--- title: "At Cornell’s Day Hall, a Smashed Door and a Crowd Demanding the President Resign" description: "Two years after the alleged gang rape at Chi Phi, students marched on the building where Cornell is run and handed over their demands" author: "Jan Sokol" published: 2026-10-05T21:50:59Z modified: 2026-10-06T02:16:24Z url: https://rews.cc/a/two-years-after-a-night-at-chi-phi-ithaca-protests-the-lenie-3d393d language: en tags: ["crime", "rape", "fraternity", "campus", "protests", "us"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # At Cornell’s Day Hall, a Smashed Door and a Crowd Demanding the President Resign *Two years after the alleged gang rape at Chi Phi, students marched on the building where Cornell is run and handed over their demands* By Jan Sokol · October 5, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/two-years-after-a-night-at-chi-phi-ithaca-protests-the-lenie-3d393d ## In brief - Early on Oct. 5, masked people smashed a glass door at Cornell’s Day Hall and spray-painted slogans on its walls - A former student, Jane Doe, is suing Cornell, seven ex-students and Chi Phi over an alleged October 2024 gang rape - Lawyers for two accused men deny assault; some accused told investigators the sex was consensual; no charges filed - A large rally demanded President Michael Kotlikoff resign, along with expulsions and an overhaul of student discipline - Gov. Hochul gave the criminal probe to Attorney General Letitia James and called for an independent review of Cornell Day Hall is where Cornell University keeps its authority. The president and the senior administrators have their offices there, according to The Cornell Daily Sun. At 2:37 on Monday morning, October 5, \[the Sun reported\](\), at least three people dressed in black and wearing face masks broke the glass of its front entrance. Al Jazeera reported shards scattered across the floor. On the walls either side of the doors someone had written in red paint: “SMASH THE PATRIARCHY.” And: “AT CORNELL RAPISTS ARE PROTECTED PROTESTORS ARE EXPELLED.” They painted over the security camera above one of the messages as well. By later that day the graffiti had been removed and the door boarded up, the Associated Press reported. A university can fit plywood in a few hours. The question painted on its walls has taken two years and is still open. ## A room upstairs The question concerns a night in October 2024 at the Chi Phi fraternity house in Ithaca. A former Cornell student, named in court filings as Jane Doe, says in a civil lawsuit that she was pressured into drinking and taking drugs, was drugged with ketamine, and was so badly impaired that she was forced to submit to sex with multiple men. The suit describes her condition as “vague consciousness.” According to the account CBC reported, men performed sexual acts on her without consent, used drugs off her body or stood watching. She says she was also hit. The lawsuit includes messages from a group chat. At 1:42 a.m. on October 20, CBC reported, fraternity members told others what was happening, and one message offered “free” sex in a room upstairs. Later a member asked, “Shop still open?” The reply was “Yea.” The assault reportedly went on until about 6 a.m. “I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a totally debilitating place to be in,” she told Cornell investigators last year, according to records reviewed by the AP. She developed a urinary tract infection and sought medical care, CBC reported, and then went to the campus police. In November 2024 she told them she “can say with 100% confidence I was raped.” Shortly before that she had recorded a phone call with one of the men she accuses. ABC News broadcast parts of it on Monday, playing only what it said was his voice. According to the network, she told him: “What y’all did would be classified as gang rape.” ABC said she had given the recording to the university. The men deny it. Lawyers for two of the former students deny that their clients took part in any sexual assault, and court records show that some of the accused told Cornell investigators the sexual activity was consensual. The AP was unable to reach the others. No one has been criminally charged. ## Statements and procedures On Monday the crowd spilled beyond the large plaza in front of the student centre. Students, faculty and others wore purple ribbons and carried signs reading “support survivors, expel rapists” and “Justice 4 every Jane Doe.” Others watched from the paths, from windows and from a nearby hill, the AP reported. > “Too often, we are met with silence, we are met with statements, we are met with procedures, but not enough support. How much does it take for our university to stand with survivors?” That was the student Athena Holloway, addressing the crowd. Julia Chang, a professor of Hispanic studies, drew applause when she said: “Rape should not be inevitable.” Another student, Madeline Gage, said the case had shown that “for all the strong feelings about sexual assault, .... we do not do enough to prevent it, nor to support survivors after it happens.” Speakers accused the fraternities, the trustees and President Michael Kotlikoff of putting the university’s reputation ahead of students’ safety. Chanting “Kotlikoff, resign!”, the marchers went to the damaged building with a list of demands. They want a new definition of sexual consent in the student code of conduct, an overhaul of student discipline, and expulsion or the revocation of degrees for everyone involved in the alleged assault. According to the Sun, they also asked for the Interfraternity Council system to be abolished and for a “democratic disciplinary system” to replace the conduct office. Al Jazeera reported that student groups want an end to Greek life altogether. The crowd broke up chanting “ban the frats!” The people who came in the night explained themselves in writing. They wanted Day Hall unable to “continue business as usual,” the Sun reported, and they wrote: “Property damage is not violent; condoning rape is.” Cornell spokesperson Kyle Kimball said the university was investigating and that “damaging property is not the answer” to the community’s “frustration and strong emotions.” ## The file reopens According to CBC, the case had seemed forgotten until the lawsuit was filed in late September. Cornell had investigated, and so had the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office. The university shut down the Chi Phi chapter and says it expelled some of the students and suspended others. Last week it objected to what it called the “false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case.” Governor Kathy Hochul does not accept that. She has said Jane Doe was “failed by people and institutions,” among them the Cornell police and District Attorney Matthew Van Houten. Van Houten had reopened a criminal investigation, and days later Hochul [gave the case to the state attorney general](https://rews.cc/a/new-documents-deepen-scrutiny-of-the-cornell-rape-case-as-ne-4622d8). According to \[CNY Central\](\), she cited a newly reported 120-page transcript of Jane Doe’s 2024 interview with campus police. Letitia James called it “an active criminal investigation” and said it is expected to take months, \[CBS New York reported\](\). Van Houten backed the handover and wrote that “we were not provided the full picture by the University.” Hochul has also called for an independent review of how Cornell handled the matter. On Saturday, two days before the glass broke, Kotlikoff released a video apology. He said Jane Doe’s account “raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use,” repeated his support for the independent review and promised greater transparency and a commitment to “finding the answers our community deserves.” Students had spent two years being sent to forms, offices and hearings. On Monday the demand came to the building where the president works and found its front door boarded over. ## Sources - [Cornell student groups protest handling of alleged frat-house gang rape](https://cbc.ca/news/world/livestory/cornell-sexual-assault-rape-7-protest-lawsuit-9.7369710) — cbc.ca - ['Smash the patriarchy': Activists graffiti Cornell hall over gang rape case](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/5/smash-the-patriarchy-activists-graffiti-cornell-hall-over-gang-rape-case) — aljazeera.com - [A crowd of students protests Cornell's response to gang rape complaint](https://yahoo.com/news/us/articles/cornell-building-sprayed-graffiti-blasting-164720772.html) — yahoo.com