Mods, can you change the title from “Cornell 7” to “Cornell Rapists”? “7” is a sensationalist euphemism and I am disappointed to see it here.
NY is just one of 19 states with the same law. If he’s walking away from colleges because of that issue, he should check the laws of the states where his other target schools are located because there’s a pretty good chance that some of them have it too.
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Since you’re a lawyer, what is your opinion about whether this case can be successfully prosecuted and gain a conviction to the standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt”?
The title already explicitly names the crime (“Rape and Greek Life…”). The phrasing “Cornell 7” refers to the specific shorthand used in reporting on the case, not a euphemism to minimize it.
Getting an unbiased jury these days is a nearly impossible task when cases like this one take on a life of their own in the court of social media. This one in particular will be difficult given the extremely biased statements already being made by the supposedly unbiased special prosecutor, James, and Governor Hochul.
I hope they did. The house pictures that I see in the media still show the Chi Phi sign out in front of the house, but those could be old. It’s possible the house is owned by Chi Phi and not Cornell.
RPI and NYU fell off my kid’s college list for unrelated reasons, before this Cornell case blew up.
I did take a look at the laws on rape in the states where he is sending applications, and those laws look okay to me. We have Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Washington, Minnesota, and Colorado on the table.
“Alleged” or “reported” and “claimed” are vastly different linguistically. Legitimate media, and educated victim advocates, would never use the term “claimed rape”. It is offensive and suggests fabrication, duplicity, and deep skepticism. AP Style Guide makes it clear it should never be used.
For more analysis and info, google “why is claimed rape an offensive phrase”?
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I have no idea. In order to even speculate I’d need to know the actual facts. But, even then I wouldn’t trust my speculation as I am not a criminal attorney and I know almost nothing about New York State law. All that said, my understanding is that prosecutors typically don’t bring rape cases they don’t strongly believe they can win. But there is nothing typical about the current posture of the Cornell case. Your guess is as good as mine on this one.
Can you say more on this?
I am also interested in understanding this point of view. I worked closely with our lawyers to develop our school’s policies, and I don’t feel this way - but I am interested in other points of view.
I’ll try but won’t do a very good job of it.
It’s more of a hunch. I don’t have any news articles or published research to quote that backs up my hunch. Just a general feeling in my gut based on anecdotal reports I’ve read over several years where the same story seems to replay itself…where the woman attacked on campus by another student reports it to the university administration or Ombudsman office or campus police and the woman gets the run around. The woman gets asked stuff like what were you wearing, what were you doing to give the guy the impression that it was ok to proceed, etc. And/or the woman isn’t even offered medical assistance or a ride to a local hospital, so the woman in her state of trauma and stress doesn’t think to ask so there isn’t a rape kit done at all.
And at the end of it all, the attacker is allowed to stay at the university while the woman is treated like the problem. Meanwhile, the university just wants it to all sort of go away so things can go back to normal like none of it happened.
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Thank you for sharing. And, I’ve seen a lot where people share that sentiment based on the experience that lots of women report.
My perspective tends to be that, while the Title IX process could be improved and does fail a lot of students, on aggregate it does make campuses safer. In the very example we are talking about, two students were expelled and a fraternity banned from campus (or whatever the technical term is). Those students would not be sexually assaulting a next set of women on that campus (granted they are not in prison, so they could perhaps assault elsewhere). That seems significant to me, even if not enough. Two students were suspended as well, presumably with the hope that the sanctions and accountability would cause them to reform their ways. And since others were expelled in the same case, that decision may have been made because the University actually believed that was the appropriate punishment for their actions compared to those of others.
And, none of those men has been convicted of a crime. If we only had criminal law, I think a lot more sexually violent people would remain on campuses.
None of that is intended to discount your perspective or suggest that you are wrong. Just sharing a different perspective where I absolutely do not see Title IX as solving the problem and people are often failed by the process, but I do think there are a fair number of times where actions as a result of Title IX do make campuses safer.
I also wonder how often we don’t hear about the situation where the rapist student is expelled and the outcome is the max punishment possible so there is nothing public about it really as nobody has an incentive to say much about it.
Maybe in these cases it was not rape. Rape would be a crime, and be prosecuted in court, and not handled by the school only.
Rape can be prosecuted in court, but most rapes are not prosecuted in court. I do not feel obligated as a member of public to only use the term rape for cases where there was a conviction in criminal court. I call OJ a murderer even though he was never convicted of such.
But your larger point is not one I disagree with, a student can be and often should be expelled for sexual misconduct other than rape.
Despite what I just said above, if the reality is that most women (or even a substantial proportion) believe that Title IX does not make them safer, then it is likely a failing system and leaders need to figure out how to do something that will work better.