Cornell students stage sit-in to protest university’s handling of alleged 2024 gang rape

ITHACA, New York (AP) — Some Cornell students staged a sit-in at a dining hall and vowed not to spend money on campus Wednesday to protest sexual violence and how the university has handled complaints, in the latest expression of outrage over an alleged 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house.

A handwritten sign reading “Justice for Jane Doe ” — the name under which the accuser is suing — was propped on an empty table in the dining hall in the afternoon. Some students sat around the room without eating, while others lunched. Another small group sat outside holding signs with messages such as “we are Jane Doe.”

Groups organizing the demonstration intended to keep the sit-in going for seven hours.

The demonstrations were meant to spotlight complaints that the university is slow to respond to reports of sexual assault while quick to protect its reputation. Among other demands, the groups want the university to retool disciplinary procedures for addressing complaints and expel or revoke the degrees of anyone involved in the alleged October 2024 sexual assault.

Jane Doe, who was a student then, alleges that Chi Phi members plied her with alcohol and drugs and several sexually assaulted her. One man sent others a message inviting them to participate, according to a lawsuit she filed last month against Cornell, the fraternity, seven men who were Chi Phi brothers and others.

Lawyers for two of the men have denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the others or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Some of the men who underwent a university disciplinary hearing in 2024 told investigators that the sexual activity was consensual or said they were not involved.

The woman went to Cornell police in November 2024, though no criminal charges resulted. In the wake of her lawsuit, the state attorney general is conducting a renewed criminal investigation.

Cornell closed down the Chi Phi campus chapter in 2024 and says it expelled some students and suspended others after an investigation under the federal Title IX law.

This week Cornell trustees brought in former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review how the school investigates sexual assault and sexual harassment, how the disciplinary process works, campus police response and more.