Cornell University is suspending parties and other social events at fraternity houses for the rest of the academic year and will give the New York State Police a role in investigating sex crimes on campus, university officials announced Tuesday, amid mounting outrage over its handling of allegations that a female student was sexually assaulted at a fraternity house in 2024.
The measures announced by Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff include a suspension of all parties and social events at Interfraternity Council houses through the end of the 2026-27 academic year and a new “zero tolerance” policy for violations that would result in the immediate emergency suspension of a chapter.
“These measures will provide time for a thorough review of fraternity life at Cornell to determine whether and how it can safely continue,” Kotlikoff wrote in a letter to the campus community.
Friend mentioned that when a similar thing happened at his University, the frats just had “gatherings” instead of “parties” and that was ok with the administration… (probably decades ago, so a slightly different environment)
It’s not different. You’re not going to stop college kids from partying. They’ll just go to an unaffiliated house and continue.
I know Cornell wants to be seen as doing something, but this is actually counterproductive. It pushes the parties underground, where there’s less safety and oversight.
The thing that fucks me up every time is that campus police are allowed to handle crimes that aren’t, say, parking or littering. How did we even get to the point that schools were allowed to cover up crimes to save their reputations? Why is Cornell giving state police a role that they should’ve had the whole time?
Campus police are actual police. They handle all crimes in their jurisdiction. Yes, you could argue there’s a conflict of interest.
Generally, the state police aren’t involved in singular, local crimes. That’s why giving them a role is new.
how about removing all frats/sororities/“greek life” together?
First amendment guarantees freedom of association.
fair point. they can still associate, just not have the formal recognition as greek houses they tend to get in college.
or maybe just the colleges need to “allow” the rape investigations from the cops, instead of doing it themselves. that’s a start.
Cornell, like a lot of major universities, does have their own full police department, with the same powers as the city police. So there’s no difference between themselves and the cops.
Whether there’s a conflict of interest because they are university police is a separate question, and I would say yes.
