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Student journalists at Cornell University who have relentlessly pursued the story about the alleged gang rape by seven fraternity members on campus are demanding accountability from their institution.

“The Sun is really asking for something that everyone deserves, which is a level of transparency and accountability,” Sophia Dasser, editor-in-chief of Cornell’s student paper, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday. “We are students, we have the right to demand safety from our university administrators, and we have the right to demand things like anonymized data reports of outcomes and sanctions and punishments from [sexual assault] cases that were reported.”

On September 16, Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit accusing seven members of a campus fraternity of drugging and raping her in October 2024. The lawsuit also names the university and university leaders — as well as a local bar, the fraternity, and her sorority — for failing to protect her.

In November 2024, a month after the assault, the Tompkins County District Attorney had declined to file charges against the fraternity members accused of rape. But Jane Doe’s civil suit released new details — including messages in the fraternity’s group chat in which the alleged perpetrators encouraged other men to join — that sparked widespread outrage, pushing the DA’s office to reopen the case.

Central to this push was Cornell’s independent student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, which published an editorial shortly after Jane Doe’s September lawsuit — “Cornell Won’t, We Will.” The piece began by naming the seven men accused of rape and sexual assault, and went on to condemn the university for its........

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