This letter was substantially written by Alexandra Colin Klein ’18, a former co-lead of Sexual Assault Awareness Week at Cornell University, in her personal capacity as an alumna of the University. This letter reflects neither the views of any employer or professional organization, nor any professional scope or judgment.
The brutal rape allegations made by Jane Doe against seven members of Chi Phi at Cornell will forever be tied to the University’s legacy. This is not just a headline, it is a moment in Cornell’s history that will never be forgotten. The question that remains is whether this will become a turning point in that history, a moment where the University takes swift and expansive action to protect its students. Will Cornell take this as an opportunity to ask difficult questions about the proliferation of sexual violence on its own campus? Or will it shy away from reform to protect its image?
This is not an isolated incident. Dangerously, it appears to be a part of a pattern that is growing rather than shrinking. A 2025 University survey found that 35% of undergraduate women reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual conduct during their Cornell careers. That same study saw an increase in students experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact since entering Cornell, up from 11% in 2023 to 15% in 2025.
Cornell is well-aware that sexual assault, harassment and violence are prevalent issues for its students. In fact, the term sexual harassment was coined by Lin Farley in 1975 during her time as an instructor at Cornell University. Cornell purports to be implementing the recommendations of a task force, assembled, as The Cornell Daily Sun Editorial Board noted, five months too late. In fact, Farley’s work highlights that it is 51 years too late. And the recommendations from the school’s Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault offer no clear timeline for implementation. And the report appendix itself states that admittedly critical steps such as “programming for fraternities and sororities” as well as “greek prevention strategy that moves beyond reducing risk” are concededly not in progress. Other recommendations, such as safe ride programs, are efforts students called for over 15 years ago. A report that fails to contend with administrative deficiencies is not enough. Survivors deserve better support, resources and access to justice.
Reporting a campus sexual assault is an arduous and difficult process. In her memoir, Know My Name, Chanel Miller described navigating the judicial system as a mountain, where, “[m]ost victims are turned away at the base of the mountain, told they don’t have enough evidence to make the journey. Some victims sacrifice everything to make the climb, but are slain along the way, the burden of proof impossibly high.” That Jane Doe was failed by Cornell’s administration merely repeats a pattern well known to survivors at Cornell. Of the students in Cornell’s 2025 survey who said they had experienced nonconsensual sexual conduct, only 23% contacted a formal resource. Cornell should be working to make this process more accessible, rather than hiding it from students, alumni and the public. The University must publish the standard by which a suspension in a sexual assault case is lifted, state whether an allegation of sexual assault is eligible for emergency suspension at all under the revised Student Code of Conduct, share with complainants the outcomes of their investigations and better fund and resource those departments and centers dedicated to supporting survivors in their time on campus.
In a public statement released on Sept. 28, Cornell University attempted to silence public critique of those punishments levied in Jane Doe’s case. The claim that this will “make survivors feel less safe and supported, and perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault,” is an unsubstantiated and dangerous effort to quash a necessary and vital conversation about the results of a flawed Title IX process. Jane Doe herself has claimed that consequential punishments were not imposed for those involved. The fact that one survivor’s experience mirrors those of countless individuals who attempted to navigate the University’s formal reporting process should be a warning sign to Cornell, rather than an impetus for lashing out. And silencing critiques of what many understand to be a flawed system offers no indication that the University is open or willing to contemplate changing formal resources that fail to serve the student body. As journalist Rita Omokha stated in her article, Cornell Didn’t Just Fail One Woman. It Failed Everyone Watching., “this is about a system that has decided, at every structural level, that the comfort and future of the accused matters more than the safety and survival of the survivor.” That structural framework must change.
The question for the University cannot simply be asking how it failed Jane Doe. Rather, we ask the school to take action: What is Cornell doing to ensure that future Jane Does are not failed again? Cornell’s community deserves a genuine plan of action, including affirmative steps that the administration is going to take to rectify the harm it has allowed to blossom — unchecked — for decades. For too long, this work has fallen on students, rather than the administration.
Ezra Cornell founded an institution “where any person can find instruction in any study.” But the campus’s commitment to inclusion cannot exist alongside a culture of sexual violence and predation. No survivor can functionally achieve their academic goals when they are forced to sit beside their assailant or live in fear of retribution and retaliation. This moment of public scrutiny is one in which the University must turn inward to seek out the roots of sexual violence within its halls.
At this undeniable turning point, it is unclear how Cornell will respond. We ask our alma mater to rise to the occasion, rather than shirk its responsibilities, for the sake of both Jane Doe and every Cornellian — past, present and future.
Sincerely,
Former Co-Leads of Cornell’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week
Signatories to this letter can be found here. Cornell Alumni are welcome to sign on through this link.
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