'Smash the patriarchy': Cornell activists wreck Day Hall over alleged fraternity gang rape

ITHACA, New York — At about 3 a.m. on Monday, anonymous activists smashed the glass doors of Day Hall, the building that houses Cornell University's president's office, and painted its walls in red: "SMASH THE PATRIARCHY" and "AT CORNELL RAPISTS ARE PROTECTED PROTESTORS ARE EXPELLED." The campus security camera above one message was painted over. University police arrived around 3:50 a.m. to find shards of glass across the entryway. The target was deliberate. Day Hall is the administrative heart of the Ivy League university — and the action, the activists wrote in a statement to the student newspaper The Cornell Daily Sun, was meant "to ensure that Day Hall was not able to continue business as usual." The fury follows a civil lawsuit filed on September 16 by a former student, identified only as Jane Doe, who alleges she was gang-raped on October 19, 2024, by seven members of Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity. Her complaint says she was pressured to drink and take the drug ketamine at a fraternity party, became fully incapacitated, and was assaulted while helpless — one man, the suit claims, messaged others inviting them to take part. The lawsuit names the seven then-students, Cornell University, and the fraternity itself. All seven denied the allegations during the university's internal investigation; lawyers for two of them have publicly rejected the claims. The case has become a national firestorm over how elite campuses handle sexual violence. As the sun set on October 5, hundreds of students, professors and others filled a campus plaza — many wearing purple ribbons, carrying signs reading "We want sentences, not essays" and "How many more?", chanting "No justice, no peace" and yelling "shame" at mentions of the administration's record. Their demands are sweeping: an overhaul of the university's sexual-assault complaint process, trauma-informed training for campus police, the removal of named officials, the abolition of the Interfraternity Council system, and the expulsion — or revocation of degrees — of every Chi Phi member involved. "We reject the dogma that would condemn our actions this morning as violent while excusing rape," the activists wrote. "Property damage is not violent; condoning rape is." Cornell president Michael Kotlikoff has called the allegations "deeply disturbing." Former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi withdrew from an October 15 campus event over the case. Governor Kathy Hochul removed the local district attorney from the matter and installed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor; Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used an Ithaca town hall to accuse the seven men of drugging and assaulting the woman for hours. A university spokesperson said Cornell is investigating the vandalism: "Those concerns deserve to be heard, but damaging property is not the answer." By Monday afternoon the paint had been washed off and the door boarded up — but the question the activists sprayed on the wall has not gone away: who does the institution protect?