'It's not just a Cornell problem': Students speak out about sexual assault

ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST: #IAmJaneDoe is a new campaign that is surging on social media. Around the country, women are posting videos standing in solidarity with Jane Doe, who filed a sexual assault lawsuit last month against Cornell University and seven men. NPR's Ava Berger has been following this reaction. She joins us now. And a warning, this story is about sexual assault. Hi, Ava.

AVA BERGER, BYLINE: Hi, Elissa.

NADWORNY: So let's start with the basics. Jane Doe says the men gang raped her in a fraternity house near Cornell's campus. What do we know about the case?

BERGER: Yeah, so Elissa, as you know, this case is everywhere. It's in social media. It's in the headlines. It's in group chats. And it's moving really rapidly, so we keep getting more details. But here's what we know so far. Last month, an anonymous woman identified as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit saying she was brutally gang raped in 2024 at a fraternity house near Cornell's campus. Local prosecutors said at the time they were not filing criminal charges. That revelation in particular has led to outrage online.

And the criminal case was then reopened at the end of September. On Thursday, New York governor Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor on the case.

NADWORNY: You said there's been outrage. What has that looked like?

BERGER: It's been on social media, in campus newspapers. Remember, this started at the - Cornell's campus newspaper. And a lot of it is coming from women who are current or former college students who are sharing their stories of sexual assault on campus.

And there's a sentiment I've heard again and again, Elissa - it's not just a Cornell problem. The Editorial Board at the University of Pennsylvania published a recent piece titled "Penn Has A Cornell Problem, Too." And this #IAmJaneDoe movement you were talking about - it's women banding together online to stand by the woman in the Cornell case. It's kind of like the #MeToo movement.

NADWORNY: What else are you hearing?

BERGER: So another part of this conversation is the difficulty survivors face when reporting sexual assault. I talked to Mia Soviero. She graduated from Barnard College in 2024.

MIA SOVIERO: I was sexually assaulted in my junior year of college, and I chose not to report it.

BERGER: She's now an independent researcher, and she studies the neuroscience of trauma and why women don't come forward.

SOVIERO: We see around us all the time that our claims, when we do pursue legal action, aren't taken seriously.

BERGER: And another grim reality is current students have told me that, when they heard about the Cornell case, they actually weren't surprised. Alexandra Pryplesh is a freshman at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. She said she's seen the statistics of rape on college campuses already.

ALEXANDRA PRYPLESH: It wasn't surprising, but it was horrifying.

BERGER: And another student at Swarthmore's campus, Patricia Quimby-Moore - she runs a support group on campus for survivors of sexual assault. And one positive change that she's seen on her campus is she petitioned for the school to add a new position for a specialist that supports sexual assault survivors, and the school is now in the process of actually hiring that person.

NADWORNY: Thank you, Ava, so much.

BERGER: Thanks, Elissa.