Miriam Brody Ph.D. ’88 and Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Professor Emerita of Human Development, History and Women's Studies, write this letter on behalf of older Cornell University alumni and professors representing various colleges and departments who are residents at Kendal at Ithaca Senior Living Community. They can be reached at mrmbrd@gmail.com and jjbrumberg@gmail.com.
We who have taught at Cornell, worked at Cornell and studied at Cornell were appalled and outraged as we learned about the October 2024 alleged sexual abuse of a Cornell undergraduate woman. It is astounding that the horrific violence done to this woman is only now coming to light as she brings a lawsuit against the University, the fraternity and sorority involved and the seven men who have now been named publicly. There does not yet appear to be any reasonable explanation as to why only two of the undergraduates alleged to be gang-rapists received severe disciplinary action. Five others were allowed to write essays — as if they were school children being reprimanded for poor spelling, or as if written confessions were a way to absolve behavior. Writing as punishment cannot, of course, wipe clean a sexual assault, but it is particularly offensive in an intellectual community.
Perhaps forthcoming information will exculpate the University. We are grateful that the District Attorney has re-opened the criminal investigation. But, in any case, it falls to the University to attempt some moral leadership to remind undergraduates of their responsibilities in our community. Rather than remaining silent, the University must promote educational opportunities such as campus-wide programs to address drunkenness, doping and their companions — misogyny and violence. Student leaders of fraternities and sororities, as well as the University, could insist that new students attend orientation classes to teach them the civic values that govern not only intellectual discourse but personal relationships.
Without taking some kind of action, Cornell is both unresponsive and complicit while it risks appearing a pariah institution in a national conversation.
Signed,
Miriam Brody Ph.D. ’88 and Joan Jacobs Brumberg, for these signatories all living at Kendal at Ithaca.
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