A lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court alleges that seven members of the Cornell University chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity drugged a 20-year-old student with ketamine and gang-raped her in October 2024. The suit claims that during the assault, fraternity members exchanged Snapchat messages within a group titled "Chi Phi Actives," one of which read, "Free p--y," allegedly inviting others to join in the assault.
The plaintiff, who is no longer enrolled at Cornell, claims in the 101-page lawsuit that the incident began after she went out with sorority sisters and later met one of the defendants at the fraternity house. When she declined an offer of a threesome, she was allegedly pressured to ingest ketamine for the first time, along with marijuana and rum. According to the suit, multiple fraternity members then engaged in sexual acts with her without consent.
The lawsuit further alleges that after one defendant left, another entered, and fraternity members poured ketamine onto the victim's body and snorted it. One defendant allegedly instructed the student to snort ketamine directly from his erect penis. The assault reportedly continued until 5:45 a.m.
Following the alleged attack, the incident was reported to campus and Ithaca police. The fraternity and the seven accused students were temporarily suspended. The lawsuit states that Cornell University offered the accused students an opportunity to "mitigate their conduct by submitting essays."
Cornell University issued a statement at the time of the initial report to police, stating, "The behavior that has been outlined in the many allegations received is abhorrent and cannot be tolerated within our community." The university declined to comment on the current lawsuit, including whether the accused students submitted essays or faced further disciplinary action. The Tompkins County District Attorney's office informed The Post that a criminal investigation into the accusations did not result in charges against the seven men.
The lawsuit contends that Cornell "created an environment where sexual assault and rape of persons such as Plaintiff would be tolerated" and failed to adequately discipline the students. The plaintiff claims that her experience with Greek life at Cornell, which the university actively promotes, was a "glorified – yet materially false and misleading façade."
The Chi Phi fraternity house is reportedly still shuttered. While many of the accused students have deleted their professional networking profiles, some appear to have continued their studies at Cornell. The university has a history of addressing issues within its Greek life system, including a temporary ban on all fraternity parties in 2022 after four women reported being drugged and raped in fraternity houses.