Editor’s note: This article references sexual assault.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) spoke out on the alleged 2024 Chi Phi gang rape in a Wednesday X post and Tuesday NPR interview, respectively.
Schumer called for a deeper investigation into the proceedings in 2024, while Gillibrand pushed for Congress to advance legislation prioritizing campus safety.
This comes after a former Cornell student, identified as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit against the University, Chi Phi and others on Sept. 14, alleging that she was sexually assaulted and gang raped after being coerced into consuming drugs at Cornell’s Chi Phi house in 2024. The district attorney for Tompkins County reopened a criminal investigation into the case on Monday.
Schumer called for a “truly independent and exhaustive investigation” into the handling of the case. His request echoes Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D-N.Y.) Tuesday statement, where she called for a “transparent, independent review” of the University’s response to the allegations in 2024.
“Every fact must be uncovered. Every failure must be examined,” Schumer wrote. “Wherever wrongdoing occurred, there must be accountability.”
Gillibrand referred to the alleged assault as “serious and horrific” and pointed to a justice system that is “fundamentally broken” in a follow-up statement released on Tuesday.
The senator shared her experience working on legislation on how higher education handles sexual assault crimes, and called on Congress to advance the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, authored by Gillibrand and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
“[Jane Doe] had the courage to come forward,” Schumer wrote. “No survivor should have to summon that courage — and then fight the system to make it respond.”
According to Gillibrand, during her time working on this legislation, she has found a lack of training and expertise in the personnel responsible for handling sexual assault cases on college campuses.
“The people who do the interviews initially or ask questions initially have to be highly trained,” Gillibrand said. “They have to be experts in this kind of trauma … and a lot of our lawyers, a lot of our district attorneys and a lot of law enforcement are not trained in that way.”
She pointed to this gap in training as a policy failure.
“Congress hasn’t done its part,” Gillibrand said.
Originally introduced to Congress in 2014, the CASA bill would standardize how colleges handle sexual assault, including requiring colleges to publish complaint procedures and sexual misconduct statistics and making trained specialists on sexual violence available to students.
The bill was reintroduced on Oct. 8, 2024 and sits in Congress as a proposed bill.
The current system “does not set a campus up for safety or for success,” Gillibrand said. “You need to have a system that works, that works for everyone, that is 100% transparent.”
Calling on the entire community, Schumer emphasized that it takes “elected officials, university leaders, faculty, and students” to change campus culture regarding sexual violence. He added that “silence and complicity” allows this violence to continue on college campuses, and that it “must be confronted.”
Mary Caitlin Cronin is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a news editor for the 144th Editorial Board and can be reached at mcronin@cornellsun.com.
Varsha Bhargava is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is the managing editor of the 144th Editorial Board and was a news editor for the 143rd Editorial Board. She can be reached at vbhargava@cornellsun.com.
