Campus Justice? 1,200 Cases – Almost Nobody Gone

Man at podium during press conference with officials behind him — Photo: Steve Sanchez Photos / Shutterstock

Cornell University received more than 1,200 reports of sexual assault and stalking in six years but expelled or dismissed only seven students, a new data analysis shows.

Story Snapshot

Cornell logged over 1,200 reports of sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking from 2018 through 2024.
Only seven cases ended in expulsion or dismissal, while 14 led to suspension, according to the data.
A lawsuit over an alleged 2024 gang rape by Chi Phi fraternity members reveals just two expulsions among a dozen accused.
Cornell insists its Title IX process was thorough and resulted in “a range of sanctions,” but won’t release case details.
New York’s attorney general is now reviewing Cornell’s handling of the case as prosecutors reopen a criminal probe.

Elite University Buries Victims in Paperwork, Not Punishment

Cornell University, one of America’s wealthiest and most prestigious Ivy League schools, fielded more than 1,200 reports of sexual violence and stalking between 2018 and 2024. Of those, the school filed disciplinary charges in only 162 cases and found someone responsible in just 51. Expulsion or dismissal followed in a mere seven. That is not a justice system. That is a university protecting itself.

Cornell averaged roughly 29,000 students enrolled each year during that span. Yet the school suspended only two students or employees per year for sexual violence, on average. Most students found responsible walked away with probation or a training session. For families paying six-figure tuition bills to send their kids to a supposedly safe campus, these numbers should be alarming, not buried in a university data dump.

Lawsuit Over Alleged Gang Rape Exposes the Pattern

A civil lawsuit filed in New York County Court in September names Cornell and Chi Phi fraternity members over a 2024 incident the plaintiff describes as a gang rape. Her attorneys say Cornell’s monthslong Title IX process involved at least 12 hearings, yet only two of the accused were expelled. The rest reportedly received suspensions, workshops, or even essay assignments, according to multiple outlets covering the case.

Cornell disputes the claim that essays were the sole punishment for any accused student, calling that characterization false. The university says its hearing panel issued “a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions,” and that the Chi Phi fraternity’s Xi chapter was permanently closed and banned from campus. Cornell also says temporary suspensions and restrictive measures were put in place as soon as the allegations surfaced.

Chi Phi’s national leadership says its own chapter voted to kick the accused men out within three days of the victim’s police report, and the national organization later expelled them outright. That timeline raises an uncomfortable question for Cornell: if a college fraternity could act decisively within days, why did the university’s own Title IX machinery grind on for months before issuing weaker penalties?

Prosecutors and State Officials Step In Amid Growing Pressure

No criminal charges were initially filed in the case, and the local district attorney has since reopened the criminal investigation after the lawsuit was filed. New York’s attorney general has also announced a review of how Cornell handled the allegations, a sign that officials no longer trust the university to police itself. The district attorney has defended the original decision not to prosecute, citing the evidence available at the time.

Cornell leans heavily on federal student privacy law to avoid disclosing which students received which punishment, leaving the public with only partial summaries instead of full records. That secrecy is part of a broader pattern. National data shows colleges across the country expel only a small fraction of students found responsible for sexual assault, with one nationwide analysis finding universities suspended just one in every 12,400 enrolled students a year for sexual misconduct and expelled only one in 22,900. Cornell is not an outlier. It is the norm, and that should worry every parent writing a tuition check.

This is what happens when campus bureaucracies answer to lawyers and public relations teams instead of parents and law enforcement. Universities built entire parallel justice systems under Title IX rules, systems that operate behind closed doors, shielded from public scrutiny by privacy law, and seemingly designed to protect institutional reputation over student safety. Conservatives have warned for years that campus tribunals are no substitute for real courts and real consequences. Cornell’s own numbers now make that case better than any critic ever could.

Cornell had a town hall of sorts on campus tonight. In solidarity, a lot of students are calling for the president to step down.

I see a lot of my fellow alums saying, don’t just blame Cornell, it’s not only us. I think everyone knows that this is a crisis on every college…

— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) October 2, 2026

Until state attorneys general, courts, and Congress force these institutions to open their books, families will keep sending their children to campuses where a 1,200-report, seven-expulsion record passes for “due process.” That is not accountability. It is an invitation for predators to count on leniency.