Under the Trump administration’s new Title IX rules, a student who reports being assaulted at an off-campus fraternity house may find that her school has no obligation to investigate at all. And if it does, she could face cross-examination by a representative of the men she accused, be held to a higher standard of proof, and wait indefinitely, with no deadline, for a decision.
Cornell’s handling of Jane Doe’s case shows how badly universities already fail survivors; the new rules give them even more room to do so.
But students are fighting back. As protests roil college campuses nationwide over the Cornell case, a growing number are going further, demanding an end to fraternities and other all-male groups like secret societies and the “eating clubs” of the Ivy League. Others are calling for the abolition of Greek life altogether.
At Cornell itself, where the university’s president has suspended fraternity social events for the rest of the academic year, abolition isn’t students’ top demand. Instead, they are demanding that the university revoke the degrees of the Cornell 7; enforce minimum sanctions for sexual assault; bring in external investigators and independent hearing officers; and require sexual assault prevention training for students and campus police.
As the Cornell students seem to recognize, abolishing fraternities alone may not make campuses safer. Research suggests that banning fraternities doesn’t so much reduce campus sexual assault as relocate it, pushing high-risk parties into off-campus apartments, athletic team houses and dorms. That’s because the forces driving sexual assault, including a culture of binge drinking and broader misogynist norms, don’t disappear when the fraternity houses do.
What does work? The strongest evidence points to bystander intervention training. A four-year study of three public university campuses found lower rates of unwanted sexual victimization, sexual harassment and stalking at the campus using the Green Dot bystander program than at comparison campuses without it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends pairing such training with a comprehensive, campus-wide strategy, including reforming high-risk social environments through alcohol oversight and amnesty policies that let students report assaults without fear of being punished for drinking. Universities must also hold themselves accountable, with transparent, trauma-informed Title IX reporting systems, independent advocates for survivors and regular campus climate surveys to track progress.