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On Monday evening, thousands of Cornell University students protested on the university campus, demanding accountability for Cornell’s alleged mishandling of the 2024 rape case that has come under a national spotlight.

Students held signs that said “We are Jane Doe,” “Stop Protecting Rapists,” and “We Want Sentences, Not Essays.”

The demonstration was organized by Students for a Democratic Cornell alongside over 20 other student organizations at Cornell, including Gender Justice Advocacy Coalition, Planned Parenthood Generation, Cornell Grad Students United, Black Students United, and other cultural organizations on campus.

Outrage has followed the case of a sexual assault that occurred in October 2024 at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house, where a victim, known as Jane Doe, says that she was drugged and raped by seven fraternity members. This anger has boiled over after Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit in mid-September, pushing the local district attorney to reopen the case.

On campus, students have highlighted the university’s failure to hold the alleged perpetrators accountable, citing the university’s decision to allow some to write essays as punishment and the university police providing the district attorney with a “summary” of Jane Doe’s complaint that omitted mentions of rape, drugging, and sexual assault, leading to the DA closing the initial case.

Cornell University Journalists Kept Rape Case in Spotlight

Students for a Democratic Cornell (SDC), which called the protest, put forward demands that include an independent judicial system to replace Cornell’s current internal judicial system; an external investigation of Cornell’s administration; mandatory sexual assault prevention trainings for students; and Cornell’s compliance with New York State’s Enough is Enough law.

They have also called for the university to expel the men accused in the Jane Doe case and to revoke the degrees of those who have already graduated. (Only two of the seven men named by Jane Doe were expelled for the assault in 2025 after the university’s Title IX investigation.)

“SDC is really focused on attacking the........

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