Zendrah Bonnick, Assistant News Editor
On Sept. 18, the Cornell University Newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun,, published a story by Cereese Qusba on what is now known as the “Cornell Seven” Case. The article covers a lawsuit and accusation of gang rape made by the plaintiff, referred to as Jane Doe, who was 20 at the time. The lawsuit named seven Chi-Phi members: Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar. The lawsuit names the seven fraternity members as defendants; the fraternity had 57 members total, who were a part of the Snapchat group chat that invited the members to participate in the alleged gang rape in 2024.
On Oct. 1, New York Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz and Sentor Nathalia Fernandez brought co-sponsored bills that, according to the New York State Senate, “Prohibits the use of intoxication of the victim as a defense in sex crimes,” which was permitted by what’s commonly referred to as the “Voluntary Intoxication Loophole”.
The “Voluntary Intoxication Loophole” has been subject to criticism by sexual assault survivors in the past. The “Voluntary Intoxication Loophole” refers to a legal defense related to the intoxication of victims and, if they consent to intoxication, the loophole challenges the level of the victim’s inebriation and incapacitation, shifting focus away from the lack of consent itself.
According to the article by the Daily Sun, the seven men listed were required to write essays to receive reduced consequences.
“The defendants were offered the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to the University, according to the lawsuit,” the Cornell Daily Sun states.
As the news of the Cornell Seven case began to spread, the horror and familiarity of many, the nature of rape culture, and the protection of rapists by institutions and individuals have been largely discussed throughout the country.
RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, has stated statistics on the occurrence of reported rapes related to college parties and colleges.
“In a 2018 paper on college party culture, law enforcement agencies documented one reported rape every 20 days for victims aged 17-24. These college-age victims accounted for about one-third of all rapes reported to law enforcement.”
In relation to women’s health, the National Office on Women Health states, “One in five women in college experiences sexual assault,” the website states, last updated in 2025.
Contrary to this, reported rapes are believed to be under reported by universities. Corey Rayburn Yung, a University of Kansas law professor spoke to CBS about the discrepancies between school reports and student reporting statistics. told CBS, “Schools view sexual violence as a public relations problem.”
“The numbers just don’t seem to match with the survey data and even the criminal reporting data in similar jurisdictions… This is indicative … [that] schools are not telling us the full story of reporting and giving an impression that the campuses just don’t have nearly the degree of sexual violence that they likely do,” Yung told CBS.
Rape and other forms of sexual abuse are a global crisis. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is a widespread crisis for women and girls.
“Violence against women – particularly intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence – is a major public health and gender equality problem and a violation of women’s human rights… about 1 in 3 (31.6%) of women worldwide (840 million women and girls) have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual IPV or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime,” the WHO website states.
Due to the prevalence of sexual assault in college institutions, a discussion emerged about sexual violence, misconduct and rape culture, with many other cases of sexual abuse and rape in higher education coming to public attention. A common sentiment being that, while rape culture became a more a more widely discussed within the U.S., following the MeToo Movement in 2017, the nation and its higher education institutions have never truly rectified or reckoned with these issues within itself.
Many pointed to the nation’s own leadership as being representative of a widespread national apathy towards the prevalence of sexual assault and rape. President Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll in 2023 before he was reelected in 2024.
Famously prior to the now president’s first term in 2016, a video resurfaced of President Trump.
“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” President Donald Trump said.
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”
“Grab them by the p—y,” the president elaborated.
Upon the Cornell Seven case beginning assigned a special prosecutor Letitia James, the U.S. president stated,
“She’s [James] totally corrupt… I feel badly for whoever [the defendants] she is looking at because they won’t get a fair shake,” the president stated.
In 2022, James brought a case against the current president, alleging he had committed financial fraud.
Rape and sexual assault are often perpetrated by people the victim already knows, approximately 80% are perpetrated by someone with an existing relationship to the victim. It is not uncommon for a victim of assault to not be aware or certain, or even deny that they have been raped or assaulted. For many, it takes years for them to understand they were a victim of rape. Resources for rape survivors can be found at RAINN, The National Sexual Violence Resource Center, contact the NYPD Sex Crimes Report Line: 212-267-7273.
For specific resources at Manhattan University community members can seek counseling counselingcenter@manhattan.edu or (718) 862-7394. The university Title IX department is a non-confidential resource and can be found at Memorial Hall 101, or file a report to the department.