Cornell task force finds 35% of undergrad women reported nonconsensual sexual contact

DA reopens 2024 Chi Phi case for grand jury review

A Cornell University-convened task force on sexual assault found that 35% of women in undergraduate school reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact during a 2025 survey, according to United Press International. The finding emerged as the Tompkins County, N.Y., District Attorney’s Office announced Monday it is reopening its investigation into an alleged 2024 gang-rape involving members of Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity.

The accuser says she was drugged and raped by multiple members of the fraternity in 2024. She quit the university shortly after the alleged incident, and a lawsuit was filed.

District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said in a statement Monday that the case will be presented to a Tompkins County grand jury once appropriate charges have been determined. Van Houten noted that the victim’s original statement did not appear to require criminal charges to be filed, as she “described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.”

In the decision to reopen the investigation, however, Van Houten acknowledged “the reality that it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them.”

“Seeking justice sometimes requires us to reconsider or reopen cases when we are provided with additional evidence,” Van Houten wrote. “That process obviously works better when the additional information comes directly from a witness, his or her representative, or the police rather than through allegations set forth in a civil lawsuit, but getting to the truth is the goal in this case.”

Thomas Giuffra, the attorney representing the plaintiff, said none of the alleged assailants has been arrested. “Once she was emotionally ready, she went to the university police and bravely shared what had occurred to her,” Giuffra said.

Cornell previously investigated the 2024 incident and imposed punishments including expulsions and suspensions. The university also assembled the task force on sexual assault that examined sexual violence on campus and produced the 35% finding.

Last week, Kyle Kimball, Cornell’s vice president for university relations, said in a statement that the Xi chapter of Chi Phi fraternity “remains barred from our campus.”