Cornell University has suspended all fraternity parties and social events for the rest of the academic year over sexual assault allegations no prosecutor has taken to court — punishing every member of every male social organization for the unconvicted acts of individuals.
This is collective punishment replacing individual due process, and it sets a precedent that should alarm every American who believes you don't punish the innocent for what the accused might have done.
Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff announced the measures Tuesday, citing mounting outrage over the university's handling of allegations that a female student was sexually assaulted at a fraternity house in 2024. The suspension covers all Interfraternity Council houses through the end of the 2026-27 academic year. A new "zero tolerance" policy will trigger immediate emergency suspension of any chapter that violates the ban.
"These measures will provide time for a thorough review of fraternity life at Cornell to determine whether and how it can safely continue," Kotlikoff wrote to the campus community.
Safely continue — as if male association itself is the danger.
Here is what actually happened with the 2024 case, according to the Associated Press: Campus police investigated the gang rape allegations and presented their initial findings to the Tompkins County district attorney. That DA declined to prosecute within weeks of the woman's first report. New York's governor then removed the district attorney from the case this month after a public outcry over the lack of charges.
So the criminal justice system didn't produce charges — and Cornell's response is to punish every fraternity member on campus. Not the individuals accused. Not the chapter where the alleged assault occurred. Every single one.
Kotlikoff also committed to adding a case manager to the school's Office of Civil Rights and to bringing in New York State Police investigators — who are independent of Cornell — to investigate allegations currently handled by Cornell University Police. The Boston Herald noted that campus police operate independently from municipal police in Ithaca and have full law enforcement powers but are controlled by the university.
If Cornell's campus police failed, or the DA failed, the answer is accountability for those failures — not a blanket ban on every fraternity's right to assemble. The same university that once gag-ordered an innocent Marine now decides that due process is too inconvenient when the pressure gets loud enough.
The question isn't whether sexual assault is serious. It is. The question is whether a university can suspend the rights of the innocent because prosecutors couldn't make a case — and whether anyone in academic leadership has the courage to say that's wrong.
