Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault and violence.

Several weeks ago, a former Cornell University student filed a lawsuit alleging that seven Chi Phi fraternity members gang raped her at a fraternity house in October 2024. The case has renewed national scrutiny of sexual violence on college campuses — and produced intense harassment and public condemnation of Jane Doe herself.

She was doxxed — her name was leaked — and her family has been targeted. Some netizens have argued that Jane Doe put herself in this situation or have accused her of pursuing the case under false pretenses. 

But what does that actually mean? It treats entering a space as accepting whatever happens inside it, and a woman’s choices as the only variable: Had she just done X, Y or Z, it wouldn’t have been her — but it could have been someone else. 

Why must the person who walked in answer for the risk, and not the people who created and controlled the space? That logic treats rape as inevitable, when it only occurs because someone decides to do it. 

Women are therefore told to avoid fraternity houses or withdraw from the social life built around them. Even when framed as a precaution, that burden still falls on someone who did nothing wrong to guard against another person’s potential decision to violate her. Nowhere is that burden clearer than in Greek life.

Women join Greek life for the same reasons men do: friendship, community, professional connections and a place in the social order. What that promise omits is a social calendar largely controlled by fraternities, which sorority chapters are expected to attend. After all, what is Greek life without its events? Sorority members pursue everything the system offers while carrying the risk of how it operates, a trade-off they never had a say in.

The dynamic appears in a 2023 study by sociologists Simone Ispa-Landa and Sara E. Thomas, who conducted 121 interviews with 68 women at historically white sororities. Participants described access to the fraternity-centered party circuit as a central benefit of membership, and a chapter seen as not “social enough” led some to question why it existed at all. Opting out could mean surrendering what they joined to obtain while someone else sets the terms.

Alcohol worsens this imbalance. The vast majority of sororities belong to national umbrella organizations — most notably the National Panhellenic Conference, which represents 26 member organizations. Under policies enforced by the NPC, all chapter houses must remain entirely alcohol-free. 

Fraternity houses face no practical equivalent requirement across the board, making them the arbiters of Greek nightlife. The hosting, guest lists and alcohol all sit with the fraternities, forcing sororities to surrender environmental autonomy and negotiate their safety in male-controlled spaces.

Despite possessing less authority over these environments, sorority members assume much of the responsibility for making them safer. Ispa-Landa and Thomas found that chapters assigned “sober sisters” to monitor parties, often selecting newer, lower-status members. The system did not transfer power; it transferred responsibility for preventing harm.

The consequences are measurable: Sorority members are 74% more likely to experience rape or sexual assault compared to non-sorority college women, according to the Journal of Vicentian Social Action from St. John’s University. Currently, the pathways to report sexual assault are notoriously difficult to navigate. 

As the Daily Trojan previously reported, an anonymous USC student did not file a formal complaint, yet the University’s investigative office contacted her anyway, leaving her to feel she lost control of the situation. Institutions have their own rules and conduct processes to follow, but in this case, a system intended to restore agency shifts control to the institution, while survivors absorb the consequences.

Acting against a fraternity can carry a social cost too. In the same study, one woman said it was common to receive backlash from her own chapter for cutting off a fraternity, and another chapter even resumed parties with a fraternity after incidents of sexual violence involving it. 

Someone holds the power here, and it isn’t the women being told to be careful. Fraternities control the parties, national organizations write the rules and universities decide what they will tolerate. 

After headlines arrive, universities act: Cornell has canceled fraternity-house parties until the next academic year. A pause is not structural change, and institutions must assume the burden they have placed on women. A promise of belonging is hollow when women have no meaningful say in the conditions of their safety, and action that arrives only after headlines is not accountability — it is damage control.

If you are in need of support, here are some resources you can contact:

Confidential Advocates, Resources, and Education-Support Center: Located at Engemann Student Health Center Suite 356. Individuals can call 213-740-9355 and request to speak with an advocate or counselor. Services are confidential.

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN): A free, confidential hotline that is active 24/7. Individuals can call 800-656-4673.