Cornell University is suspending parties and other social events at fraternity houses for the rest of the academic year and will give the New York State Police a role in investigating sex crimes on campus, university officials announced Tuesday, amid mounting outrage over its handling of allegations that a female student was sexually assaulted at a fraternity house in 2024.
The measures announced by Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff include a suspension of all parties and social events at Interfraternity Council houses through the end of the 2026-27 academic year and a new “zero tolerance” policy for violations that would result in the immediate emergency suspension of a chapter.
“These measures will provide time for a thorough review of fraternity life at Cornell to determine whether and how it can safely continue,” Kotlikoff wrote in a letter to the campus community.
First amendment guarantees freedom of association.
And as long as you don’t dare criticize the government, the police will happily let you associate.
fair point. they can still associate, just not have the formal recognition as greek houses they tend to get in college.
or maybe just the colleges need to “allow” the rape investigations from the cops, instead of doing it themselves. that’s a start.
Cornell, like a lot of major universities, does have their own full police department, with the same powers as the city police. So there’s no difference between themselves and the cops.
Whether there’s a conflict of interest because they are university police is a separate question, and I would say yes.
yeah. learned that when i was (working) at vandy. seemed odd.
It doesn’t guarantee that association has to happen on houses near or on school property. It doesn’t mean the school has to be a partner with that association.
But what would the actual difference be if they had no institutional affiliation? Does the university own their houses and could kick them out? Aren’t these fraternities rich and could just buy another one?
Less legitimacy, less prestige, less convenience, etc.
There are multiple answers to your questions depending on what college were talking about. Sometimes the schools rent the frat houses, sometimes they are owned through alumni corporations that work with the schools.
Yeah they totally could and will buy another house off campus, and I am fine with that. They will have to deal with Municipal police instead of campus police. I am not fine with them having some of the best buildings on campus.
They also need to lose tax exemption status.