Cornell case spotlights 'confusing' web of systems for reporting campus assaults

Cornell case highlights 'confusing' network of systems for reporting campus assaults

When Mary was a first-year college student, she woke up after a fraternity party with bruises and bite marks all over her body. She says it took her several days to realize that she had been sexually assaulted while "blacked out", and to gather the courage - and identify the proper route - to report it.

The man she accused was later expelled, but police refused to file charges, saying there was not enough physical evidence.

Mary - whose name has been changed to protect her identity - says the path to even a limited form of justice was often confusing and discouraging.

"Even though it was a positive outcome, it was still so emotionally exhausting and draining, because I had to do all of this in tandem with getting used to being a college student for the first time," said Mary. "In many ways, I had to be my own advocate, gathering all my evidence."

She added that her experience with local police "left me with a deep sense of disappointment in the system".

How universities and the criminal justice system respond to these kinds of assaults on college campuses is back in the spotlight after a former Cornell University student filed a civil lawsuit alleging she was raped by several fraternity members two years ago, with prosecutors declining at the time to pursue the case.

Mary did not go to Cornell, and her case is unrelated to the university. But advocates for sexual assault survivors say her case, along with the Cornell allegations, reflects the broader difficulties of responding to sexual assault claims on college campuses.

The confusing web of systems and policies - which differs widely from one college to another - is one of several reasons research suggests the overwhelming majority of sexual assaults on college campuses are never reported.

"These processes are hard to navigate if you aren't in trauma," said Nancy Chi Cantalupo, an associate professor of law at Wayne State University who has represented victims on college campuses. "If you are in trauma, they're virtually impossible to navigate."

Earlier this month, the former Cornell student identified only as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against the Ivy League university, alleging she was drugged and raped by several men at a fraternity house on campus in 2024.

She also claimed Cornell failed to protect her or properly punish the men involved. Jane Doe said she reported the alleged assault to campus police, who interviewed her and passed information to the district attorney's office. The prosecutor declined to bring charges at the time, but this week Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten reopened the case.

Both Cornell and Van Houten have defended how they handled the 2024 case.

The university said it had "conducted an extensive investigation and adjudication over several months and imposed different sanctions based on the findings and circumstances involving each student" and had also created a new framework for handling sexual assault on campus.

Cornell has said it followed the procedures set out in a federal civil rights law known as Title IX. The law requires universities to follow specific rules when investigating sexual assaults. Cornell said its investigation led to the fraternity involved being barred from campus, and students involved being suspended or expelled.

Usually, after a student reports an assault on campus, the university's Title IX office decides whether the alleged conduct could amount to a policy violation.

Eventually, both sides attend a hearing before a panel of faculty members or other mediators, where they present evidence and testimony before the school makes a decision.

One of the biggest difficulties sexual assault survivors face is dealing at the same time with the university and the criminal justice system, which "serve different purposes, operate under different rules and timelines, and lead to different outcomes", said Zoey Scheinblum-Brewer, a policy coordinator at the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a nonprofit anti-sexual assault organisation.

"Unclear guidance about the options available through these parallel processes can create so much confusion and uncertainty that some students ultimately decide not to report," she said.

Mary said the process at her college was not clear to her when she chose to report the assault.

"For me, it would've been nice to know what I was getting into before it all happened. It felt like they were learning the process alongside me," she said of university officials.

While some colleges, such as Cornell, have information-sharing agreements with local police, Mary was told she had to go to police separately to file a report - a process she found physically exhausting.

Mary's lawyer says there was surveillance footage from the night showing her alleged rapist carrying her "slumped" over, and she had photos of her bruises and bite marks. But police told Mary they did not have probable cause for an arrest, and that the district attorney wanted to leave the matter to university administration.

"I was left with this taste that because they knew that the college was 'handling' my investigation, that they could wipe their hands clean of it," she said.

University investigations take place behind closed doors, said Helene Weiss, a lawyer who has represented several victims of sexual assault on college campuses. She believes secrecy is partly intended to protect institutions' reputations.

"The secrecy of the process, it prevents other students from knowing about it. It prevents witnesses from coming forward," she said.

Michael Diamondstein, a Pennsylvania attorney who has represented people accused of sexual misconduct on college campuses, said the secrecy protects both the victim and the accused.

"I think when you compare it to what they would face in a courtroom, it's much easier for students and much safer for students. Their name isn't put out there. The news media doesn't get them," he said.

Cornell students have criticised the university's handling of the woman's allegations. The Cornell Daily Sun, a student newspaper, published the names of the accused under the headline: "Cornell won't, we will."

In a statement, the college said federal privacy law "prohibits Cornell from disclosing specific information regarding individual students" so it cannot "make a public statement on any other disciplinary response".

Many advocates say there is value in universities investigating sexual assault complaints separately from the criminal justice system. Prosecuting sexual assault cases is notoriously hard - a recent systematic review found that fewer than 10% of sexual assault cases resulted in convictions. In a criminal trial, a prosecutor must persuade a jury "beyond reasonable doubt" that the accused is guilty. But in a campus tribunal, the burden of proof is lower.

Under Title IX, the university is also required to provide remedies that local law enforcement cannot, such as making sure a student is not in the same class as their alleged abuser while the investigation is ongoing and offering homework extensions, said Scheinblum-Brewer.

This is one of several reasons victims and advocates say there are advantages to having two separate paths, through the university and the criminal justice system.

For Mary, after police dropped her case, pursuing her assault claim through Title IX became the only way for her alleged rapist to face consequences: expulsion from college.

"This was my only avenue to achieve any sort of justice," she said.