The Cornell Lawsuit and What It Means For Student Journalism

Just two years after former Stuyvesant students Sophia Dasser (‘24) and Rayen Zhou (‘25) made an impact on Stuyvesant—Dasser on The Spectator, Zhou on the Student Union—they found themselves at the center of a national, front-page news story following their ground-breaking reporting on Cornell University’s fraternity rape allegations. 

On September 16, 2026, a female student at Cornell University, anonymously referred to as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit against the university, the university’s Chi Phi fraternity, and seven members of the fraternity who she alleged gang-raped her in 2024.Just one week after Doe filed the civil lawsuit, Cornell’s newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, published an editorial written by Dasser, Zhou, Sophia Romanov Imber, and Zara Cheek, titled “Cornell Won’t, We Will” as well as a news piece by Cereese Qusba. The editorial called out the university for failing to protect its students and properly address sexual assault on its campus. It also made the decision not to censor the names of the seven men being accused of gang rape, particularly in light of the fact that they were already made public by the recently published lawsuit. Their editorial was met with a national outpour of support and praise for the student journalists involved and their decision to take action, sparking an uptick in interest in The Sun and raising awareness for the power of student journalism.

In interviews with The Spectator, The Sun’s Editor-in Chief Sophia Dasser and Opinions Editor Rayen Zhou emphasized that the two-year process to create and publish the investigation was complicated to execute legally and morally while preserving journalistic integrity. Despite being independent from Cornell, The Sun decided to consult a lawyer before publishing the names of the seven defendants named in the lawsuit. They knew that the move could spark public backlash—representative of a broader issue that student newspapers deal with of having to juggle their loyalties with their journalistic interests. On one hand, journalistic integrity invokes a duty to report on all matters pertaining to student safety, however controversial they may be. On the other hand, they, as student journalists, had reason to be wary of potential punishment by the school and the fallout that comes with covering sensitive topics. The Sun’s recent work both exemplifies this challenge and demonstrates how student newspapers across the world should seek to address it. 

For every article in The Sun, factuality came first. Zhou stated that, “I make sure to cite, even over-cite, sources so that our readers can see the primary documents where we get our facts from for themselves.” Because minor misconceptions can alter the meaning of the entire story, hearsay—regardless of if many people believe it—cannot be the source of any article. The Sun did not treat this as if it was trivial, spending two years gathering factual information on the case. The Sun strives to maintain a consistently high standard of reporting for every article, with Dasser commenting that “You never know what piece is sensitive. [W]e've probably published a ton of sensitive style pieces in the last semester, and they had nowhere near the outrage that this created. So you have to treat every single piece with the [highest] level of journalistic integrity that you possibly can, independent of whether you think it's sensitive or not.” 

Even in light of their careful work, the decision to publish the names of the seven men accused in the lawsuit caused The Sun to receive major backlash. Zhou and other members of the editorial board have had their personal profiles and information spread on social media platforms without their consent, with some posts garnering tens of thousands of interactions. The backlash has extended beyond online discussion, with editors receiving hate mail from anonymous individuals. Dasser expressed that “journalism is really scary. You're doing something that a lot of people don't have the courage to do," focusing on the fact that “Jane Doe had the courage to come to us, had the courage to file her suit,” and that “we have the responsibility to do this.” 

On a larger scale, The Sun’s editorial highlights the importance of youth-led journalism. The work of The Sun proved that student writers, who are uniquely positioned to speak out on institutional issues and spark national conversations, merit the attentive ear of their audiences. “Student newspapers play a crucial role in shaping a responsible and informed student body, and are among the most local manifestations of a free press that serves as a civil watchdog to hold those in power accountable and as a forum for public debate,” pointed out Zhou. Dasser emphasized that this advantage was not limited to The Sun: “high school journalism is just [as] important as college-level journalism, which is just [...] as important as these national outlets,” adding that “you understand your community more than anyone else will.” High school and college newspapers have a unique position in their communities as not only a source of information for student bodies, but as a representative for their communities at large.

However, for many high school journalists, structural boundaries and administrative oversight can make it difficult to balance crucial coverage and fear of backlash. Brooklyn Technical High School’s official student newspaper, The Survey, published an Editor’s Note both standing by the writers at The Sun and reflecting on student frustration with their own journalistic restrictions. 

For high school newspapers, editorial independence is inseparable from financial autonomy. A paper’s ability to hold its institution accountable depends heavily on whether or not it can sustain its operations without relying on the approval of those it covers. The Spectator learned this in 1998, when the Stuyvesant administration shut it down amid disputes over former principal Jinx Perullo’s handling of teacher vacancies. Perulo pressured The Spectator’s staff to adopt a coercive charter that would have essentially censored the very perspectives and voices that the paper existed to represent. 

Zhou and Dasser’s flexibility at The Sun is greatly due to the financial independence of the paper, allowing the editorial board to publish controversial pieces that administrators might object to. While high school publications may not have the same resources or endowment of a collegiate newsroom, they can, nonetheless, work towards financial and administrative independence. Internal initiatives and diligent outreach are the start. Building a dependable team to diversify revenue streams across multiple advertisers, sponsors, alumni, parents, and grants is key to a paper’s true liberty. Creating an alumni association or a greater nonprofit organization that can exist away from school jurisdiction (e.g. by accepting tax-deductible gifts on the paper’s behalf) is one way to do so. Online platforms or archives that keep alumni connected to a paper’s mission is another.

Funding, however, does not substitute legal protection. No student reporter should have to weigh the possibility of suspension, or the paper’s dissolution, against publishing a thoroughly-reported story, and no publication should have to depend on the goodwill of individual administrators to maintain its journalistic liberty. The Student Press Law Center offers free legal guidance and resources for responding to censorship, while the New Voices campaign advocates for state laws protecting student journalists from arbitrary administrative interference. In New York, the Student Journalist Free Speech Act remained an active legislative effort in the 2025-2026 session, but neither its Senate nor Assembly bill received a hearing or a vote before the Legislature adjourned, emphasizing the importance of student editors building their own systems of checks and balances in the meantime. 

For aspiring journalists who fear that speaking honestly could cost them their entire publication, the takeaway is not just to “be brave.” As said by Zhou, “[I]mpactful reporting doesn't just happen out of the blue. It takes grit, integrity, and an ounce of courage to keep restlessly pursuing the story.” Build the institutional backing that makes courage sustainable, document instances of administrative interference or infringement, know every right, seek legal counsel early, and most importantly, build a tight community of readers, alumni, and sponsors invested in the paper’s success. Staying true to the mission of journalism as a whole is equally important. Accurate reporting and strong principles are a top priority for any respectable newspaper. For Dasser, for instance, “the focus was the Jane Doe incident, the fact that the assault happened, and the fact that we just need to report on it, and whether it was The Sun that reported on it, or The Spectator, or The Ithaca Voice, or The New York Times, was irrelevant to us as long as it was reported.”

Zhou added, “I know that [The Sun's] coverage won't cease, and I hope that holds true for the countless other student journalists and newspapers across the country reporting and opining on the stories that hit closest to their communities.” The Spectator commends The Cornell Daily Sun for its courageous and outspoken advocacy, and hopes to uphold the same degree of journalistic integrity.