On Sept. 16, a case was filed by a Jane Doe against Cornell University under the Clery Act, alleging that the university had failed to appropriately prosecute her case after she was allegedly raped two years ago by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity. Seven days after the case filing, Cornell’s undergraduate newspaper, The Cornell Sun, published an editorial titled ‘Cornell Won’t, We Will,’ which revealed the names of the seven men accused and drew attention to the college’s conduct throughout the investigation.
The university’s original investigation of the assault’s perpetrators did not result in criminal charges: two were expelled, two suspended, one barred from campus having already graduated, and two instructed to write letters of reflection and refrain from contacting the victim.
The article’s release sparked national debate over the relationship between fraternity culture and sexual violence on college campuses, with many commentators calling attention to the fact that the 57 men in the Cornell chapter of Chi Phi who were aware of the assault neither prevented nor reported the incident.
Swarthmore Reacts to Cornell
As news of the case reached Swarthmore’s campus, many students expressed their horror at the incident and frustration at Cornell’s response. Fewer, though, expressed surprise.
“It’s tragic,” said Will Fry ’30, “But I think I wasn’t shocked.”
Fry’s comments echoed sentiments shared by a number of students The Phoenix interviewed in the weeks following the news from Cornell. Many characterized the outcry the story provoked on major social media platforms as consisting primarily of “virtue signalling” — a practice that fails to address the root cause or culture behind the assault.
“I think people think that if they talk about it a little bit, it will kind of help solve the issue when [what’s needed is] really a systematic change,” Saman Zeb ’29 said.
Still, despite some frustration that conversations failed to progress toward a more structural critique, Fry reflected, “It’s people talking and, honest[ly], collectively sharing our experiences, and our family history, with these cases,” resulting in “a sense of community in the wake of the tragedy.”
Some, however, expressed discontent about the facilitation of conversations on campus and recognition by administration and campus groups of the emotional impact that recent conversations have brought up for students.
One faculty member reflected on the role of campus institutions in approaching conversations about campus sexual violence and fraternity culture. Associate Professor of Sociology Daniel Laurison ’99, who taught at the college during the fraternity dissolution in 2019, said that the college “used to have more of a culture of ‘a thing has happened in the world, let’s take the time to come together and talk about it.’”
“Recently, it’s seemed like more and more people are feeling very tentative about having hard conversations,” he said.
Some pointed to Swarthmore’s response to student organizing in recent years as a central obstacle to open discourse on campus.
Anisa Sanders ’29 noted, “obviously there’s a lot of social media outrage, but to what extent are people actually protesting and doing something for it? I think the answer is honestly not enough … that is something that schools are starting to see and that people who are trying to get away with things are starting to see.”
The History of Greek Life at Swarthmore
As the story of the Cornell 7 makes national headlines, Swarthmore finds itself similarly situated as a historic, highly selective, and academically rigorous institution, with one notable exception: since April 2019, Swarthmore has had no Greek life presence on its campus.
Still, the circumstances that ended fraternities at Swarthmore remain, to some students, underdiscussed, and the culture they brought about, not entirely dissolved.
Campus conversations about fraternities reached a tipping point during the spring semester of 2013, a period former Swarthmore President Rebecca S. Chopp famously termed the “spring of our discontent.” The intense scrutiny was fueled by a student lawsuit alleging that the college violated the Clery Act through its systemic mishandling of sexual assault cases. Sexual misconduct policies were subsequently reformed, and while a campus referendum vote kept fraternities Phi Psi and Delta Upsilon on campus, the college’s only two Greek life organizations made a public commitment to culture change.
A 2018 Ad Hoc Committee on Wellbeing, Belonging, and Social Life composed of primarily faculty and three students recommended the creation of a task force to assess Greek life and a moratorium on fraternity housing while the task force worked. Val Smith declined the moratorium but approved the task force’s investigation.
In 2019, The Phoenix released a redacted 116 page document containing Phi Psi meeting minutes from spring of 2013 and 2014. Initially shared by a former Phi Psi member, the document refers to a “rape tunnel” and “rape attic” in one fraternity house, describes hazing challenges, and depicts various graphic and intimate photos of women taken without their consent, alongside other instances of misogyny, racism, and offensive language.
After a week of student sit-ins and campus protests, the fraternities voluntarily disbanded on April 30, followed by Val Smith’s May 10 announcement of the end of all Greek life on campus. While an investigation took place after the leak, it didn’t result in the discovery of substantiating evidence sufficient to warrant policy violation charges against current students.
Despite the recency of this history, few current Swarthmore students remarked that they had heard rumors about the old frat house, but not specifics.
Sanders mentioned she was told about it by a fellow visiting high schooler during her “Admit Day” visit to campus, but had assumed the history was much older than it actually was: “Like, in the 80s. And I thought, ‘that’s crazy,’ but also ‘that’s not Swarthmore now.’”
After learning more about the history since arriving on campus as a student, Sanders reflected that “I don’t think it’s as well known as it should be, honestly.”
Swarthmore’s Party Culture Today
After more than five years without Greek life on campus, Swarthmore’s party culture has saturated other corners of campus. Though the college is known for its quieter night life relative to peer institutions, one student noted, “we talk about how there’s no party culture, but it doesn’t mean that there’s no potential to be assaulted.”
Given Swarthmore’s policies on open container drinking, some students describe alcohol pre-gaming culture as particularly intense. Many students are also said to leave campus for parties at Haverford College, the University of Pennsylvania (both which have several active fraternities), and other local schools.
Women’s soccer player Lili Simcock ’30 observes that athletes may tend toward more engagement in party culture, but added that they tend to exercise more restraint with drugs and alcohol than non-athletes due to team-wide restrictions on substance use before athletic events.
Men’s tennis team captain Hayes Gilbert ’28 drew attention to the important role captains and upperclassmen play in shaping team culture and expectations surrounding consent and respect for women: “it’s not really like, ‘you’re supposed to act this way.’ It’s more of a, ‘you’re gonna act [this way], gonna be a decent person.’”
Several students interviewed by The Phoenix shared the notion that fraternities often play the role of an organized and legitimized apparatus around which young men gather and enforce social traditions through hazing.
Gilbert described how this can often lead to a culture of “entitlement” and the creation of a toxic “hive mind.” Simcock reflected on the case writ large: “You have, [for example] maybe you have one guy out of ten who is a perpetrator. And then he makes a joke, and a few of them laugh, and the rest of them are too scared to say everything. And it creates this environment where there’s no female input ever involved frat-wise. And it is just men feeding off of each other, and it creates this environment where it is always socially acceptable to be derogatory and degrading.”
Evolving Support on Campus
Swarthmore’s current system for supporting sexual assault victims relies primarily upon the Title IX office, an administrative department that can connect students with medical and legal resources and investigate potential implementation of disciplinary action against perpetrators. Though comprehensive, some students describe the process as frustrating, and at times aimless.
While students are encouraged to report incidents to the office even if their goal is not to file a case, multiple reports against a single student may result in disciplinary action without the consent of all victims. Additionally, during formal investigations themselves, the Title IX office balances responsibilities between the victim and the perpetrator while eventually providing a report to the Dean of Students, through which ultimate punitive decisions are made.
As of spring 2027, Swarthmore’s Counseling and Psychological Services will add a new full-time position devoted to supporting survivors of sexual violence, an initiative resulting from student organizing in spring 2026. The position was petitioned by Swarthmore’s Survivors Collective, a peer-led support group formed last year for survivors of sexual harm.
