I never claimed that it was an intentional loophole. I was however pointing out that what seems “reasonable policy” (your words) at a point in time can change.
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A friend was over yesterday and her son is now sleep deprived and losing weight because he is pledging and has to get up early to clean brothers’ rooms/ apartments and he is required to give them his additional dining swipes. While they may not be intentionally sleep depriving or starving him, they are conditioning him to not say no. In other words, they are training him to be their ■■■■■ and he’s paying for the opportunity.
Saying no is one of the most important skills a person can develop and hazing is a way to make sure it’s not practiced. When you wonder how things like the Cornell 7 happen, this is how. The point of hazing , even when it’s “harmless” is to teach pledges not to say no.
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The article about hazing at Dartmouth I linked to somewhere above talks about this too - getting conformity etc. Sadly it seems that too often, part of that conformity /engendering “brotherhood” involves objectifying women, which then adds to a potentially toxic culture where things like this happen.
And things like:
Hill says access to sex is also marketed as a perk of joining a fraternity—alongside career prospects, parties, brotherhood, and catered snacks at events. “‘You’ll have women,’” he says he was told. “It’s sold to you the same way your job gives you health insurance,” as a benefit, Hill explains.
Greek culture on campus seeps beyond the fraternity-house walls. Dartmouth creative writing professor and famed nonfiction author Jeff Sharlet says he’s watched male students in the Greek system learn to “scoff and smirk when women speak,” their fraternity rituals deliberately designed to degrade women. While Animal House may feel like a relic from another era, and despite decades of progress for women’s rights, sexual violence remains a part of campus life. Every few weeks, Sharlet says students arrive at his office in tears to share stories of sexual assault. The peer pressure to stay silent is intense, he says, with a common refrain: You don’t want to ruin the guy’s life.
(Note that the article focused on hazing and its dangers - the above paragraphs are just “by the ways”…)
“A New York City College Student Died After Being Drugged and Raped in Her Dorm, Prosecutors Say”, Fashion Institute of Technology (U.S. News, 10/15/2026)
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It’s scary and sad.
On a separate note, it’s also scary how callous kids are with drugs, especially fentanyl which people know kills.
I’m glad they caught all these guys.
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I have been following along the thread, as hard as it is, with a bit of a pit in my stomach. Since the Stanford swimming days, post-Me Too, now almost 10 years ago, how are we still here? Or I guess how are we back here again. But one thing jumped out at me as really relevant to this community:
The conduct reflected in the text messages, the drugs, extremely poor judgment at best, criminal conduct at worst, party culture (which leads to bad decisions by both men and women) … is this something colleges in “Holistic” review should be trying to identify and stamp out via admissions?
Or is this something schools know come along with this age population? I just don’t want to believe I guess that any and all 18-22 year olds can be “tempted” or through peer pressure or Frat culture or sports culture coerced into these situations. I can’t and won’t believe the (mostly) boys who engage in sexual assault at these tippy top schools (Cornell, UChicago, Stanford etc) were normal good kids otherwise, except for the rape-y thing, so then couldn’t that bad behavior have been identified during holistic review?
I have no answers, I am just genuinely wondering if a school is “committed” to none of these drug and alcohol fueled terrible and sometimes criminal situations happening, should that be somehow looked for and screened for in admissions and if so, how? ETA: Maybe a question for a new or different thread…
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High school students are under much closer supervision of their parents and schools than residential college students are, so any who may be inclined to misbehave are more likely to be deterred or limited in their ability to do so while in high school. So they will still have clean records while in high school through the first day of residential college.
As evidenced by many examples, inclination to misbehave (whether sexual misconduct or something else) does not preclude high end achievement in something that is looked at favorably (academics, athletics, etc.), so even the most selective colleges will not screen out all potential miscreants through their admission processes.
One of the accused 7 is the grandson of a former prime minister of South Korea, son of an investment bank managing director, and “attended the ultra-posh $150,000-a-year United World College of the Atlantic, a boarding school in Wales.” [1]
As I linked in a prior post, a former Cornell sorority girl said girls will hush rape allegations to maintain access to these high-value boys. Despite all the “progress” for women, many are still social climbers above all else. This analysis of dating app data, for example, shows only 20% of high-earning women (> $250k) would accept a mate that earns less. [2] This desire doesn’t disappear by banning frats.
So all these girls are only going to Ivy League colleges to be social climbers, based on some random sorority girl’s statement? Good grief, the misogyny here is real. No wonder the Jane Does of this world find it so hard to report assault.
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Gee, one might wonder if “Dating app” users are somehow different from the non-dating app users. But I guess logical thinking goes out the window when there’s a juicy “statistic” to analyze…
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This may be partly explained by the phenomenon of men feeling (and acting) emasculated when their female mate earns more than they do. Not all men of course 
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Look at the ethics and behavior of some Ivy League alumni who went on to become politicians, business leaders and judges. There are lots of examples of not good people. When privilege combines with power, entitlement, and lack of accountability, many lack the morals to do the right thing.
In today’s news, Jane Doe’s attorneys apparently didn’t do their due diligence in filing the civil lawsuit. This is a mistake that should not have happened.
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While we realize this is a sensitive topic, please remember that personal attacks are not permitted. We appreciate your understanding and respectful dialogue.
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“UA fraternity under investigation for sexual assault at Sigma Phi Epsilon house” (University of Arizona,The Daily Wildcat, 10/17/2026)
Has the pursuit of “harm reduction” strategies when dealing with drug and alcohol offenses removed any real consequences for students? What does it take short of drug trafficking to get expelled these days? I think we had a three strike rule for under age drinking. 3rd strike you were gone, at least for the semester. Did this help for those who needed treatment, probably not but it made people think twice about doing stupid stuff. Getting kicked out was a real threat.
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What are the general policies? It’s been referred to before that there was a drug arrest the day before the Jane Doe incident, that the college knew about it and let the party go on anyway even though their Greek life policy allowed for it to be suspended.
Nearly 22 hours before a former Cornell student alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted at the Chi Phi fraternity house, the Cornell University Police Department made a drug-related arrest at the same house and referred an individual to the Office of Student Conduct, according to CUPD’s Daily Crime Log. ..
Because CUPD is a University department rather than an outside agency, records show that Cornell was aware of drug use at the Chi Phi house. The University did not place the fraternity on an interim suspension before it hosted a second registered party later that day, during which the alleged assault occurred.
From the link to the policy above:
Should any viola3ons, at events or other ac3vi3es, pose health and safety risks (including but not limited to facilita3ng, allowing, or requiring underage alcohol consump3on, insufficient event monitoring/controls, or failure to complete the event no3fica3on form for an on- or off-campus event where alcohol is present), the chapter may be immediately placed on interim suspension, with all chapter ac3vi3es ceased pending the outcome of an organiza3onal conduct proceeding.
(Sorry for the formatting with 3 instead of ti, It’s copy and paste from the pdf)
This is just one incident but certainly seems that there was no implication of serious consequences. I agree that it would probably make a difference.
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Potentially more financial repercussions:
"Tompkins County lawmakers have directed County Attorney Maury Josephson to examine whether Cornell-owned fraternity properties should continue qualifying for property tax exemptions.
The review will consider the legal basis for the exemptions, which properties qualify and whether their current uses affect their eligibility."
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Alcohol Use in College: Facts and Statistics | BestColleges indicates that college student drinking has gone down over the years. Whether or not that is due to changes in strategies regarding college student drinking is not necessarily easy to figure out.
It’s gone down, but it’s still very high:
Since 1980, the annual prevalence of alcohol use among college students has decreased by nearly 15 percentage points (from 90.5% to 76.7%).However, between 2015 and 2020, alcohol use among college students has stayed more consistent, ranging between 74.6% to 79%.
If you mean your previous post in the thread, she didn’t mention “high-value boys”. She was instead talking about the “sorority’s standing” within the Greek system. She mentions pressure to not report being roofied at a frat party out of a belief that reporting would hurt the sorority’s reputation, which I presume includes things like her sorority no longer being invited to frat events. In any case, I expect the quote was selected for print because it would get views/clicks in the news story, not because it is a good representation of Cornell students.
That’s not what the reference link stated. When surveyed about their “ideal partner’s” earnings the vast majority of women of all income levels, said their “ideal partner” would earn more than they do. There is a difference between “ideal partner” and unable to accept anyone who earns less than themselves. I also wouldn’t assume this result indicates women are “social climbers above all else.” There are many other possible contributing factors, including avoiding relationship challenges due to be intimidated about partner’s earnings. I’m sure there are also many other things women value in their partners besides just earnings. Such surveys also show that women often have a much longer “check list” of desirable qualities in their ideal partner than men do. In any case, I certainly wouldn’t assume this is a key contributing factor to sexual assault on college campuses.
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