Dear Jane Doe

Maggie Miao is an Arts & Entertainment Editor for The Stuyvesant Spectator.

Prompt: How do you feel about the administrations of large organizations diminishing the impact of sexual assault within their institution? More specifically, how do you feel about the resurfacing of Jane Doe v. Cornell University, et al?

“It is very concerning that Cornell University did not take the case as seriously as they should have, and they definitely should’ve done more than just temporarily suspend the culprits. Like, what do you mean they wrote an essay as punishment?” —Iree Zheng, senior

“Administrators who downplay sexual assault to protect their school’s image should be condemned, because it teaches survivors that speaking up isn’t worth it. Cornell’s handling of this has been really terrible. They’ve been secretive about how cases get resolved, and the Jane Doe lawsuit makes it look like the school cares more about its reputation than about protecting students. A university that size and that esteemed should be setting the standard for how to treat survivors, and instead it’s making people lose trust in them.” —Emer O’Driscoll, junior

“As a young woman living in New York City, I have never felt safe walking down a street alone. I’ve done a lot of thinking about Jane Doe and Cornell’s response to what happened to her, and the main emotions I feel are anger, disgust, and fear. I feel fear because this is not the first time that sexual assault has been covered up and diminished by large institutions. I feel fear because it took a lawsuit and two years for Jane Doe to be able to tell her story and seek justice. What other horrific cases of rape have been hidden by these institutions, and how can I feel safe as a woman when it is obvious that no one in positions of power takes sexual assault seriously? It’s a scary thought, and I can’t even imagine how scary it must have been for Jane Doe to have felt so alone in this situation.” —Maggie Miao, junior

“One of the most common responses to the resurfacing of these allegations is anger, [which is] a pretty valid reaction. I sort of see it as an organization trying to do what leaves it the best reputation—kind of like how companies like Disney try to avoid covering ‘problematic’ or controversial topics in their films to try to appeal to everyone on the political spectrum. I’m not trying to compare the situations; it’s more like Cornell was prioritizing [their reputation] over actually doing the right thing, and at this point it’s probably to be expected of any large organization like Cornell. Like, a year ago, Cornell arrested pro-Palestine supporters not because they actively support Israel, but because they didn’t want to ruin their reputation to a subset of US Citizens who do support Israel. I’m happy that they are being called out on this though. The initial backlash that they might’ve been afraid of, along with any legal troubles, is tiny compared to all the backlash they’re receiving now.” —Sudipta Debnath, junior

“It’s really gross how administrations diminish sexual assault in a means to save face. It makes it seem like sexual assault is a trivial matter when it’s life-ruining to victims. The Jane Doe v. Cornell case doesn’t really suprise me since I’ve heard of many instances of sexual assault being disregarded by academic institutions. However, I’m really glad at least one case has gotten so much attention, as I hope it will get organizations to take sexual assault more seriously.” —Haley Huang, junior

“Incidents of sexual assault have become so commonplace that they’re no longer seen as a real issue, merely a fact of life. Institutions’ diminishing of acts such as rape and assault permit these transgressions to continue. I also think that the Jane Doe movement against Cornell is really important in allowing victims to maintain autonomy, and it’s empowering how many people are in support of said movement.” —Emily Kwo, junior

“It’s concerning that these institutions are more interested in protecting their reputations rather than protecting their actual students. Moreover, the treatment of Jane Doe at Cornell is nothing short of disgusting.” —Sara Mostafa, junior

“The Cornell Seven, Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris, and Scott Kretzschmar, are DISGUSTING human beings who belong in JAIL, not walking free in the world. Cornell University is responsible too: the only punishment that these seven students received were five of them writing essays and two expelled, along with no punishment given for the 57 other VILE men in that group chat. Not to mention the fact that Cornell wants to reveal Jane Doe’s identity, despite the fact that she has stated that she wants to remain anonymous to the public. And the fact that there are probably people out there DEFENDING the men that assaulted and put their hands on this woman is absolutely ridiculous and unreasonable. Overall, the Cornell Seven and Cornell University themselves are completely abhorrent people and should be ashamed of themselves for what that poor woman experienced that night for SEVEN HOURS, SEVEN HOURS of physical torture and mental trauma.” —Artemis Wu, freshman

“Obviously when something like this happens, Cornell’s first reaction is to save themselves by brushing everything under the carpet. I find Cornell’s response ingenuine, especially since this is only gaining media attraction because Jane Doe is suing. It prevents other victims from speaking up, feeling they’d only be listened to if they told the world about being raped. It feels shameful enough to tell others about sexual abuse (even though it shouldn’t), so victims would be discouraged and scared to shout from the rooftops for justice, as Cornell has made it seem necessary. Cornell and other large institutions know that the news moves so rapidly these days that they can afford to cover things up. The horrible thing is that Cornell will likely suffer no repercussions, even if the boys responsible are jailed, and will continue to host an environment where sexual violence is hushed away. Only unwavering public pushback can really stop that. If Cornell realizes that it is more “worth it” to condemn sexual violence rather than hide it, maybe they’d actually do something productive. We need to stop thinking of institutions as human beings and treat them more as unfeeling, utilitarian machines; we the public need to show Cornell that it will devastate them to have such a thing happen again.” —Shanya Tissera, junior

“The Jane Doe case has been shocking but not surprising in the least. Major schools like Cornell have public images and reputations they are quite obsessed with, which means, as private institutions, they can prioritize profit over the full protection of their student body and staff. While there are exceptions, many other schools have had similar incidents reported or not and so having this case gain so much momentum against Cornell gives me some hope. But I also hope we can go further and recognize this isn’t a Cornell or a Chi Phi problem but a larger issue we need to see larger change in.” —Violet Tran, junior

“Administrations should never be the primary recipients of information relating to sexual assault and rape. The administration of any given institution has an inherent incentive to prevent publication of these cases that could lead to damaging the institution’s reputation. The reputation of any given university directly correlates with its revenue, so why should policing of such cases fall to officers who are employees of the university themselves? The whole case is centered on a fundamental conflict of interest where protecting reputation and revenue takes precedence over basic human morals.” —Teo Woodward, junior

“There was certainly some level of diminishing by the University—they did not release a statement until the issue became too big to ignore, and there is certainly an interest to cover it up when it comes to the reputation of the university. At the same time, they also have an incentive to protect the student body and keep investigations private. If the allegations against these seven are true, which in a personal manner I believe to be so, then they should have all been expelled and charged criminally. However, cases of sexual assault are notoriously difficult to prove, especially in circumstances where alcohol and party drugs are involved in various degrees, even within a college’s own disciplinary procedures. There was definitely a coverup involved by the university to protect its reputation, but this, coupled alongside the difficulty of proving sexual assault, was responsible for the seemingly absurdly low punishment, not just because of the coverup by the school.” —Jerry Dong, sophomore

“Large administrations diminishing the impact of sexual assault makes me sick to my stomach; these giant administrations could have done so much more to actually protect their students but instead they pursue people using their First Amendment right to protest against our government and what it’s doing. Then, they proceed to punish the protesters and then defend the rapists because they value their own reputation over their own students. But the sad truth is that this incident will likely fade into obscurity in a few months, just like the Epstein files and the Disney Cruise incident. Cornell is just a prime example of an institution that thinks it’s too big to fall, and to think that the only reason why this is gaining any attention is because the internet found out makes me feel so much dread and anger on behalf of the victims that weren’t able to speak up. Either because they were too scared or the mental impact of what happened may drive them to suicide, many cases of this happening go unnoticed and makes me lose all faith I had in humanity. The amount of pure evil it takes for someone to assault someone else like that makes me so sick, and to see some people on the internet saying that the seven predators are innocent and that Jane Doe was pulling a ruse feels misogynistic.” —Raymond Zheng, senior

“It’s just gross that, one, they do so in the first place and, two, that they practically get away with it. There’s so much lack of accountability taken by these organizations in the first place, and it takes public outcry for anything to remotely get done about sexual assault—whether it’d be protecting the victim(s) or actively investigating alleged perpetrators. I feel even more grossed out about the situation surrounding the recent resurgence of the Jane Doe v. Cornell University case. I’ve seen a lot of discourse removing any sort of accountability from the men involved in the rape of Jane Doe, almost treating them as babies who do no wrong, whilst some have the audacity to blame Jane Doe for what happened and send her death threats over ruining the futures of ‘prospective young men’. Additionally, the lack of action from the other 50 members of the fraternity group is so triggering. It’s genuinely so frustrating how victims of sexual assault, especially women, get almost every piece of blame thrown at them than male perpetrators, and it’s unfortunately a rude reminder of society’s deeply embedded patriarchy. What frustrates me just as equally was the (lack of) care demonstrated by both the District Attorney [D.A.] and the Cornell admin in properly addressing what was done. The D.A. never bothered to investigate further back in 2024 and, apparently, hasn’t been doing their job either this year, seeing as Governor Kathy Hochul had to replace D.A. Matthew Van Houten with Attorney General Letitia James in overseeing the case. Furthermore, I hate how the seven men involved were only punished with an essay (seriously, a middle schooler could do that) for sexual assault. Not only does it speak to the admin’s lack of regard for the wellbeing of its students, but its inability to properly hold its students accountable for their actions. An essay is not going to undo the trauma they caused Jane Doe.” —Matthew Chen, sophomore

“It’s really disturbing that it didn’t come out earlier, but I also wonder if one of the reasons for its delayed public resurfacing was victim fear. If that’s the case, it’s sickening that we have such a passively misogynistic society that people feel scared so to speak about horrific abuse. And on the topic of misogyny, I feel like the punishments for the accused are so small for what the crime was, that it has to be a result of a really deeply ingrained lack of respect for women’s rights.” —Calista Loo, sophomore

“It shouldn’t be normalized even though it is, and institutions diminishing the significance of sexual assault or harassment on campus is something that we collectively as a society and as students should make a bigger issue. Sexual assault victims have to live with their trauma for the rest of their lives while typically, as we have seen in the Jane Doe v. Cornell case, the perpetrators don’t face many consequences.” —Jiayu Chen, sophomore

“These organizations are trying to minimize the damage done to their reputation, but I think that’s only exacerbated the issue. Now, people see instances like the Cornell case and have second thoughts on whether or not they should apply to the school, even if Cornell did it to preserve their reputation. So essentially, it’s just backfiring on them.” —Anay Shandilya, sophomore

“These are organizations that we look up to and that we rely on. The studies that determine the course of our future come from students at these institutions. It’s shocking that it took years, widespread public outrage, and 12 hearings to bring this to light, yet it fails to deliver adequate answers. Cornell didn’t ‘diminish’ the impact, they erased it. How many other silenced victims are there in Cornell? Across the nation? How are we meant to trust the institutions that value their reputation more than justice?” —Caleb Paugh, sophomore

“Administrations of large organizations diminishing the impact of sexual assault within their institutions is extremely harmful. When large institutions neglect to properly address these issues, it can contribute to the justification and continuation of systemic problems. It can also create the impression that this behavior can be overlooked, which may encourage smaller institutions or individuals to treat sexual assault less seriously. Over time, this can normalize something that should never be normalized or tolerated in society. Regarding the resurfacing of Jane Doe v. Cornell University, et al., I want to acknowledge that I do not know the full extent of the case, including every piece of evidence being presented, the legal arguments, or how New York State law may ultimately apply. Nevertheless, I think the continued research and discussion surrounding the case is very important. It brings renewed attention to sexual assault and, more importantly, to the experiences of survivors. I think people should be able to share their stories and seek accountability, even if significant time has passed since what happened to them. The resurfacing of this case shows that these experiences should not simply be forgotten or pushed aside because time has passed. I believe that continuing to research and discuss cases like this can help bring awareness to the realities survivors face and encourage institutions to take sexual assault more seriously.” —Samrina Anowari, junior

“I look upon the large organizations with great contempt, since not only is it attempting to silence the victim, but also at the same time, it is essentially setting future precedents for other cases like it in the future to be brushed under the rug and covered up. This cannot be the stance that the organizations take—they are meant to be institutions for learning. Moving specifically onto the case of Jane Doe vs Cornell, et al., I do believe that the case was grossly mishandled by the university in an attempt to protect their image. Condensing a 120-page statement into six pages as well as campus police omitting key phrases is already grounds for the university to be viewed as suspect, but adding onto that, not offering trauma experts and continuously holding her for an interview for multiple hours following a traumatic event is just further proof of horrific misconduct.” —Ethan Chen, junior

“It’s super unfair that they had to write only an essay when it’s literally illegal. It’s really surprising that such a prestigious school with such a high reputation would give such a little punishment for something that will ruin a life.” —Kaiya Stanton, sophomore

“People are making a much bigger deal about Cornell specifically than they should be: while yes, it’s shocking, especially because it’s such a prestigious school, this kind of stuff happens all the time at schools all across the country. The problem only happens when the only thing the schools do is make their students write essays. At Cornell, since some of the students have since been expelled, they’re a win in my book, but people get away with a lot less punishment a lot more often than it seems like most people think.” —Charlie Vater, junior

“It is the responsibility of large organizations to handle serious cases with appropriate repercussions, which is why I think that the case regarding Cornell University was dealt with so unjustly and poorly. The impact of sexual assault is very significant and reducing the consequences of their actions to simply writing a reflection essay reduces and diminishes the impact of the case.” —Zara Patel, junior

“It shows what goes on behind the scenes that so many people are afraid to speak up about. This is just one case of many. Also, people are making it a trend to say ‘I am Jane Doe’ when they might not actually care.” —Emily Lei Du, sophomore

“So many people are Jane Doe and have had similar experiences, but only some of them have the platforms or opportunities to speak up. Especially considering people who are more socioeconomically disadvantaged and might not have the means to sue like Jane Doe did.” —Allie Wong, sophomore