Cornell student journalists who have spent two years reporting on an alleged gang rape involving a fellow student are calling for greater accountability from Cornell University and the Tompkins County district attorney.
Sophia Dasser, editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun, and senior editor and writer Cereese Qusba said they were shocked when their coverage attracted national attention after the accuser, identified as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit.
Speaking on CNN, the students said their reporting had focused on the allegations and the case’s graphic details without “sugarcoat[ing] anything”. They said the lawsuit had brought renewed scrutiny to the story.
Dasser said their inboxes had since been filled with messages expressing solidarity with Jane Doe, alongside anger directed at Cornell.
She said students had the right to expect greater safety from university administrators, as well as access to anonymised data showing the outcomes, sanctions and punishments in reported cases.
“We are students. We have the right to demand safety from our university administrators, and we have the right to demand things like anonymized data reports of outcomes and sanctions and punishments from cases that were reported,” Dasser said.
Cornell students question sexual assault response
The student journalists also criticised Cornell’s sexual assault task force, saying its approach had treated sexual misconduct primarily as an educational issue rather than providing an effective preventative measure.
“It was extraordinarily concerning that the last we had heard on any solution from the case was a sexual assault task force that had approached sexual misconduct as an educational problem,” they said. They questioned whether people who might commit sexual misconduct would attend the workshops being proposed.
Jane Doe told police in 2024 that she was certain she had been raped. That account appears to conflict with Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten’s claim that her original statement described the sexual activity as “voluntary, conscious and consensual”.
Van Houten has since reopened the case, but no charges have been filed.
