New York City students walked out of class on Thursday to demand colleges strengthen their responses to sexual assault amid public outcry over an alleged 2024 gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house.
The demonstrations were part of a day of protests on college campuses across the country in support of the former Cornell student who made the allegations, known in court documents anonymously as “Jane Doe.”
At Columbia University, dozens of students, joined by professors and advocates, protested Cornell’s response and called for reforms on their own campus. A second rally at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan was scheduled for Thursday evening.
“Jane Doe’s case is not one standalone incident,” said Marisol Bonifaz, a sophomore at Barnard College. “It is a campus rape culture that is permitted on every campus nationwide. It is a culture of ignoring survivors and diminishing their demands.”
“We demand better as students. As a woman at this college, as a survivor, I will not stand silent and watch.”
Students demanded Columbia expand resources for survivors of sexual violence on campus, and the defense and expansion of rape crisis centers as well as women’s and LGBTQ+ departments, majors, and funding amid President Trump’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The demonstrators also pressed Columbia and Barnard to remove faculty and administrators, and rename buildings that honor prominent donors associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Those allegations included a Barnard student wellness center that houses the school’s sexual violence program.
A Columbia spokesperson declined to comment on the protest because it was outside of the campus gates, and demonstrators’ affiliations with the university were unknown. Still, the school said its campus-based sexual violence response program was one of the “most comprehensive” in New York, with a crisis center certified by the Department of Health and trained advocates available at all times.
Close to 13,000 Columbia students go through Title IX training against sexual misconduct every year, the spokesperson added.
However, Jennifer Hirsch, a Columbia public health professor whose research focused on sexual assault and undergraduate student well-being, said there should be more effective sex education on college campuses.
“This is not a problem we can punish our way out of,” Hirsch said. “We need prevention, so that there are fewer Jane Does next year and the year after that.”
“Zero rapes were ever prevented by clicking through a PowerPoint,” she added on the Title IX trainings.
Doe sued Cornell and seven fraternity members and Chi Phi last month, alleging the men plied her with ketamine and alcohol and sexually assaulted her on campus over several hours, while school administrators failed to protect her.
The men faced a range of disciplinary action, from reflection papers to suspensions and expulsions, The New York Times reported. One of the students who graduated from Cornell during the investigation was reportedly barred from campus.
Doe dropped out of Cornell and has not returned to college, her lawyer has said.
“As a student at an Ivy League institution in the state of New York, I felt very closely tied to what was going on at Cornell, and felt scared for myself and angry at Columbia’s past actions for survivors,” said Addie Turek, a sophomore at Barnard. “It definitely wasn’t surprising, the same thing has happened at Columbia a number of times. However, it’s the first time I’ve been a college student since something like this has happened, and so it really hit me hard.”
Turek, who is from Wisconsin, home to a high-profile abortion debate, said she got involved in organizing after Roe v. Wade was overturned. She sees her advocacy for survivor justice as an offshoot of her support for reproductive justice.
“The administration and our federal government too likes to make us seem like the crazy ones, and like we are doing something wrong. But to see everybody out today, and to see a whole national day of action come together, has really fueled me with more energy to continue fighting.”