More than 35% of female undergraduates surveyed at Cornell University reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force, threats of force or incapacitation, according to a poll conducted last year, a figure that was up from 23% in 2023.Overall, the survey found that 15% of all of the respondents reported such experiences compared to about 11% in 2021 and 2023 surveys.Cornell notes in its survey that a total of 6,000 students received email invitations to participate and only 926 responded, resulting in a 15% response rate, with 519 of those responding identifying as women.According to the report, the 2025 response rate was lower than in previous years.The findings are receiving renewed attention after the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office said it was reopening a criminal investigation into an alleged 2024 gang rape at Cornell’s fraternity house.
Eight universities that surveyed their students on nonconsensual sexual contact using the Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness Survey in 2024 showed rates lower than 30%.In that survey, Washington University in St.
Louis reported a result of 26.9% of respondents saying they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force or the inability to consent or stop the actions.Georgetown University reported 25.3% on the same issue in the same survey.
Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, which reported rates of 14.4% and 16.7%, also account for nonconsensual “penetration or sexual touching.”Under state law, Cornell is required to conduct a campus sexual violence survey every two years.In 2017, the school developed the Survey of Sexual Assault and Related Misconduct and has administered it every two years since 2019.In Cornell’s survey, alcohol was involved in many of the reported incidents, while the use of other recreational drugs was less common.
Among the undergraduate female respondents, most reported that the incidents took place ins...