Cornell Seven case exposes widespread violence on university campuses

Cornell University (Pic: Wikimedia commons)

A case of sexual assault at Cornell University in New York State is creating waves of anger across the US and the world. A woman was drugged, raped and assaulted by seven men for some seven hours in October 2024.

The woman—known as Jane Doe—went to visit her friend at the Chi Phi fraternity house, at about 11pm. There, she says she was forced to take drugs and was gang raped by a carousel of seven men until nearly 6am. 

Before visiting her friend, Doe had been at an event at her sorority. Despite being 20 at the time, and IDed as underage by bouncers at the event, she was given alcohol and was intoxicated when she arrived at her friend’s frat house.

She was isolated, separated from her phone and forced to take ketamine. Two men initiated a threesome—an activity her lawsuit states Doe was “incapable of consenting to”. 

Throughout the night, more men entered the room, raped her, “slapped” and “grabbed” her until she lost consciousness at around 5.45am. 

In the lawsuit, Doe says “she felt as if there was no way for her to escape this room full of predatory, fraternity men”.

She was advertised as an object to some 50 men through a Snapchat group for the fraternity. Photos of the chat included in the lawsuit show messages that say, “Free pussy upstairs”.

In other messages men asked, “Shop still open?” and got affirmative responses to join in the abuse. 

In November, Doe reported the case to the Cornell campus police. She gave them a six-page report of what had happened, which was passed to the county police. 

No criminal charges were brought and Doe was not contacted by any authorities. 

The county’s district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, says the report she made in 2024 did not meet legal thresholds for investigation. 

Within the university, the seven men and the fraternity were placed on interim suspension. 

By May, hearings had been heard and two of the men were suspended. The others had to write essays on the event, with some having to attend workshops and others were given temporary suspensions. 

Doe dropped out of her studies. But these men continued with their education and careers.

In September of this year, Doe sued the fraternity, the sorority and Cornell University. 

Her lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, says that when she presented her case in 2024, Doe “was traumatised, numb and unable to function or accept the horror of what had happened. She was in self-preservation mode”.

The case has highlighted how perpetrators are allowed to get away with rape and sexual assault on college campuses and across society. 

The threat to women doesn’t come from trans women or refugees, as the far right claims. Women are most likely to face harassment and abuse from men that they know.

It is rooted in a sexist system that normalises and perpetuates violence against women and girls.

Seven men—Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar—have been identified as those who took part in the gang rape. But at least 50 other men were in the group chat that amplified the abuse and did nothing. 

Dozens of people knew this had taken place and did nothing. 

Some 38 percent of women at Cornell reported experiencing sexual assault at their time at the university in a 2025 survey—that’s over 6,000 women on one campus alone. 

In Britain, too, some 24 percent of undergraduate women report experiencing sexual assault since starting university.

Capitalist society enables and encourages sexual abuse at every level. From the #MeToo movement, to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, to the “Cornell Seven”—sexual abuse runs through institutions that then dismiss the victims and protect the abusers.