JUSTICE FOR JANE DOE!

In 2024, a student at Cornell University was drugged and brutally gang-raped by members of the Chi Phi fraternity. Jane Doe reported the incident to Cornell’s administration and campus law enforcement, telling them that she was “100% confident” that she was raped. The response from Cornell’s administration was negligent and incompetent in assisting Jane Doe with pursuing basic justice.

Once this story hit national news through the brave reporting of Cornell’s student newspaper, the response around the country was: “JUSTICE FOR JANE DOE!”. Women across the country stand with Jane Doe because rape culture has been and continues to be a chronic problem on college campuses. According to a 2019 survey, 1 in 4 undergraduate women experienced rape or sexual assault after coming to campus. 

As is shown in the Cornell example, our institutions are complicit in sheltering abusers and denying justice for victims. Like most universities, Cornell University claims to be committed to creating a safe learning, working, and living environment for students. This claim could not be further from the truth. In 2024, the same year as this horrific assault, pro-Palestine students staged an 18 day encampment protesting the genocide in Gaza. Cornell’s administration made no effort to protect or defend any of them. In fact, it was the administration, along with campus law enforcement who issued these punishments. Suspensions, campus bans, and mass arrests were levied against these students for protesting a genocide. 

Cornell has no problem prosecuting student protesters but can turn a blind eye when it comes to rapists. None of the seven students named in the sexual assault case at Cornell have been arrested. Only 2 of the 7 have been expelled, and a number of them were assigned essays and workshops as part of their “punishment” for their participation in this heinous assault. Cornell has shown that they are committed to creating a hostile environment for its students, in which survivors of sexual violence and student activists are subject to violence and repression while the perpetrators of said violence face little-to-no consequence for their abhorrent actions.

National SDS stands firmly in solidarity with Jane Doe, women, and all survivors of sexual violence. National SDS recognizes that Cornell's mishandling is just one example in a broader pattern of sexual violence’s prevalence and protection for abusers in academic institutions. 

National SDS calls on students across all college campuses to do their part in combatting rape culture, and to stand in solidarity with the courageous survivors who speak out against corrupt and misogynistic university administrations.

JUSTICE FOR JANE DOE!
WOMEN’S LIBERATION NOW!