§ 05
Institutional Response
What Cornell University, Cornell University Police, and the Tompkins County District Attorney are responsible for, what each did in this case, and what each has said publicly. We also record the reviews announced by New York State officials.
Chronology
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Cornell issues a temporary suspension order against the Chi Phi Xi chapter for alleged violations of the Student Code of Conduct. Chi Phi's national organization separately said it suspended the chapter on its own accord.
Sources: Cornell statement, November 26, 2024, The Ithaca Voice, November 12, 2024
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According to the complaint, the plaintiff reports the incident to the department on or about November 8 (complaint, para. 179). That day, the department issues a crime alert about a report it received of a sexual assault by several men, with coerced drug use, on the 100 block of Edgemoor Lane. The alert gave the incident date as October 25, while the complaint gives October 19 to 20; whether the alert refers to the same report has not been established. See the Status Tracker.
Sources: The Cornell Daily Sun, November 8, 2024, The Ithaca Voice, November 12, 2024
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According to the District Attorney, the department takes a six-page sworn statement from the plaintiff and asks the District Attorney's Office to review whether it describes a crime. After the review, the department tells the plaintiff the result. The plaintiff's attorney says she spoke with no one other than the officer who took her original complaint.
Sources: District Attorney's statement, September 28, 2026, ABC News
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According to Cornell, the department gives the District Attorney the Snapchat screenshot "as part of the evidence supplied" in November 2024. The District Attorney has said he is not clear how the image reached his office or whether anyone there looked at it. See the Status Tracker.
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Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi issues a statement about the "deeply disturbing report of drugging and sexual violence," saying the university "will hold anyone identified accountable to the fullest extent."
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At Cornell University Police's request, prosecutors review the plaintiff's sworn statement and conclude that the facts it describes do not constitute a crime under New York law. The office tells the police that charges are not appropriate and offers, through the police, to meet the plaintiff to explain its decision.
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Cornell issues temporary suspensions to "a number of students" as interim measures. On November 26, then-Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff says this happened "late last week."
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According to the complaint, Cornell opens a Title IX investigation after the plaintiff files a formal complaint with the Title IX Coordinator (complaint, para. 183). Cornell has said only that its investigation lasted "several months."
Sources: The Cornell Daily Sun, Cornell statement, September 28, 2026
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According to the complaint, Cornell holds at least twelve hearings between May 2 and May 29, 2025 (complaint, para. 184). Cornell says a hearing panel heard evidence over multiple days and that both the complainant and the respondents could testify and present evidence.
Source: Cornell statement, September 28, 2026; complaint, para. 184 (not linked)
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The hearing panel issues "a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions." Cornell has not said how many students received each sanction. The Chi Phi chapter was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus. See the Status Tracker for the dispute over essays.
Sources: Cornell statement, September 28, 2026, Cornell statement, September 21, 2026
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The Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault, which Cornell says it launched "shortly after this incident," issues its report. Cornell says several recommendations have been implemented and others are in development.
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The District Attorney says he learns of the civil complaint. He says he later contacted the plaintiff's attorneys to ask about the differences between her 2024 statement and the complaint.
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The office reopens the investigation and assigns a senior prosecutor with experience in sex-crime cases to prepare a grand jury presentation. The grand jury will be able to hear the plaintiff's testimony and any new evidence raised by the complaint.
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The District Attorney tells ABC News that he plans to have the plaintiff testify before the grand jury this fall, and that he has requested some of Cornell's Title IX documents through her. He also says his office did not examine a photo of the fraternity's Snapchat group chat in 2024, and that it would not have changed his legal analysis.
Source: ABC News
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Cornell publishes an FAQ on its response. The same day, President Michael I. Kotlikoff tells student government that two of the accused students were expelled, two were suspended for at least two semesters, one graduated before any sanction could be imposed, and two were found not responsible, according to CBS News.
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The District Attorney tells CBS News that his office was never given the full transcripts of the plaintiff's 2024 interviews with Cornell University Police, and that the sworn statement it received did not include her remark, as quoted by CBS News, "I can say with 100% confidence I was raped."
Source: CBS News
Cornell University
What it is responsible for
Under Cornell Policy 6.4, the Cornell Office of Civil Rights enforces the university's civil rights obligations on sexual and related misconduct, including "conducting investigations of formal complaints against students." The Title IX Coordinator coordinates the university's compliance with Title IX. The Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards educates students about behavioral expectations and maintains disciplinary records for Policy 6.4 matters. Cornell's November 2024 statement refers to this office as the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX.
Under Cornell's procedures, a three-member panel of faculty and staff decides whether a student is responsible and what sanctions apply. Possible sanctions range from educational steps, such as "reflection papers," to suspension of up to three years and expulsion. The university process runs alongside any police investigation rather than waiting for it.
Sources: Cornell Policy 6.4, Policy 6.4 student procedures (August 5, 2024), sections 17, 26.1 and 26.13, Cornell statement, November 26, 2024
What it did
What it has said
- November 26, 2024: The chapter is under a temporary suspension order, interim suspensions have been issued, and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards and the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX are reviewing the allegations, while Cornell University Police continue their criminal investigation. (statement)
- September 21, 2026: The Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct "investigated and adjudicated the allegations consistent with university policies." Federal privacy law prevents it from disclosing information about individual students. (statement)
- September 28, 2026: It supports the District Attorney's decision to take the case to a grand jury. "Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false." (statement)
- September 29, 2026: In an FAQ, it says it "imposed different sanctions based on the findings and circumstances involving each student," that federal privacy law prevents "an individual-by-individual account," and that Cornell University Police gave the Snapchat screenshot to the District Attorney in November 2024. (FAQ)
Cornell University Police
What it is responsible for
Cornell University Police is the university's police department, with 52 sworn officers. Its stated mission includes to "receive and investigate reports of crimes." Cornell's procedures say the department, or another police agency, may investigate possible crimes at the same time as the university's own process.
Sources: Cornell University Police, About, Policy 6.4 student procedures (August 5, 2024), section 17
What it did
What it has said
Apart from the November 8, 2024, crime alert, we have not found a public statement from Cornell University Police about the case. The Ithaca Police Department, a separate city agency, said on September 28, 2026, that the incident was never reported to it (The Cornell Daily Sun).
Tompkins County District Attorney
What it is responsible for
Under New York law, the District Attorney conducts "all prosecutions for crimes and offenses" in the county. District Attorney Matthew Van Houten describes the division of labor this way: "The police investigate crimes. The District Attorney's Office prosecutes crimes." His office presents cases to the grand jury, which decides whether to indict.
Sources: New York County Law, section 700, District Attorney's statement, September 28, 2026
What it did
What it has said
In a statement published on September 28, 2026, the District Attorney said the plaintiff's 2024 sworn statement "did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped," that the 2024 decision "was legally correct," and that the plaintiff's credibility "was never in question." He said he reopened the case because "it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them." (statement)
On September 29, 2026, he told ABC News he was "not clear on exactly how" the Snapchat image was given to his office, and told CBS News that his office was never given the full transcripts of the plaintiff's interviews with Cornell University Police. (ABC News, CBS News)
New York State officials
What they have announced
- September 29, 2026: Governor Kathy Hochul calls for "outside counsel to conduct a transparent, independent review of the university's response to determine whether Cornell met every obligation to protect its students and pursue justice," and says she supports the District Attorney's decision to reopen the criminal investigation. A Cornell spokesperson says the university "shares Governor Hochul's commitment to addressing campus culture issues" and will keep working with state officials. (ABC News, The Cornell Daily Sun)
- September 29, 2026: A spokesperson for Attorney General Letitia James says the office is reviewing Cornell's response to the allegations. The office has not said what the review covers or what action, if any, it could take. (CNN)
How campus discipline and criminal prosecution differ
The university and the District Attorney were answering different questions under different rules. That is part of why the two processes can reach different results about the same events.
- The question asked
- A campus process asks whether a student violated university policy. A criminal case asks whether a person committed a crime defined in the New York Penal Law.
- Standard of proof
- Cornell's hearing panels use a "preponderance of the evidence" standard: a panel must find it "more likely than not" that the student committed the violation. A grand jury may indict when the evidence is "legally sufficient" and gives "reasonable cause to believe" the person committed the offense. A criminal conviction requires proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" of every element of the offense.
- How consent is defined
- New York's campus law, Education Law Article 129-B, requires every college to adopt an "affirmative consent" definition in its code of conduct: "a knowing, voluntary, and mutual decision among all participants." It says that, depending on the degree of intoxication, a person under the influence of alcohol or drugs "may be incapacitated and therefore unable to consent." The Penal Law defines "mentally incapacitated" more narrowly, as being incapable of appraising or controlling one's conduct because of a substance "administered to him without his consent." The District Attorney cited this definition in explaining his 2024 decision.
- Possible outcomes
- A university can impose sanctions up to expulsion, but cannot imprison anyone. For crimes of violence, New York requires colleges to note on a student's transcript that the student was "suspended after a finding of responsibility for a code of conduct violation" or "expelled after a finding of responsibility for a code of conduct violation." A criminal court can impose a sentence, including prison, but cannot expel a student.
- Why sanctions are often not made public
- The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) generally bars colleges from disclosing students' education records without consent. Cornell has cited federal privacy law in declining to say which students received which sanctions. FERPA regulations permit, but do not require, a college to disclose the final results of a disciplinary proceeding when a student is an alleged perpetrator of a crime of violence or a non-forcible sex offense and is found to have violated its rules. They do not permit disclosure of other students' names, including the victim's. Separately, New York law gives both parties the right to be told the outcome, including any sanctions, at the same time.
Sources: Cornell Policy 6.4 student procedures (August 5, 2024), sections 26.2 and 26.13, Criminal Procedure Law 190.65, Criminal Procedure Law 70.20, Education Law 6441, Education Law 6444, Penal Law 130.00, 34 CFR 99.31(a)(14), Cornell statement, September 21, 2026, District Attorney's statement, September 28, 2026