Cornell’s Chi Phi Chapter Faces Scrutiny Over Assault Accusations

The Cornell University fraternity at the center of a sexual assault inquiry was a campus fixture for more than a century before school officials banished it nearly two years ago as the accusations initially emerged.

The fraternity, Chi Phi, is now among the defendants in a lawsuit brought by a woman, identified in court records only as Jane Doe, who said she was raped repeatedly at the chapter’s house in Ithaca, N.Y. According to the lawsuit, members of the fraternity plied the woman with ketamine, marijuana, rum and beer, and assaulted her in October 2024.

Within hours, the lawsuit said, one of the men messaged others in the fraternity and invited them to join in a series of sexual assaults. The authorities did not bring criminal charges at the time, but the district attorney for the area said Monday he is reconsidering the case.

Fraternities have been a Cornell signature for virtually all of the university’s history, and about one-third of today’s undergraduate students participate in a fraternity or sorority. That is among the highest shares in the Ivy League.

Gray Fuller, a Cornell senior from St. Louis, said the university’s fraternities were often presented as a way to escape pressure. He is not in a fraternity himself.

“Cornell is really stressful and really hard, and people use the fraternity parties for cutting loose — and for taking advantage of people,” he said.