Written by: Sidney Wiles (snw003@marietta.edu)
In the past month, headlines across all networks have shared the disturbing allegations made by a past female student at the prestigious Cornell University. The student, currently referred to as Jane Doe, spoke out about the horrors she claims to have experienced while attending a fraternity party in October 2024. The context of her story is already concerning — but to make matters worse, the university is also under investigation for how they chose to handle the reported Title IX violation.
According to ABC and CBS News, in 2024, 20-year-old Jane Doe attended a fraternity party at the Chi Phi chapter house. Before she arrived, Jane Doe was already heavily intoxicated. As such, she was already unable to give consent. As the night continued, she claims that she was drugged with ketamine, gang raped by four men, and sexually assaulted by three others within the chapter for multiple hours.
One month later, Jane Doe reported the incident to the Cornell University Police Department, and gave them a six-page statement regarding the events that took place that night. In this statement, she described feeling as if she was being coerced, an inability to make decisions due to her level of intoxication, and hours of hopelessness as she was assaulted.
“I was instantly horrified and I remember squealing out loud and running across the room and hiding under the covers on another bed,” Doe wrote, recounting her experience when multiple men walked into the room she was in.
When Cornell police asked members of Chi Phi about their account of that night, the men claimed that they heard that everything that occurred was consensual.
Following this, only two of the seven men that assaulted Jane Doe were expelled. Another two were suspended, and others faced various consequences — such as submitting reflection papers regarding their actions. At the time, not one of the men faced criminal charges. Cornell stated that penalties were decided by the level of involvement each man had in Doe’s assault. Despite the national outrage, the university is standing firm in the fact that it made the right decision, and handled the report the way school policies saw fit.
Messages sent in the Chi Phi Snapchat group were later obtained by CBS News.
At 1:42 a.m., one of the brothers wrote “Free pu**y in alum pu”.
“diego went 7 min ago and is not afk sooooo,” wrote Scott Kretzchmar.
“I f*cking love chi phi,” wrote Matthew Ingalls.
Later — “Shop still open?”
“Yea.”
Fifty-seven men were in that group chat. Not a single one reported what went on that night to law enforcement. None were ever arrested — many were able to stay at the prestigious university, walking amongst the alleged victim.
Many more messages were recovered from the group chat regarding the night’s events, but because investigation is still ongoing, most are not available to the public at this time.
However, a few more messages between a few members of Chi Phi and Jane Doe became available last week. One day after the alleged assault, one of the fraternity brothers texted Jane Doe, saying “I just want to apologize for how things went down.”
“at the end of the day none of the sex stuff was illegal,” Jane Doe responded.
One week later, Jane Doe texted again. “y’all aren’t my friends you’re just covering your a*ses,” she wrote. Two weeks later — “let’s be clear 90% of what happened that night was not consensual.”
Once these messages were retrieved and released by NBC news, the online conversation shifted, questioning the legitimacy of Jane Doe’s public statement. At the forefront of this debate? Jane Doe’s message stating how “none of the sex stuff was illegal”. Still others are speaking out, sharing that they believe the response was driven by fear.
Prosecutors have since reopened the criminal investigation and plan to present the case to the grand jury.
This case is still developing rapidly. To stay up to date, visit news stations such as NBC and CBS.
Edited by: Jackson Bandy (knb003@marietta.edu)
