THE 2026 LAWSUIT

Before the civil lawsuit was filed, Cornell's Student Assembly placed the reported assault into the university's own public record through Resolution 17.

The resolution refers directly to the Crime Alert sent to the Cornell community on November 8, 2024. It says the alert described a Cornell undergraduate who had been sexually assaulted and coerced into consuming ketamine and other drugs in the 100 block of Edgemoor Lane in Ithaca.

The resolution was adopted by the Student Assembly and its official Cornell page lists its status as acknowledged by the president.

Less than three weeks after the November 8 Crime Alert, then- Interim President Michael Kotlikoff issued a university-wide statement addressing the reports from the Chi Phi house.

Cornell said that a number of students had been temporarily suspended and that Chi Phi remained temporarily suspended while the criminal investigation continued. The university also said its student-conduct and Title IX offices were reviewing the information that had been reported about events at the fraternity.

The statement documents Cornell's response at the time, nearly two years before Jane Doe filed the civil complaint now at the center of this site.

Cornell's official organization scorecard identifies Chi Phi's Xi chapter at 107 Edgemoor Lane and identifies the fraternity house as university-owned. The university currently lists the chapter's recognition status as Interim Suspension.

The same Cornell record preserves the chapter's earlier judicial history. In 2020, the chapter was found responsible for event management violations involving overcrowding and insufficient sober monitors. A separate 2018 proceeding involved findings related to hazing, hard liquor and providing alcohol to people under 21.

Cornell's scorecard also records a 2023 resolution involving prohibited conduct by the organization. These earlier matters are separate from the October 2024 allegations, but they are part of Cornell's own published history of the chapter.

On September 27, 2026, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten confirmed that prosecutors had reopened their review of the alleged 2024 assault at Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity house.

Van Houten told ABC News that his office is again considering whether criminal charges should be brought and intends to present the case to a Tompkins County grand jury with Jane Doe's cooperation.

The renewed investigation is also examining evidence that prosecutors say was not previously available to their office. Van Houten acknowledged that his office relied on the investigation conducted by Cornell University Police in 2024 and did not independently investigate the allegations.

He also said the fraternity group-chat evidence reproduced in the civil complaint was never provided to his office during its earlier review.

Jane Doe's attorney, Thomas Giuffra, disputes that account. Giuffra says the group-chat evidence was provided to authorities in 2024 and has criticized the lack of follow-up with Jane Doe after she reported what happened.

Four days after filing her civil lawsuit, Jane Doe spoke publicly to The Cornell Daily Sun about the impact the alleged assault has continued to have on her life.

She described what happened to her as horrific and said that, nearly two years later, she continued to carry the impact of the experience every day and night.

Jane Doe also spoke about what happened after she reported the alleged assault. She said she was deeply disappointed by the lack of support she received from the student community and described being criticized and ostracized during a time when she needed compassion, support and care.

Her public comments add her own voice to a record that had previously been documented largely through the university, law enforcement and the allegations contained in her civil complaint.

On September 21, 2026, Cornell publicly confirmed that its investigation into the alleged 2024 incident at the Chi Phi house had concluded.

Vice President for University Relations Kyle Kimball said Cornell's Office of Civil Rights and Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards investigated and adjudicated the allegations under university policies.

Cornell also confirmed that the Xi chapter of Chi Phi continues to be barred from campus.

Cornell declined to disclose disciplinary consequences involving individual students. The university cited federal student-privacy law and said it is prohibited from publicly releasing specific information about individual disciplinary responses.

Cornell stated that violations of university policy can result in sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion, but did not publicly identify what sanctions were imposed on any individual student connected to the investigation.

In March 2026, Cornell's Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault issued its final report examining sexual assault among undergraduate students and recommending changes to prevention, education, campus culture and institutional response.

Among the report's most striking findings was a major difference between women who were affiliated with Greek life and women who were not.

The task force also reported that fraternity chapter houses accounted for 17% of the locations identified for reported sexual assaults in the 2025 survey. Residence halls were the most commonly identified location at 29%, followed by off-campus residences at 23%.

In response, the task force recommended required annual in-person training on consent and sexual citizenship for prospective new members and active fraternity and sorority members.

It also recommended annual in-person, situation-based training for fraternity and sorority leaders because of the role those students play in shaping chapter culture and responding to potentially dangerous situations.

Cornell released the results of its 2025 Survey of Sexual Assault and Related Misconduct on November 4, 2025.

The university reported an increase in the percentage of respondents who said they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact since arriving at Cornell.

Cornell also reported that nearly half of respondents — 49% — said they had experienced sexual or gender-based harassment. That figure had been 45% in the university's 2023 survey.

Cornell said many students who did not seek formal help indicated that they believed what happened was not serious enough to report or address through official channels.

The university said the results would be used to guide prevention programs, support services and its broader effort to address sexual violence on campus.

One week after the reported sexual assault and drugging that led Cornell to suspend Chi Phi, the university's Interfraternity Council voted unanimously to suspend fraternity social activity for the weekend.

The Cornell Daily Sun reported that approximately 100 fraternity leaders representing all 29 IFC chapters met for several hours to discuss the Chi Phi suspension and the fraternity system's response.

In addition to the temporary suspension of social events, the IFC unanimously approved mandatory sexual-assault-prevention training for every fraternity beginning the following semester.

The response came in November 2024, while the criminal and university investigations connected to the Chi Phi report were still underway and nearly two years before Jane Doe filed her civil lawsuit.

On November 8, 2024, Cornell distributed a Crime Alert to the university community after an undergraduate student reported being sexually assaulted and coerced into consuming ketamine and other drugs.

The alert said the reported incident involved several males and occurred at a fraternity in the 100 block of Edgemoor Lane in Ithaca.

Cornell University Police had been notified by the individual that day. According to the alert, the fraternity connected to the report was placed on temporary suspension effective immediately while the investigation continued.

The initial Crime Alert did not publicly identify which fraternity had been suspended. At the time, The Cornell Daily Sun noted that the two fraternity houses on the 100 block of Edgemoor Lane were Chi Phi and Lambda Chi Alpha.

Lambda Chi Alpha's president told The Sun that the chapter had no knowledge of the situation. Cornell declined to identify the fraternity under investigation when asked by the newspaper.

Subsequent Cornell communications confirmed that Chi Phi was the fraternity that had been suspended. By November 26, Cornell publicly stated that Chi Phi remained temporarily suspended while the criminal investigation continued.