Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling for an independent review of Cornell University’s response to a former student’s sexual assault allegations, while Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is urging Congress to take up campus safety legislation. Their interventions follow the reopening of a Tompkins County criminal investigation into the October 2024 incident at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house.
In a statement Tuesday, Hochul said outside counsel should examine whether Cornell met its obligations to protect students and pursue justice. She called for a transparent review but did not announce that one had been commissioned, identify who would lead it or specify when it would begin.
The case, widely called the “Cornell Seven” case, is also the subject of a civil lawsuit filed this month by a former student identified as Jane Doe. She alleges that seven former students drugged and sexually assaulted her at the fraternity house. The allegations have not been proved in court, and no criminal charges have been announced. The men and other defendants named in the suit can contest its claims.
What Hochul wants examined
Hochul backed Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten’s decision to reopen the criminal review and said the lawsuit raises questions about Cornell’s campus culture and the way it prevents and responds to sexual violence. Her call for outside counsel concerns the university’s handling of the case; it is not a finding that Cornell violated the law or its policies.
Cornell says its police department investigated the 2024 report and referred the matter to prosecutors. The university also says its separate Title IX process included a hearing at which Doe and the accused students could present evidence. Cornell has said some students were expelled or suspended, and Chi Phi was closed in 2024. Those campus actions are separate from a criminal prosecution or the pending civil suit.
The Ithaca Police Department has said it was not notified of the 2024 allegations. That leaves a public question about how the university, its police department and outside agencies coordinated, even as Cornell maintains its police followed the applicable protocol. In a message to students Tuesday, the university also pointed to its campus sexual assault task force and work to implement its recommendations.
Gillibrand seeks a federal response
Gillibrand called the lawsuit’s allegations “serious and horrific” in remarks released by her office. She urged Congress to hold hearings and vote on the bipartisan Campus Accountability and Safety Act, which she has sponsored with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. She said the bill would strengthen college accountability, provide people reporting sexual violence access to advocates and establish a fair process for students involved in campus investigations.
Gillibrand also argued that the first person interviewing a student who reports an assault should be trained in trauma and in how to ask questions. She spoke about investigative practice generally, not a finding that any particular Cornell or Tompkins County investigator mishandled this case. No hearing or vote on the bill has been announced.
In Albany, state lawmakers have renewed attention to proposals addressing consent and intoxication. Senate Bill S10632, sponsored by Sen. Nathalia Fernandez, would permit sex-crime charges in certain circumstances when a person became unable to appraise or control their conduct after voluntarily consuming an intoxicant, if the accused knew or reasonably should have known of that condition. Senate Bill S866, sponsored by Sen. Jamaal Bailey, would redefine “physically helpless” around an inability to communicate affirmative consent. Both passed the Senate this year and remained in an Assembly committee as of Wednesday. Neither is law, and neither would decide the facts of the Cornell case.
Why prosecutors reopened the case
Van Houten said in a Sept. 28 statement that his office declined charges in November 2024 after reviewing a six-page statement Doe gave Cornell police. According to the prosecutor, that statement described drug use and sexual activity as voluntary, a materially different account from the allegations in the later civil complaint. Doe’s attorney has disputed that characterization. Her original statement has not been released in full, so the public cannot independently compare the two accounts.
The district attorney said he has reopened the investigation, assigned a senior prosecutor and is preparing to present the matter to a grand jury. That process could include Doe’s testimony and new evidence, but a presentation does not guarantee an indictment. The civil lawsuit can proceed independently regardless of whether criminal charges result.
Reporting by CNY Central describes unease among some Cornell students about campus police and the university’s response. The comments are individual accounts, not evidence that the lawsuit’s allegations have been established. Cornell has defended its procedures and says it remains committed to supporting students and addressing sexual violence.
A separate 2025 Cornell survey adds context about the broader campus climate, not evidence about Doe’s case. Fifteen percent of respondents said they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact since coming to Cornell, up from 11% in the 2023 survey. Among undergraduate women who responded, the share was 35%, up from 23%. Only 23% of respondents who reported such contact said they had contacted a formal resource.
Cornell cautioned against treating those estimates as a precise measure of all students’ experiences: 926 of 6,000 sampled students responded, a 15% participation rate compared with 36% in 2023, and many did not answer key demographic or incident questions. The survey cannot corroborate or refute the allegations in the lawsuit.
For now, the unanswered questions are whether an outside review of Cornell will actually be commissioned, what evidence the grand jury will consider and whether lawmakers will advance either the federal or state proposals. None of those steps has been resolved by the public statements made this week.
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