How Cornell Student Journalists Uncovered a Campus Sexual Assault That Almost Went Unnoticed

▲ Cornell University

Behind the emergence of a collective sexual assault allegation at Cornell University, a prestigious Ivy League institution in the United States, is the relentless tracking and reporting by the university's student journalists that prevented the case from being buried.

According to The New York Times (NYT) on September 30 (local time),

The Cornell Daily Sun

, the student newspaper of Cornell University, has maintained its focus and led reporting on the case from the time the allegations first surfaced on campus in 2024 until recently.

The long journey to find the truth dates back to November 2024.

At the time, Cornell students were shocked to receive a campus safety alert sent via email regarding a sexual violence crime.

The alert was related to an incident where a woman reported to Cornell police that she had been sexually assaulted at a fraternity house.

Outrage swept across the campus, and students threw eggs at the building of the fraternity named by the woman, Chi Phi.

The university formed a sexual assault task force, which developed a series of recommendations to educate students on the concept of sexual consent and the procedures for reporting sexual violence.

Afterward, much of the campus's attention shifted to other matters.

However, Ciriaco Cusa, a senior and then-reporter for

The Cornell Daily Sun

, could not shake off her concerns and questions about the case.

Cusa reached out to "Jane Doe," the anonymous victim of the incident, and built a relationship with her attorney.

She also interviewed university administrators regarding the disciplinary issues of the students accused of the assault.

Having steadily gathered information, Cusa made an international phone call from Australia, where she was studying abroad, earlier this year when 20-year-old Sophia Laforteza took over as the new editor-in-chief, expressing her desire to report on the case.

Editor-in-Chief Laforteza emphasized, "The Sun never gave up on this story."

On September 14, when the victim filed a lawsuit against the university and seven individuals identified as perpetrators, Cusa compiled her reporting to publish a detailed article tracking the events of the night of the incident.

The newspaper decided to take a step further and disclose the real names of the perpetrators involved in the incident.

Although the presumption of innocence applies to the accused, the editorial team judged that, unlike the university leadership's tendency to hush the matter up, there was a need to transparently inform campus members about the incident.

Consequently, the real names of those identified as perpetrators have been made public on

The Cornell Daily Sun

and social media platforms.

One Korean student with the last name Lee was also included in the list.

Editor-in-Chief Laforteza stated, "Our most important duty is accountability. Whether it is something many people do not want to hear or something many people do want to hear, we have a duty to report on it."

Following the victim's raising of the issue, the student newspaper's persistent investigative reporting, and subsequent renewed coverage by major U.S. mainstream media outlets, local prosecutors have reopened the related investigation.

The victim, who was 20 years old at the time of the incident, subsequently dropped out of school.

The victim's attorney argued that out of the seven men identified as perpetrators, only two were expelled, while the others received light disciplinary measures such as suspension or writing an essay.

The national headquarters of Chi Phi, the fraternity to which the male students belonged, stated that the Cornell chapter expelled the individuals shortly after the victim reported the sexual assault to authorities in 2024.

In a statement, the Chi Phi national headquarters said, "Chi Phi has taken action within our own authority to expel members suspected of having betrayed the values of our brotherhood. They failed to meet the standards we set, and we will always hold them accountable for behavior that falls short of those standards."

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)

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