One can always flag just a single post, not wipe out an entire thread.

I think that the thread could have been axed by females (I am not going to assume men). There is a certain stripe of women who, IMO, can easily fall in line with an uncouth male status quo — blaming other women for behavior that conventional, conservative men might blame them for. We’ve all met people who prefer to have others think and reason for them.

It disappeared for me as well. I can’t connect to the link you posted foodonastump….. 🤷‍♀️ strange

Same here…. still fuming

Annie D., I was paying attention to it. I saw nothing objectionable to mature, sane adults; nor anything in violation of forum guidelines. Why not ask E. that it be restored.

Why let anonymous bullies flag away our rights to reasonable, fair exchanges? I find that cowardly bullying offensive.

I tried the link and just got a totally blank page.

I suspect that certain posters here were bent out of shape when a comment was made that suggested the present administration had virtually legitimised such behaviour on the part of men when the people elected a certain politician who had openly bragged about sexually assaulting women (remember the good old days when a politician who had even a consenting relationship with someone not his wife would get him hounded out of office?).

I've been away too and was surpised it was gone. I have my suspicions. When our orange leader brags about grabbing women by the ...., has many extramarital relationships, and a rape conviction where he lost the appeal and is paying millions to E. Jean Carroll, his cult might find fault with the young woman.

Elmer - I didn’t see, or don’t recall, the comment you’re referring to so I can’t say if it would have offended me, but I suspect it wouldn’t. Many attitudes and behaviors are passed down generationally; if we take credit for the fruits of good parenting then we have to consider failures when our children fail. If my son were part of this incident in any capacity I’d absolutely be analyzing where I failed as a parent.

Of course blaming fathers is only one part of the equation. But I’m curious how that poster (I honestly don’t know who it was) feels about women making the choice to raise children outside of a traditional family structure, without a father. Single moms, dual moms, etc.

In the same vein as @Still trailing 's video, this woman is a Cornell grad from 1987, with a story to tell of an incident when she was a student and with current info obtained from women attending Cornell about the dangers they face. There is also a current story circulating about a rape at another college right now with an outrageous outcome, but I can't seem to find it again. I thought it was Mississippi or Missouri, but google is failing me. I'll post if I find it. https://www.facebook.com/reel/914072041553338

Seriously Monicas, blue dress had America accepting this behavior in politicians. Ladies be thankful you are in the USA. Be ready, if the DSA has their way this will only get worse for women.

No. An affair between 2 consenting adults is not the same as a woman being drugged and gang r@ped for 7 hours. The fact that there's *anyone* who can't tell the difference is a big part of the problem.

When we were looking for a nursing home for my MIL, one of the issues we talked about was the use of restraints on the patients should they become violent. I asked about drugs and was informed that drugs are also considered a form of restraint. So whether with drugs or with physical restraints, a woman cannot consent when she is restrained.

In case anyone is interested, there is a petition https://www.change.org/p/remove-cornell-president-kotlikoff-cornell-failed-a-survivor for the removal of Cornell's pres. The one who created it said this: "I started this petition because I'm angry. Women are half the population. And we're still being told men's futures matter more than our lives. That's unacceptable. If you're angry too, please sign."

Why and how is it that a student who is a victim of violent crime (or any crime) goes to the University police (who work for and are biased towards the University) and not the local police? That agency may be called “police” but it is not an even handed entity.

In this situation, they interviewed this young traumatized woman for hours, took voluminous notes, then edited, pared down the documented testimony (filtered through their bias) and omitted critical information before turning this incomplete and misleading narrative over to the incompetent, lethargic DA.

Letitia James has just been appointed (by the NY gov) as a Special Prosecutor.

Good!

But I’m curious how that poster (I honestly don’t know who it was) feels about women making the choice to raise children outside of a traditional family structure, without a father. Single moms, dual moms, etc.

I never saw the thread at all, but whoever said that should be ashamed if the implication was that, once again, it is somehow the fault of that single mother/women. I am disgusted. Also, it is not always a choice to raise children "outside of a traditional family structure without a father." Whether it is a choice or not though, I am still disgusted.

ETA: I was a single parent for almost all of my son's life. He grew up to be a magnificent man and father who would never have done something like the horror experienced by the woman. That would not have happened had I stayed with his father "in a traditional family structure..."

@cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA) - I think this might be getting misconstrued. As I understand it, someone blamed the fathers for this and that’s what Elmer took offense to. I just took it one step further and said if someone is going to make fathers responsible for boys’ behaviors, how would they feel about raising a boy without a father figure.

I tried to access the link...404...means it's been removed. Too bad. It was a good discussion.

I still think women's rights are far behind "the times".

I am glad there has been a special counsel appointed. This thing is a mess and it needs to be handled by an independent 3rd party.

I am a Cornell alum and worked as a staff member there for many years. I have a great deal of professional respect for the majority of the administration involved in this. I am not a huge fan of the current President, but he couldn't pick me out of a line up. I know the rest of them quite well.

I have zero first hand knowledge of any of this current horrific situation. Nor have I asked my colleagues about it, as I have more ethics than that and more personal respect for them to put them in that kind of situation either.

I did have a conversation with a NY attorney who has no connection to any of this either, but he has read the court documents currently available, the DA's press release, that sort of thing. New York apparently has some unusual voluntary intoxication law as it relates to these circumstances, which again I am not going to pretend I understand the nuances of, because I am not an attorney. The TL;DR is that he understands why the DA chose to not pursue criminal charges based on her original sworn statement.

What I am struggling to reconcile is the mob mentality that some people are running wild with. Social media fuels it. My Facebook feed is overrun with stories about it, most of which when I take the time to read them contain what look like mistakes or mistatements of facts...to me. Stories are written to inflame, because again, the more clicks, the happier social media is.

One poor guy just happens to have the same name as one of the defendents - and he/his family are getting death threats.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/new-york-man-was-mistakenly-identified-as-member-of-cornell-7/ar-AA2dmfg0?ocid=socialshare

Offices at Cornell which have no role in this in any way are also getting threats, random people wearing Cornell apparel are getting harrassed in the streets.

Our court system is still working. If Cornell messed this up, they will pay dearly - as they should.

As a woman, I too have my "me too" story and so one part of me totally gets this.

We live in such trying times and it feels like this is the perfect storm in a way. We're tired of people in positions of power getting away with things (I am being deliberately vague here, in an attempt to not get this thread pulled), and it can feel cathartic to vent our rage. I guess I'm just saying to remember there are always 3 sides to every story, and in the process of venting our rage can we please slow down a little bit and make sure we're directing it towards the people who can do something about it.

I'm sitting on the fringe of this one, and the mob mentality of it all is....wild.

@Ally De - I aopreciate you being in wait and see mode with regards to thr handling of the case. The part that I want to understand is how we got from a woman wishing to report a crime to a sworn statement that it was consensual. And how even if all the DA got was the sworn statement, how they wouldn’t be asking that same question. Some way somehow conclusions were made, and that’s what we need to understand.

I really hesitate to get into a back and forth dialogue about my take on this case, because again, the reality is none of us here have all the facts.

Years ago, I was personally involved in a situation which blew up in the press. Thankfully not even remotely as horrific as this current situation, which is orders of magnitude beyond anything I have ever personally/professionally seen in my life.

I learned many valuable life lessons at that time. People being interviewed for news stories are not under oath, and the situation I was involved in had the plaintiff making statements to the press which were...well, straight-up lies.

Anyone who has ever dealt with a current/pending legal matter knows darn well most smart companies are not going to argue a case in the press. But plaintiff's comments have the desired impact - it inflammed the situation, and cast the defendant as the evil villian. In the end, the plaintiff lost - but there is no great recourse for the people who got painted as practically Satan himself in the press, because the press tends to use the words "alleged" a lot, and they're just reporting what people who will talk to them say, you know?

Anyway, my very limited understanding is that apparently there was initial consent, then somewhere along the way her ability to consent was impaired by more drugs and more men. People who aren't attorneys are thinking that her further impaired state is so obvious that this makes this some sort of slam dunk rape case. However given NY's voluntary intoxication law, the NY attorney I know/trust said he understood why a prosecutor would think it is not a winnable criminal case.

I jusy read a summary of the voluntary intoxication law and see where it can be a very problemstic hurdle for s prosecutor. Thanks for sharing.

However given NY's voluntary intoxication law, the NY attorney I know/trust said he understood why a prosecutor would think it is not a winnable criminal case.

I heard an explanation of this, this past week, too. I think there's that part of it.

In terms of the "mob mentality" of social media, this is, of course, due to algorithms. But I think the story resonates with so many women who experienced SA. The group text to 57 young men... the fact that the alleged assaults occurred over a 7-hour period... the follow-up texts of shame, humiliatio, dismissal. The case is very triggering to those who've been victims in the past without having justice.

Well if this case causes the legislature to plug that voluntary intoxication hole, then this case can accomplish even more than just bringing justice to this one woman. I don't care if I chose to drink to the point of intoxication...that is *not* an invitation to be SAed.

It appears it’s not an obscure law, 19 states have some form of it. While it sounds awful if it keeps a SA case from being prosecuted, it sounds less than cut and dried to me. Can we really not enjoy consensual relations after having s drink? 2? 3? Buzzed? Where do we draw the line? Where are we no longer responsible for our actions? Would it apply to drunk driving?

edit - I see Gov Hochul is calling on the legislature to tighten up this law. Good.

" In case anyone is interested, there is a petition ........................ for the removal of Cornell's pres.

Cornell is a hybrid institution - part of it gets state support (I think a vestige of the old Land Grant program) but most of it is a private university.

I don't believe this comment I quoted comes from a person who lives in NY State.

How is this particular sentiment the business of the general public? Why would anyone think they have the right to tell a private institution what to do?

Why would anyone think they have the right to tell a private institution what to do? Morality.

Too many people think they have the right to tell others what to do, to poke their noses into other peoples' business or problems, no matter what underpinning or "right" they imagine they have.

Thinking doesn't make it so.

Cornell like other private organizations that are similar or indeed in different fields of activity have constituencies. The current population of students and staff, alums, supporters, and the like. Those are the voices that are listened to. Not the general public unaffiliated and uninvolved with the school.

Pretending it's otherwise may make some feel good but petitions and other comments from non-stakeholders are wasted efforts.

Laws may have been broken and a reopening of an investigation is a good step. It's the right of government agencies to enforce laws, this is something entirely different.

Can’t one petition a private organization and leave it up to the organization to ignore or deal with it? Their choice? It might make good business/reputation sense.

Already answered.

Okay then. So a petition is probably a good idea. I hope it makes a difference.and isn’t a wasted effort. It’s worth a try.

You seem to have misunderstood my comments. No problem.

Oh sorry, Elmer.

I thought you were saying that a petition was a wasted effort and wouldn’t carry much weight. My mistake.

I would submit that a big part of a university leadership’s accountabilitu to its “constituency” is to retain or raise its reputation and public perception. I disagree that something like this could and should only be dealt with within the vacuum of the institution itself.

What I am struggling with is that we have roughly 30,000 employees at Cornell. ~29,950 of them have absolutely no involvement in this - no role in the decision making. They're the front line staff/doctors providing world class medicine to people from all over the world at Weill Cornell Medicine, or the wonderful people providing similar world class medicine to animals at Cornell University Hospital for Animals, or the Legal Aid Clinic at the Law School, providing free legal services to low income people. I could go on, but you get my drift. Yelling at any of those people about how much you think Cornell s&cks is not a good use of time.

There are people posting the photos, and home addresses of various Cornell administrators in public forums/social media, encouraging people to show up at their homes and "make them pay." Some of those people would not have even had any role in this. That doesn't matter - it's shocking to me how many people want mob justice done, right now.

People in various administrative offices are being inundated with absolutely foul phone and email messages. I can guarantee you that yelling at the poor administrative assistants stuck answering the phones these days is absolutely not a productive endeavor.

A whole lot of people have lost their ever-loving minds, and a whole lot of other people think it's somehow deserved, or at least understandable/ok. This is not ok behavior.

Ally De, in your opinion, do you think a formal petition sent to the decision makers at Cornell would help?

One petition would take the pressure off of the employees.

Rox, in all honesty, no, I don't think any petition will amount to a hill of beans right now. But if it makes you feel better to sign one, have at it. At least you're not screaming obscenities at a 54 year old grandmother who is just answering the phones, you know?!

We need to let the civil case play out, and the now reopened criminal case play out. Whatever mistakes Cornell made will become apparent over time.

The Board of Trustees oversees the President and the rest of the university. Anyone who thinks they aren't on top of this and privvy to facts that the rest of us don't have is delusional, and anyone who thinks they won't do everything in their power to ensure it never happens again is also delusional. Trust me, anyone at Cornell right now is ACUTELY aware large numbers of people across the world think we suck.

Thanks, Ally.

I’m not a petition signer very often.

I just thought that a formal petition could take some pressure off of the employees. Help them out, at least. Stop the mob. Funnel the outrage.

I have no doubt Cornell is aware of the situation.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cornell-university-sexual-assault-hockey-canada-9.7364019

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_Canada_sexual_assault_scandal

Canada had a similar case recently.

excerpts

”In the 2025 Hockey Canada sexual assault trial, five former World Junior hockey players were charged with sexually assaulting a woman, known as E.M. due to a publication ban, in a hotel room in June 2018. One of the men sent a text message to the team inviting them to come to his room to "be in a 3-way quick."

“All of the so-called "Hockey Canada 5" were found not guilty. The NHL reinstated them. One was recently signed by the Edmonton Oilers.”

It is such a horrible problem....for women everywhere, you know? Wasn't it the Merchant Marines here in the US who got hit with a lawsuit recently? The US Naval Academy had a similar scandal. And social media is just teeming with stories from women who are sharing stories and feel justice ignored them (or worse).

And none of that is even touching the big elephant in our current worlds, which we can't discuss here or this thread will disappear again.

Which is why I said parts of me understand why this has ignited the way it has. I am THRILLED that it's fostering some really good conversations and it may actually generate some useful changes. It is certainly putting a NY law that no one seems to like under the spotlight and it sounds like that may actually get fixed. All good things.

"...and anyone who thinks they won't do everything in their power to ensure it never happens again is also delusional."

I disagree (and I'm not delusional) in that Cornell, which is required by law to do so, reported 1,200 cases of sexual violence and assaults between 2018 and 2024. This case is only now coming to light 2 years later, and only with the help of women who have doggedly pursued reporting on it. And if you look at Olychick's link above, it refers to a similar incident in 1987... so not much has changed in the last 40 years. Why would anything change now? Oh maybe temporarily, but the 'old boy network' has always reasserted itself over time and I see no reason it won't again.

As for petitions, I sign them extremely infrequently because they’re rarely presented with an honest, factually complete picture of what they’re about.

@Ally De I think you make some really good points about why we should let this one play out. I think we can be disgusted at the fraternity kids at face value but the rest we just don’t know enough about yet. Obviously you’re part of the Cornell community and I wish you and yours well.

Flag this if you must, not the thread please. Concern from the top for these men.

https://x.com/hqnewsnow/status/2106118805353107457?s=46&t=tLCc9EFCHn8rkfWzK85IIg

Twice

Anyone interested can listen to NY Times podcast called The Daily.

They discuss the case quite thoroughly after reading and examining almost 1200 pages of texts, interviews and testimony.

It really helped me understand the current situation.

I don’t think things have changed much if any in the last 40-50 yrs. I do wonder if there were less sexual assaults on campus when girls stayed in dormitories and there were house mothers enforcing rules and curfews.

I think most people agree the people mostly commiting the types of crimes we have been discussing are boys. Maybe boys need to have the equivalent of house mothers in fraternities or dorms, who dont let them drink in their room, supervise house parties , choose buddues who help them make good decisions and dont leave them alone for over 7 hours so they can abuse someone.

We need a change in culture, reports are younger people are drinking less and partying less, so maybe the culture is changing a little,

Can we encouage change by treating young men who are 18, 19, 20 as maybe trem as

boys who need supervision to keep themselves and others safe.

I am not naive, I know people have always been assaulted and this will not prevent all SA, but maybe it will help change the culture and prevent many.

They are not "boys". The vast majority are 18 or older and of majority age...can get married, sign contracts, go to war... Calling them such minimizes their responsiblity and accountability which rests entirely on them.

And eventually run for top job.

Another ring is added to the circus. Sigh.

Food - as you know, he and Tish go way back. I should have guessed this was coming.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when I was young, it was pretty much expected that at 16 or so, most young people would be getting jobs, paying their parents board money, and generally behaving as adults, and for the most part, they did.

Then it was announced that brains don’t mature until about age 25, and thinking changed to expect young people to behave immaturely until that age, and so they do.

IME young people generally live up to our expectations. If we set the bar low, that’s what we get.

colleenoz

You remind me of an article I read years ago about a family who was working at home while caring for another's child. The child pitched in and did what others in the family were doing, did it well and didn't complain. The child was 6. The family was living in Africa in an agrarian community. It was what was expected of children and they lived up to it. No complaints, no whining, but being a contributing member to the family, even at that young age.

Very different from here....especially these days.

I saw part of a student council meeting held about this in the last day or two and women spoke up about their rape experiences at Cornell, a year ago, two years ago...I don't know if this is worse than at other colleges but am sure it's not an isolated problem.

Another woman reporting on 2 incidents at Cornell from 30 year ago:

https://x.com/MAGACult2/status/2106010679593554179?s=20

And this:

The other case in the news that I posted about above, is a woman who was raped by a football player at LSU...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/lsu-student-says-university-protected-033231418.html

And in the news...

One of the seven men accused by a Cornell student of sexual assault sued the university in March seeking to overturn the punishment given to him after a school administrative investigation and expunge references to the assault allegation from his academic record, according to court records unsealed in Tompkins County Supreme Court, N.Y., this week

gift article no paywall:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/nyregion/cornell-accused-man-punishment-appeal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F1E.8E02.ckqvspzp6Hgg&smid=url-share

"...seeking to overturn the punishment given to him..."

What'd they do? Rip up the essay??? 🙄