The governing body took up the issue after a former student alleged she was sexually assaulted and forced to take drugs at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
It does not recommend removals or suggest how to manage the controversy’s fallout. It passed by a vote of 75-50, with five abstentions and five members not voting, according to a copy of the results obtained by NBC News.
I don’t know enough about how university governing works to know if this is the most they can do. Like, yeah, great. Get rid of the fraternities.
“Greek life” organizations don’t need recognition of educational institutions, and institutions elsewhere in the world don’t recognize them.
Without recognition, they become unaffiliated associations (like the moonies) outside the purview of the educational institution. Alleged crimes and misconduct outside the educational institution are matters entirely for authorities unrelated to the institution.
So youre saying the actual cops would have responded to Jane does gang rape instead of the “cops, but like we work for Cornell first and ignore a gang rape victim telling us she was gang raped when we write up the summation doc for the DA” cops? Ithaca cops that would have arrested the rapists, and then told the school, who could have then done their own academic action regardless of the frat or not? Sounds like a win to me.
Frats being under a schools purview doesn’t matter at all, because all of their members are already under the schools authority. The school can sanction or discipline anyone it wants any time already, regardless of the offending action happened in a “official” frat or not.
All that accepting frats does is make them part of the college institution, which gives them legitimatcy and protection from actual consequences, as institutions always defend themselves. Cornell is a perfect example. The Cornell cops, part of the institution that protects Cornell, mislead a vulnerable gang rape victim, to protect the Cornell frats and Cornell’s overall reputation. It worked, and those multiple rapists got away with their rape for years.
Baning frats is the least Cornell can do. Disbanding its incompetent cops is 2nd on my list. Firing its worthless execs is 3rd.
But if they get rid of the fraternities, they’d have to find other ways to get cult-like donors and the worlds cheapest sex trafficking cabals
