Cornell, abolish your fraternities

In recent weeks, I have received messages from Kazakhstan to Peru about the alleged sexual assault on Cornell’s campus. As a Cornell student, I’ve tried to defend the university due to the quality of the faculty and the amazing possibilities for research, but I cannot do it in good faith any longer. The case surrounding the Cornell 7 is as lurid as it gets; whether or not these men face prosecution, it will not change the structural issue with Greek life.

The group chat of 57 fraternity men included messages such as “free pussy” and asked questions like “shop still open?”. This putrid treatment of women did not originate in this house. It is a culture created over years of “tradition,” and it is what fraternities are built to produce, no matter what we say about the usual exceptions to the rule. To say that Cornell has mishandled the repeated rape of one of its students is an understatement.

Despite this, Cornell now has an opportunity to take a truly brave step by removing fraternities entirely. In 2011, sophomore George Desdunes died after a hazing ritual at a Cornell fraternity house. In 2021, Cornell paused fraternity events after students reported being drugged at parties. Nationally, there are hundreds of similar incidents, like that of Tim Piazza at Penn State, who was given 18 drinks in under 90 minutes, which ended up killing him.

Every time universities try to act by closing one singular house, a few years later a new incident happens at a new fraternity. When cases happen all over the United States, the problem is not simply that the house has a few bad members. Fraternities give young men power by allowing them to have control over alcohol, parties, and who gets to come and go. Their principle is loyalty to the brotherhood, with a singular sin of “betraying” a brother.

These institutions prioritize protecting brand reputation and funding over the people who get hurt. In the Cornell case, one defendant’s lawyer tried to downplay his client’s reply in the chat by calling it “immature.” In what world is calling one of my peers “free pussy” simply immature? The comment crystallizes the way society objectifies women’s bodies, presenting them as pieces of meat to be consumed. We are young men who should know how to control our bodies.

At 18, we can enlist in war and stand trial as adults. We cannot change who we are the moment we are held responsible. We do not deserve to be treated as any more than we are, and we shouldn’t try to hide who we are either. If Cornell and the city of Ithaca care about the philanthropy that Greek life does bring, they can convert fraternities into places to volunteer for veterans or the homeless. Bowdoin shut down fraternities almost 30 years ago and their funding hasn’t gone away.

If the only way students can feel true “brotherhood” with another is by creating artificial trials of cruel and demeaning tasks, then there is something deeply wrong with the organization. Membership requires a will to suffer humiliation and to actively humiliate others. In order to belong, one must continue to degrade others to prove their loyalty, which teaches them that other people’s dignity is theirs to take. My university needs to take the brave step and remove social fraternities as quickly as they can.

Cornell can convert the houses into university-run housing and put the money into helping create a safe community for everyone regardless of gender or beliefs. Whether there is prosecution or not of the Cornell 7, no woman should be in a house where messages like that exist or where drunk men need to be monitored by the police. Cornell needs to realize that no tradition is worth even one student’s safety. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition