The outlet analysis published Thursday found that only 13 percent of investigated sexual misconduct claims at Cornell University end with the accused student or staffer expelled or dismissed.
The data review examined more than 1,200 allegations of sexual assault, domestic violence or dating violence reported to Cornell’s Title IX office between 2018 and 2024. Just 162 of those complaints were investigated during the six-year span, according to the findings. Of the investigations completed, 53 cleared the accused, 51 found the person responsible, and 26 cases were resolved informally or withdrawn by the complainant.
Among the 51 found responsible, only seven faced the severest penalty of expulsion or termination. Fourteen received suspensions, while 39 resolved their cases through lesser sanctions, the report showed. The Ithaca, New York, school’s numbers landed under intensified national attention following a September 14 lawsuit filed by a former student who alleges seven fraternity brothers drugged and gang raped her at the Chi Phi house in October 2024.
The lawsuit, brought by a former sorority member identified as Jane Doe, describes a night of heavy drinking and drugs at the fraternity. She claims the men took turns having sex with her as she became increasingly incapacitated. Screenshots from a Snapchat group used by Chi Phi members included in the filing show one member boasting about “free p–sy” in a bedroom, with others responding with messages like “you can literally walk in and whip it out.”
Doe reported the alleged October 19, 2024 assault to campus police approximately three weeks later, in November. No criminal charges were filed at that time. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has since reopened the investigation, his office confirmed.
The lawsuit alleges that most of the seven accused fraternity members were permitted to “mitigate their conduct by submitting essays.” Several were confirmed suspended, and two were expelled, though it remains unclear whether their cases were counted among the 1,216 total incidents in the outlet data set.
Cornell disputed Doe’s characterization of its disciplinary handling in a statement. A spokesperson insisted none of the accused students were allowed to write an essay “as a sole consequence of their involvement,” calling her claim “irresponsible.” The spokesperson added that allegations in the Title IX figures are sometimes dropped when a suspect cannot be identified or when an accuser chooses not to proceed with an investigation.
“Cornell takes each report seriously and, to the greatest extent possible, honors a complainant’s decision not to pursue resolution,” the spokesperson said.
The university’s low rate of severe discipline is not unique among New York schools. The outlet’s analysis of 26 institutions in the state found nearly 10,000 sexual incidents reported to Title IX offices during the same 2018-2024 period. Of those, 1,295 prompted investigations, 523 found the accused responsible, and 230 resulted in suspensions. Just 81 cases — under one percent of all reported incidents — led to expulsions across all 26 campuses.
“Those numbers strike me that there’s been an erosion of trust,” Nicole Bedera, a sexual violence researcher specializing in campus cases, said.
“If perpetrators know that nothing is going to happen to them, then they feel less inhibited in acting violently,” she said. “If there’s no check on that violence, it just grows and grows.”
A separate 2025 Cornell survey found that one in six students reported experiencing unwanted sexual conduct at the school.