More than 35% of female undergraduates surveyed at Cornell University reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force, threats of force or incapacitation, according to a poll conducted last year, a figure that was up from 23% in 2023.
Overall, the survey found that 15% of all of the respondents reported such experiences compared to about 11% in 2021 and 2023 surveys.
Cornell notes in its survey that a total of 6,000 students received email invitations to participate and only 926 responded, resulting in a 15% response rate, with 519 of those responding identifying as women. According to the report, the 2025 response rate was lower than in previous years.
The findings are receiving renewed attention after the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office said it was reopening a criminal investigation into an alleged 2024 gang rape at Cornell’s fraternity house.
Eight universities that surveyed their students on nonconsensual sexual contact using the Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness Survey in 2024 showed rates lower than 30%.
In that survey, Washington University in St. Louis reported a result of 26.9% of respondents saying they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force or the inability to consent or stop the actions. Georgetown University reported 25.3% on the same issue in the same survey. Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, which reported rates of 14.4% and 16.7%, also account for nonconsensual “penetration or sexual touching.”
Under state law, Cornell is required to conduct a campus sexual violence survey every two years. In 2017, the school developed the Survey of Sexual Assault and Related Misconduct and has administered it every two years since 2019.
In Cornell’s survey, alcohol was involved in many of the reported incidents, while the use of other recreational drugs was less common. Among the undergraduate female respondents, most reported that the incidents took place inside residence halls, fraternity chapter houses or annexes and off-campus houses.
Studies have shown that incidents of sexual violence frequently occur on college campuses during the first two months of the school year, a period referred to as the “red zone,” when students are going to parties and other events. According to the American Psychological Association, which cites a 2008 study, researchers have found that 50% of campus sexual assaults occur during the red zone and affect new students.
In a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month, an unidentified woman alleged that on Oct. 19, 2024, members of the Chi Phi fraternity sexually assaulted her for hours and she was pressured to take ketamine. The woman also said that one member had sent a message encouraging others to take part in the attack.
The fraternity chapter was barred from campus following the alleged assault, but no one was criminally charged.
“While we cannot discuss the specific allegations during pending litigation, we take this matter seriously,” Chi Phi National fraternity said in a statement Sept. 18. “Our responsibility is to approach this with care for those affected and respect for a fair legal process.”
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said the woman’s lawsuit prompted him to reopen the criminal case. The case will be presented to a grand jury to determine if criminal indictments should be issued against the seven fraternity members named in the suit.
The suit said that some of the fraternity members involved were able to “mitigate their conduct” by writing essays to the university.
In a previous statement, Cornell said it launched a Title IX investigation that resulted in “a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell. None of the individuals charged were offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence of their involvement.”
“Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false,” the statement said.
The lawsuit has sparked intense outrage over the handling of the initial sexual assault case in 2024. Van Houten defended his office’s decision not to seek criminal charges at the time, saying that the woman did not allege that she was raped or drugged against her will. According to Van Houten, the woman had described in a statement “her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.”
The woman’s attorney, Thomas P. Giuffra, has said that she was “traumatized” and “numb” in the days after the assault and was “unable to function or accept the horror of what happened.”
In a written statement, the woman said she wants “to recover from this trauma but it is extremely difficult.”
“It affects every aspect of my life,” she said in the statement. “It will haunt me and be part of me the rest of my life.”
The attorney for one of the men accused in the lawsuit of sexual assault, Scott Kretzschmar, denied he harmed the woman in any way, saying the lawsuit was “not only intentionally dishonest but morally repugnant.”
“He’s done nothing wrong other than being irresponsible and immature and inappropriate and ugly in those Snapchats,” the attorney, Jeremy Saland, said Wednesday. “But in terms of a crime, he was not involved in a crime, and nor was he aware of one because if he was, he would have reported.”
Another one of the fraternity brothers, Gillio Lopes, who is being accused in the lawsuit of sexual assault, also denied this allegation. “The public narrative now being advanced is incomplete and, in important respects, inconsistent with the record developed during the Cornell process, including many of Jane Doe’s own statements,” his attorney Andrew Miltenberg said.
Miltenberg said that during the initial investigation dozens of people were interviewed, there were multiple days of hearings and testimony, and an investigative report.
“It is these statements, contemporaneous communications, and other evidence that provide important context that is absent from the current public account. Those differences, and the evidence bearing on them, will severely compromise Jane Doe’s narrative,” he said in a statement.
The attorney for one of the other men did not respond to a request for comment. It’s not clear if the others have obtained counsel.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at rainn.org/get-help.
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