League school has been trying to quell a firestorm over its
handling of the alleged 2024 gang rape. Early Monday, the university
found signs of the anger on the very walls of its administrative
headquarters.
Holes were knocked into one of the building's glass doors, and the walls
beside them were marked with red-painted messages condemning patriarchy
and the Ivy League school’s handling of sexual assaults, news media
photos showed. Later Monday, the graffiti was removed and the door was
boarded up.
Cornell spokesperson Kyle Kimball said in a statement that the
university was investigating and that “damaging property is not the
answer” to Cornellians' “frustration and strong emotions.” Campus police
referred questions to his office, which declined to provide more detail
on the incident.
Jane Doe alleges that she was sexually assaulted by multiple Chi Phi
fraternity members in October 2024 after being pressured into drinking
and taking drugs. She was a Cornell student at the time.
The woman recently sued the university, seven former students, the
fraternity and others. Her lawsuit said that she became fully
incapacitated as fraternity members assaulted her, and that one man sent
others a message inviting them to participate.
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Attendees hold signs during a protest against Cornell University's
handling of the 2024 fraternity-house gang rape allegations at the
university Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian
Kraus)
“I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a
totally debilitating place to be in,” she told Cornell investigators
last year, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Lawyers for two of the former students denied they participated in a
sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the other
men or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Court records
show that some of the accused students, when interviewed by Cornell
investigators, described the sexual activity as consensual.
Shortly before she went to Cornell police in November 2024, Jane Doe
recorded a phone call with one of the men she says raped her. ABC
News broadcast portions of that call Monday, containing only what it
said was his voice, and recounted other parts of the conversation in
writing.
“What y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” she told him at
one point, according to the network, which said she had provided the
recording to the university.
Students are demanding transparency, accountability
The suit has drawn national attention to what Cornell, its police
force and the local district attorney did after she told the campus
police in November 2024 she “can say with 100% confidence I was
raped.”
No criminal charges have been filed. The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell
was shut down, and the Ivy League university has said it expelled
some students and suspended others. In a statement last week, the
administration bristled about the “false narrative that there were
minimal consequences in this case.”
Students, however, have demanded more accountability and
transparency, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said Jane Doe was
“failed by people and institutions" including the Cornell police and
local District Attorney Matthew Van Houten.
Hochul appointed the state attorney general last week to take over a
criminal investigation that Van Houten had reopened days earlier,
and the governor called for an independent review of Cornell’s
handling of the matter.
After the week's developments, Kotlikoff released an apologetic
video Saturday, saying that Jane Doe's account “raises heartbreaking
and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and
aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use.”
Kotlikoff reaffirmed his support for an independent review of the
university's actions and vowed more transparency and a commitment to
"finding the answers our community deserves.”
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.
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