Cornell University is a prestigious college where younger generations strive to go, but it has recently been in the media for an alleged rape case involving seven men more commonly known as the Cornell Seven. The alleged rape occurred in 2024 where seven men lead an intoxicated Jane Doe into there apartment and raped her.
Pictures of the group chat have been surfacing online from Snapchat with all the witnesses. Since no one in the group reported any of the events, Jane Doe had to come forward and share all the event details. Out of 57 men, not one of them saw the rape as important enough to bring it up to the school board. Cornell should have looked into the case and its details before discriminating against Jane Doe.
By opting to dismiss her claims Cornell might have violated Jane Doe’s Title IX rights. Title IX states that students are not allowed to be discriminated against in a school setting. Some instances include sexual assault, as well as athletic and pregnancy discrimination. This law is in place to protect all students of any age as long as the offense happens in a federally funded setting. Without Title IX the case would have been put in the hands of the police and other prosecutors.
The case was recently reopened to the public and many are fighting back and defending Jane Doe. Seven of the men were reprimanded for their actions, in the form of mandatory essay writing and “training,” with only two being expelled. These seven men were punished because they admitted to their friends their involvement.
The identity of Jane Doe remains anonymous. Some internet users want to know her identity, which has caused a lot of push back on social media, with influencers making videos claiming they are Jane Doe. Posting these videos shows that there is a community of people who want Jane Doe to remain anonymous and making it more difficult for people to uncover her identity. All seven of the men had their identities published in the media for anyone to find. What they did was wrong, their names should be published so people know they might push boundaries and be a threat to others.
It was recently revealed that Jane Doe wrote a letter to the Faculty Senate, Michael Kotlikoff, where she stated she felt unsupported and pushed aside. Kotlikoff responded with “why did it take so long for the case to be reported?” Jane Doe should not have been solely responsible for reporting her own sexual assault, when there were 50 other men who could have stepped up and defended her honor.
“It was reasonable why she did not want to share it immediately. [Kotlikoff] should have handled it differently,” sophomore Quinn Walker said.
Punishment for any form of sexual assault usually spans from a few years to life in prison. Essays, on the other hand, are given out to students as an assignment in class. Committing a crime is an offense that should not be taken lightly, especially when the offense can harm someone’s life forever.
“Survivors can experience emotional distress, physical health concerns, pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, there’s financial costs that continue, it can change your relationships, as well as your work and daily life,” mental health counselor Amanda Matlee said.
Sexual assault can lead to many forms of mental health issues like PTSD and self-deprecation. People feel numb or lifeless after being assaulted because they feel used or tainted by someone else’s actions. This can lead people to wonder what they could have done to defend themselves or that they should have said no. In such high-stress situations, it becomes hard for people to think rationally; like Jane Doe, who was intoxicated during the time of the assault.
Being under the influence has a negative impact on the mind, leading to a slow reaction time and gaps in memory. Drinking alcohol leaves a person feeling vulnerable and open without them realizing their actions.
Survivors look to their family and friends for support after the assault. However, in some cases the assault comes from a person the victim is close to like an intimate partner. This can cause a sense of constraint in a relationship where one party feels trapped by another.
Out of 100 rape cases proposed by teenage girls, only 18 result in jail time. Women are looked at as something to objectify and comment on in order to give men satisfaction and reasoning behind their actions. How a women chooses to dress or present herself does not correlate to a mans self control. Objectification of women leads to an imbalance of power and stereotypes between the sexes.
Victims of sexual assault struggle to talk about their experience because of the stereotype that a women’s word does not hold as much power in a room as a mans.
The conversation around sexual assault is often avoided because it is uncomfortable. However, any form of sexual assault has to be talked about, otherwise it will be ignored, allowing current abusers to get away with their abuse. The desensitization of sexual assault is due to the low number of cases that end with arrest or legal punishment for the offender(s).
Cornell left a woman to live with the memory of her assault forever, while the people who did it are out there doing homework and partying with other women, who now are at risk of the same fate. Sexual assault is not an offense that gets tossed aside because a school is worried about their reputation. Jane Doe deserves the right to a full legal trial so she can get representation against the men who have left their mark on her life and were given a “homework” assignment in response.
