The Cornell 7 and the Bigger Picture of R*pe Culture at Universities

*Trigger Warning - Mentions of sexual assault and rape*

Many people have now seen the news stories about the “Cornell 7”, the 7 University of Cornell students who allegedly drugged and raped a fellow student for 7 hours in 2024, after she attended a fraternity party. New York prosecutors have reopened the case after Jane Doe, who remains anonymous, alleged that Cornell failed to protect her or adequately punish the men involved.

Rape at fraternity parties, while disgusting, is not uncommon, but the men perpetrating this rarely face consequences. One of the reasons why this case has become so high-profile is because the punishment some of the men faced was simply to write an essay, while Jane Doe ended up quitting her studies due to the trauma she experienced.

So 7 men who drugged and raped a young woman with her whole future ahead of her and got to graduate and go on to get well-paying jobs with minimal consequences to their lives. And people around the world are rightfully outraged.

But the issue isn’t just the 7 men who perpetuated the rape; Jane Doe was essentially advertised on Snapchat to a group chat of 57 men, and not a single one of them decided to speak up and report it. CBS News has obtained a video of the group chat, stating that “At 1:42 a.m. on the date of the alleged rape, a message was sent to the group chat suggesting a woman was available for sex.”

"Shop still open?" one fraternity brother wrote later. The response was "Yea."

This case is just the tip of the iceberg of similar cases at universities. For example, in 2010, fraternity brothers at Yale University marched through campus yelling, “No means yes, yes means anal,” and studies show men who join fraternities are 300% more likely to rape. Women who are part of sororities are 74% more likely to be raped in comparison to other female students, and one in five women are likely to be raped in the 4 years away from home in America.

“Cornell’s handling of Jane Doe’s case does not exist in a vacuum. It reflects a much older problem: Institutions built within patriarchal societies have historically given men greater authority to define, control and respond to violence against women.”  - Maggie Young.

This, of course, isn’t just a problem in America. The Office of Students released statistics for UK universities in September of last year, and the statistics aren’t much better. 25% of final-year students have experienced sexual harassment, and women at UK universities are 3 times more likely to experience sexual assault than men. Just a few weeks back, there were claims that the University of Bath rugby club members were planning on spiking women during fresher’s week, while the university has claimed that they have increased security at clubs due to this; they have made no offert into investigating the students who are part of this club.

Even to this day, we are fed the narrative that rape is something desperate lowlifes commit, and not well-educated men who come from money, even though the statistics speak differently. Women are sexually assaulted regardless of how they dress, their looks and their age, by men both rich and poor, educated and uneducated. But many of these men are more protected than the women who have been assaulted.

Many men have responded to the Cornell case by trying to doxx the identity of Jane Doe, or blame her because “what did she expect going to a fat party?” What she expected was to enjoy herself at a party without having to worry about whether or not she will be drugged and raped. The way these cases are ignored and the treatment of the women that do come out make many women who have been assaulted scared to speak up.

People are now petitioning to have the lecturers who decided that an essay is sufficient punishment for rape be removed from the university, for the university to be removed from the Ivy League list, and for the 7 Cornell rapists to lose their jobs. While this may be a start, men like this should face consequences from the start, and universities need to do more to help prevent rape culture.

Names of the Cornell 7 rapists:

Matthew Ingalls

Diego Sarabia

Winston Lee

Scott Kretzschmar

Scott Norris

Gillio Lopes

Jonathan Newell

Written by, Nat Synak