I was scheduled to speak at Cornell University this fall. Students there had planned a thoughtful visit, and I was genuinely excited that an Ivy League school wanted to hear from me. I withdrew because, in good conscience, I couldn't show up on a campus facing serious questions about failing to protect its young women.A young woman, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, has alleged that seven fraternity members gang raped her. According to her lawsuit, some of the men made crude jokes about her in a Snapchat group, and not one of them did anything to help her. 

The allegations are horrifying. But what made my decision was what came after. Where are the institutions that are supposed to protect us? What I and many students see is them protecting themselves, their reputations, their donors and their power.  

My decision had nothing to do with the students who invited me. It was about a crucial promise the university appears to have failed to keep. When I was a resident adviser in college, I was the person whose door students were supposed to........

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