Warning: This story contains distressing details and discussion of sexual assault. When Mary was a first-year college student, she woke up after a fraternity party with bruises and bite marks all over her body. She says it took her a few days to piece together that she had been sexually assaulted while "blacked out", and to find the strength - and the right avenue - to report the assault.
The man she accused was eventually expelled, but police declined to bring charges because they said there was a lack of physical evidence. Mary - whose name has been changed to protect her identity - says the process of finding some measure of justice was oftentimes confusing and disappointing. "Even though it was a positive outcome, it was still so emotionally exhausting and draining, because I had to do all of this in tandem with getting used to being a college student for the first time," said Mary.
"In many ways, I had to be my own advocate, gathering all my evidence." The experience with local police, she added, "left me with a deep sense of disappointment in the system". How both universities and the criminal justice system respond to these types of assaults on college campuses is once again under the spotlight, after a former student at Cornell University filed a civil lawsuit alleging she was raped by several members of a fraternity two years ago, with prosecutors declining at the time to pursue a case. What we know about Cornell rape investigation Mary did not attend Cornell, and her case is not connected with the university.
But advocates for survivors of sexual assault say her case, and the Cornell allegations, are emblematic of the larger challenges in responding to sexual assault claims on college campuses specifically. The confusing web of systems and policies - which varies greatly by college - is one of several reasons why the vast majority of sexual assaults on college campuses, research suggests, go unreported. "These processes are hard to navigate if you aren't in trauma," said Nancy Chi Cantalupo, an associate professor of law at Wayne State University who has represented victims on college campuses.
"If you are in trauma, they're virtually impossible to navigate." Earlier this month, the former Cornell student known only as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against the Ivy League university, alleging she was drugged and raped by several men at a fraternity house at the university in 2024. She also alleged that Cornell failed to protect her or adequately punish the men involved. Jane Doe said she had reported the alleged assault to campus police, who interviewed her, and provided information to the district attorney's office.
The prosecutor declined to bring charges at the time, but this week, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten re-opened the case. Both Cornell and Van Houten have defended their handling of the 2024 case. In a statement, external, the university said it had "conducted an extensive investigation and adjudication over several months and imposed different sanctions based on the findings and circumstances involving each student" in addition to creating a new framework for addressing sexual assault on campus.
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