Sexual Assault

For more than 40 percent of US presidents, the fraternity hall was an early stop on the road to the White House.

Fraternal organisations, more commonly known as fraternities or frats, have a long and storied history on college campuses in the United States.

One industry group, the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), represents 58 fraternities spread across 600 schools. It claims nearly 200,000 undergraduate students as active members and an alumni population of 4.2 million.

The draw for college-aged men is the promise of brotherhood, a bond that transcends keg parties and late-night revelry. Like sororities and other members-only student organisations, fraternities are often touted as pathways to personal, academic and professional success.

But critics argue that some fraternities have leveraged their exclusivity to encourage and normalise violence, dangling social acceptance as a reward for compliance.

“This isn’t [some sort of] a hobbyist club,” said anthropologist Aldo Cimino, a Kent State University professor who studies fraternity hazing. “It is the seriousness of the affiliation that has generated the intensity of these induction rituals.”

In recent weeks, one case has renewed debate over fraternity culture and whether the campus organisations use their exclusivity to shield bad behaviour.

In September, an anonymous woman known as Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University and seven of its members, accusing them of gang raping her during a party on the night of October 19, 2024.

Doe’s sorority, Delta Delta Delta, and Cornell itself are among the co-defendants.

Her lawsuit raises questions about fraternity and sorority culture at US schools, collectively known as “Greek life” for the groups’ use of Greek lettering and symbols.

Upon her admission to Cornell, Doe argues she encountered a “glorified – yet materially false and misleading – facade” for Greek life.

“She arrived on a campus where the University actively promoted Greek membership as a ‘vital’ part of the campus community and endorsed these organizations as well-managed, worthy pathways to new friendships and improving one’s educational and professional opportunities,” the lawsuit said.

The complaint accuses the fraternities of instead perpetuating a pattern of sexual assault and abuse.

What are fraternities?

Now a multibillion-dollar industry, fraternities in the US trace their origins to men-only clubs established at some of the country’s oldest universities.

The tradition began at the College of William and Mary in 1776, when Phi Beta Kappa was founded as a secret society for debate and scholarly exchange.

Its adoption of the Greek alphabet, oath of secrecy, and arcane membership rites helped establish a blueprint for future fraternities and sororities. Often with houses of their own, fraternities eventually grew into informal extensions of the campus residential system.

Historian Nicholas Syrett wrote about the origins of such groups in his book The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, he explained that fraternities have long embraced so-called masculine ideals. But those ideals have changed from generation to generation.

In the past, fraternities sought to position themselves in “opposition to boyhood” by embracing “independence, strength of character, handsomeness and loyalty”, Syrett explained.

But their modern iteration has shifted to include a greater emphasis on “athleticism, sexual success with women, and recklessness” as well as alpha-male posturing.

Syrett argues that the fraternity system’s cult of toughness reflects a wider matrix of gendered expectations and social hierarchies.

Early fraternity men, Syrett says, prized intellect and academic distinction, provided neither betrayed too much effort. But “this has largely taken a backseat in contemporary fraternities”, he explained.

“When [men] are initiated, they are taught that loyalty to the brotherhood is of the utmost importance,” Syrett said of fraternities today. “This leads to the keeping of all kinds of secrets, including things that are against the rules and/or the law.”

A mark of elite status

In the two and a half centuries since the first fraternities were formed, Greek life has expanded to include different races and identities outside of white men.

Some Greek groups have even eschewed the traditional gender divide altogether to better embrace transgender and non-binary members.

But fraternities and sororities overall tend to act as “microcosms of the larger society”, according to Elizabeth Allan, a professor at the University of Maine and director of its Hazing Prevention Research Lab, “with race, pretty privilege and economic segregation helping shape the system”.

“The [social] stratification that we see in the larger society is going to be reflected, in large part, in many of these organisations, unless they’re actively working to disrupt it,” she added.

Between membership dues and rent at fraternity chapter houses, Greek organisations can price out all but the more affluent students, according to Allan.

“Pretty privilege” – the social bias in favour of those deemed conventionally attractive – can add to the pressure, with sorority applicants in particular shelling out hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for cosmetic treatments and outfits.

Experts say the sense of exclusivity that many fraternities and sororities cultivate is a powerful draw for incoming students, who see membership as a path to upward social mobility.

That perception is reinforced by the groups’ internal dynamics. Many sororities and fraternities encourage networking among members.

A 2021 Gallup survey commissioned by the NIC and the National Panhellenic Conference found that 42 percent of fraternity or sorority alumni said a fellow member had helped them find an internship or job.

Meanwhile, 51 percent of Greek members reported having a job waiting at graduation or found employment within two months. The rate was much lower among those who were not members of such fraternities or sororities, at 36 percent.

How hazing shapes fraternities

Critics often point to hazing rituals in particular as shaping a culture of violence at some fraternities and sororities.

Hazing is a process through which prospective Greek life members undergo humiliating and sometimes perilous tasks to secure admission.

The phenomenon is prohibited by law in most US states, though the definitions, penalties and scope of such laws vary. The consequences, however, can be deadly.

One of the earliest recorded deaths associated with fraternity hazing took place at Cornell in 1873.

At the time, a group of “pledges” – would-be fraternity members – were blindfolded and led far from campus at night, with instructions to make their way back on their own.

In the dark, one of the pledges, Mortimer M Leggett, and two fraternity members stumbled over a cliff and plunged into the gorge of Six Mile Creek. The two fraternity members survived. Leggett, however, did not.

Secret initiation rituals can forge an “informal psychological social contract in which members feel obligated to protect the organisation”, according to Pietro Sasso, who studies college student experience at Old Dominion University.

Some members may feel the need to rally around the fraternity even when “doing so conflicts with their personal values or responsibilities to others”, Sasso added.

“My research on fraternity cultures suggests that organisational socialisation can normalise behaviours that individuals might otherwise question, making the environment itself an important part of prevention,” he explained.

Inside Doe’s lawsuit against Chi Phi

Doe’s case cites some of the social pressures and incentives that lead young men and women to Greek life on campus.

“She was drawn to the sorority and its promises of sisterhood and lifelong friendships, the status it conferred on its members, and the community it provided on campus when she was over 1,000 miles away from home,” the lawsuit said of Doe.

But Doe said she joined Cornell’s Greek community without being fully aware of the pattern of sexual assault associated with the local fraternities.

During Doe’s first semester, in 2022, there were at least five reported cases of victims at Cornell being drugged, and two alleged cases of sexual assault. All of those cases, according to her lawsuit, took place at fraternities.

Two years later, on the night of the alleged gang rape, Doe claims she was pressured by fraternity members to take drugs like ketamine, marijuana and alcohol. After agreeing to a threesome, she said she found herself in a “room full of predatory, fraternity men” who raped her while she was incapacitated.

A photo of a group chat included in her lawsuit shows one Chi Phi member informing his fellow fraternity brothers that there was “free pussy” in an upstairs alumni room. A member of the chat replies, “I f***ing love chi phi.” Another chimes in, “Like you can walk in and whip it out.”

Several of the men have denied any wrongdoing.

But the case has sparked questions about whether the culture of Greek life contributes to a high rate of sexual assault in fraternities and sororities.

One 2021 survey published by the American Psychological Association tracked male students from high school through their second year of college. It found that fraternity members were 62 percent more likely to report sexual aggression during their first two years of college.

Separately, a 2009 study published in the journal Violence Against Women estimated that 29 percent of sorority members reported suffering sexual assault during college, roughly four times the rate of non-members.

Reforming Greek life

After the alleged gang rape in 2024, Cornell’s Chi Phi chapter was closed, and the fraternity remains barred from campus. Two male defendants in Doe’s lawsuit were expelled, while another two were suspended.

But some student activists say too little is being done to reform Greek life in the wake of Doe’s case. They want stronger measures to enforce accountability within private, members-only groups where secrecy often reigns.

CJ Barles, a junior at the University of California, Davis, is one of the students across the US organising protests in support of Doe. She told Al Jazeera she understands the appeal of the fraternity and sorority systems.

“Affiliated students say it looks good on their resume,” Barles explained. “They see it as a built-in cult, a seat at the table and a crew to call their own.”

But Barles said she has heard troubling reports. Some fraternities, she explained, hold parties “requiring every man” to arrive with several women in tow. That requirement says “a lot about the culture some of these spaces cultivate”, she added.

At a rally last week, Barles and other protesters called on the University of California system to implement new measures to hold fraternities accountable for sexual assault, including enshrining students’ right to withdraw consent during sexual encounters.

But Barles said she left feeling dumbstruck by the accounts of sexual violence shared by women on campus, many of whom spoke from personal experience.

“It’s unbelievably upsetting, the amount of stories I heard,” said Barles. The litany of grievances has fanned her scepticism of the Greek system: “I wouldn’t step within a mile of most of them.”

Student groups call for the abolition of Greek life and punitive action in wake of fraternity assault allegations.

Protesters in the United States have shattered a glass door at Cornell University’s main administrative headquarters and spray-painted messages on the building’s walls as backlash continues following allegations about a 2024 gang rape at a local fraternity.

In the early hours of Monday, the glass panes on an entrance door for the building, Day Hall, were smashed, leaving shards strewn across the floor.

Activists, outraged at the school’s handling of the case, also graffitied nearby walls with slogans like “At Cornell rapists are protected protesters are expelled” and “Smash the patriarchy”.

The predawn incident came ahead of a rally demanding “justice for survivors” by student groups on Monday.

Cornell spokesperson Kyle Kimball said Monday that the university was investigating the vandalism.

“We understand the frustration and strong emotions being expressed across our community,” Kimball said. “Those concerns deserve to be heard, but damaging property is not the answer.”

Cornell, a prominent Ivy League university in the state of New York, has been at the centre of a national firestorm over sexual violence on US campuses, after an anonymous student, Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit last month alleging a gang rape at the fraternity Chi Phi.

Her complaint accuses seven former students of perpetrating “heinous criminal sexual acts” against her during a fraternity party on the night of October 19, 2024, after she says she was pressured to drink and take the drug ketamine.

The fraternity, Cornell University and others are named as co-defendants in the suit. Lawyers for two of the former students have rejected claims that they participated in sexual assault.

The case has elicited outcry over how sexual assault is handled on campuses across the country.

At Monday’s demonstration, students demanded an overhaul of the university’s sexual assault complaint process, the termination of certain school officials and stricter disciplinary action against alleged abusers.

In a statement to the student news outlet The Cornell Daily Sun, student organisers wrote that they were calling for the “abolition” of the Interfraternity Council system on campus and the “expulsion/revocation of degrees for all Chi Phi members involved in the rape”.

They also demanded that Cornell’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards be replaced by a “democratic disciplinary system”. Monday’s protest, they added, was designed to draw attention to the systemic failures that allow sexual violence to occur.

“We wanted to ensure that Day Hall, the centre of Cornell’s administrative function, was not able to continue business as usual,” the students told the campus paper.

The alleged crime at the fraternity, they wrote, was part of a “rampant pattern of sexual assault perpetrated by members of Greek life at Cornell University and hundreds of other academic institutions throughout the country”.

Under pressure by New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James, the university announced this week it would be appointing a law firm to conduct an independent internal review of how it initially handled the case.

A transcript, obtained by US media, shows that although no charges were filed, Doe told campus police at the time that she could “say with 100% confidence I was raped”.

Her lawsuit also alleges that Cornell “afforded” the accused fraternity members “the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays” to the school. Two were later expelled, and another two were suspended.

Last month, a woman identified as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against Cornell University, the fraternity Chi Phi and the seven fraternity members she accused of gang-raping her on the night of October 19, 2024.

Her allegations have triggered a nationwide reckoning in the United States over the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses.

But the case has also reignited efforts to reform laws in the state of New York.

While the left-leaning state has long presented itself as a leader in women’s rights, advocates say sexual assault survivors still face pervasive legal barriers when they seek justice.

Erica Vladimer, a lawyer and founding director of Harassment-Free New York, a survivor-led nonprofit, told Al Jazeera that much of the legislation currently in the spotlight is the culmination of years, if not decades, of work.

“These are bills that we have been fighting for for years when sexual violence is not in the news,” Vladimer said.

She drew a line between the #MeToo movement, which began in 2017 as an online campaign to denounce sexual misconduct, and the current wave of outrage following Doe’s allegations.

“It speaks to the fact that the #MeToo movement is not dead. It is a movement, not a moment,” Vladimer said.

Already, leaders in Albany, the state capital, have signalled they would take action following the Cornell case.

On Wednesday, the New York Assembly announced it had formed a working group to examine the state’s sexual-assault laws and develop recommendations for the 2027 legislative session.

Still, advocates say more concrete measures are needed to address the crisis.

“I appreciate that this work is happening,” said Lindsey Boylan, a New York City Council candidate. “It doesn’t undo the fact that rape culture is pervasive in the United States and very much so alive and well in New York.”

Boylan was the first woman to publicly accuse former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment in another high-profile misconduct case, back in 2020. She is among those calling for greater reform.

Here are some of the measures advocates are pushing state lawmakers to adopt or amend:

‘Voluntary intoxication’ statute

The Cornell University case has brought renewed attention to New York’s “voluntary intoxication” statute, a legal loophole that can make it harder to prosecute sexual assault when a person has willingly consumed alcohol or drugs.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul pledged on Friday to work with lawmakers to close the gap.

“It should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol. Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape. Period,” Hochul said.

Under the current state law, a person who voluntarily drinks or takes drugs is not considered “mentally incapacitated” during an assault, even if they become too intoxicated to consent.

That can make it harder for prosecutors to bring a sex-crime charge. The law primarily recognises incapacitation in the context of sexual assault when a person was involuntarily intoxicated, unconscious or otherwise “physically helpless”.

That distinction has become central to the Cornell case. Doe has acknowledged that she consumed substances before the alleged rape, saying that she was pressured into drinking alcohol and taking the dissociative drug ketamine.

The Tompkins County district attorney initially declined to bring charges, pointing to the law’s stance on “voluntary intoxication”. But the investigation has since been reopened, amid public pressure.

New York is one of 19 states in the US that distinguish between “voluntary” and “involuntary” intoxication when it comes to determining consent in sexual violence cases.

But the Cornell case has spurred a push to remove the distinction from the law books. Critics have argued that sexual assault is no less grievous if a victim is drunk or has chosen to take drugs.

“I mean, to have New York, a supposedly progressive state, penalise people who are sexually abused for drinking is disgusting,” Boylan told Al Jazeera.

Vladimer, for her part, explained that distinguishing between “voluntary” and “involuntary” intoxication as a means for pursuing sexual assault cases shifts the focus onto the actions of victims, rather than perpetrators.

“We essentially have codified victim-blaming by saying if you become voluntarily intoxicated and then are sexually assaulted, you essentially cannot seek justice in our court system,” Vladimer told Al Jazeera.

In June, the New York state Senate unanimously passed a bill to allow sexual assault charges regardless of whether a victim is intoxicated voluntarily or involuntarily.

But the legislation has yet to be taken up in the state Assembly.

The rape-shield gap

New York’s rape-shield protections limit the use of evidence about a complainant’s sexual history and conduct in criminal proceedings. But those protections do not currently extend to civil cases.

This distinction could matter in the Cornell case because Doe filed a civil lawsuit.

Vladimer said questions about a survivor’s behaviour could come up in the discovery process of a civil case, as well as in court.

“There is the potential of her having to face questions about things like her sexual history,” Vladimer said.

Bridie Farrell, the director of victim rights advocacy and legislation at the law firm Weitz and Luxenberg, told Al Jazeera that she has seen major differences in how male and female survivors are questioned in civil cases where this practice is still permitted.

In one case involving a brother and sister who were both sexually assaulted, Farrell said the man was not questioned about his sexual history while the woman was “grilled on it”.

A bill sponsored by State Senator Liz Krueger would extend rape-shield protections to civil proceedings. The measure passed the Senate in June and is currently before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Retaliatory defamation lawsuits

Advocates are also pushing for legislation to prevent retaliatory defamation lawsuits.

Boylan said she has spent more than $2m defending herself in legal proceedings connected to her accusations against Cuomo, who stepped down as New York governor in 2021.

He has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing, despite a state attorney general’s report that concluded he “engaged in conduct constituting sexual harassment”.

“Every step of the way, we have a system that penalises people for speaking up about their own harm,” Boylan said.

Boylan and Charlotte Bennett, a former aide who also accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, are proponents of the Speak Your Truth Act, which would provide legal protections for people who publicly report sexual assault, harassment or discrimination.

The bill, sponsored by Assembly member Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, would make certain communications about sexual assault, harassment or discrimination privileged when they are made without malice.

It would also allow survivors of sexual misconduct who successfully defend themselves against a defamation lawsuit to recover legal fees and costs. The bill remains in an Assembly committee.

A recent win, a long way to go

For Bridie Farrell, the victims’ rights advocate, the fight for legal change is personal.

Farrell was a 15-year-old competitive speed skater in 1997 when she said she was sexually abused by her 33-year-old teammate and mentor. She came forward with her story of abuse in 2013.

By then, the statute of limitations in her case had expired. Farrell later became an advocate for changes to New York’s laws, helping to pass the Child Victims Act in 2019 that extended the time available for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to pursue criminal and civil claims.

The law allowed Farrell to file her own case, which she did in 2020. She tells Al Jazeera that a trial has finally been scheduled for June 2027.

“Before we passed the Child Victims Act in 2019, New York was one of the worst in the country,” Farrell said of the situation for sexual assault survivors seeking justice.

Farrell considers the legal impediments to Doe’s case — like the “voluntary intoxication” statute — all too predictable. “I’m not surprised if we haven’t updated a law that is archaic,” she said.

Still, lawmakers have signalled willingness to reform such laws. In announcing the state Assembly’s working group on sexual-assault laws, Speaker Carl Heastie pledged to “thoughtfully” consider how the state can strengthen its laws.

“The allegations being reported out of Cornell University are truly horrifying,” Heastie said on Wednesday. “We want to do everything we can to ensure victims of sexual assault see justice served.”

But survivors and sexual violence advocates say the Cornell case points to problems that go beyond any single law. They hope to see widespread systemic and societal change.

“Changing legislation is incredibly important. But legislation in a lot of cases can only go [as far as] the paper that it’s written on,” Boylan said. “It would be amiss to orient this horrible, tragic, unacceptable, infuriating case in isolation without looking at the broader rape culture of our state and our country.”

Michael Kotlikoff expresses deep sorrow over the case, calling it one of the most challenging periods for Cornell.

Cornell University’s president, Michael Kotlikoff, has called the alleged 2024 gang rape of a student at a fraternity house “deeply disturbing”, pledging greater transparency amid mounting outrage over how the school handled the case.

“My heart aches when I think of what she experienced,” Kotlikoff said in an eight-minute video message to the Cornell community on Saturday.

He characterised the past week as one of the most difficult in the university’s history and said it would weigh on the university for years to come. “It raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanisation and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use,” he said.

The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, alleges she was sexually assaulted by multiple members of the Chi Phi fraternity in 2024 and has sued the university and seven former students.

Scrutiny over Cornell’s handling of the case intensified after New York Governor Kathy Hochul said newly released information had undermined her confidence in the local prosecutor, who initially declined to bring charges.

Hochul subsequently appointed state Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor to take over the criminal investigation, saying she would “not allow anyone to sweep this case under the rug”.

The case has also renewed scrutiny of the “voluntary intoxication loophole” in New York law that makes it difficult to prosecute sexual assaults involving victims who voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs, even if they later became too intoxicated to consent.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten had cited the legal provision in defending his original decision not to pursue charges. Hochul has pledged to push for changes to it.

At a student assembly hearing on Thursday, several speakers called for Kotlikoff’s resignation.

In Saturday’s video, Kotlikoff reaffirmed his support for an independent review of the university’s handling of the case and said Cornell’s Board of Trustees would announce details next week. He also called for a “serious look at the role of fraternities and sororities in campus life”.

James’s appointment has placed the case under a prosecutor whose office has repeatedly clashed with President Donald Trump. She has separately described the case as “an active criminal investigation”.

New York lawmakers are renewing a push to change the state’s sexual assault laws after prosecutors in the United States said the current rules made it difficult to bring charges for an alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house.

At issue is whether someone who willingly becomes intoxicated can be considered mentally incapacitated and therefore unable to consent to sex.

Under current New York law, only someone who was drugged or given alcohol without their knowledge can be considered “mentally incapacitated” because of intoxication and unable to consent. The same does not apply to someone who willingly consumed alcohol or drugs.

State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and State Senator Nathalia Fernandez are sponsoring bills in their respective chambers that would change that.

In the state Senate, the bill is known as S10632, and in the New York Assembly, it is filed as Assembly Bill A101.

In a post on the social media platform X, Dinowitz said the proposed law would allow prosecutors to focus on whether someone was capable of consenting, rather than how they became intoxicated, and whether the accused “knew or should have known” that the person was unable to consent.

He said people who voluntarily drink or take drugs currently face significant barriers in sexual assault cases, particularly if they remain partly conscious or responsive during an alleged assault.

“The fact that someone made the choice to consume alcohol or another intoxicating substance should never be used to undermine their experience or shift responsibility onto the survivor when they’ve been sexually assaulted,” Dinowitz wrote.

The years-long reform effort has gained new momentum after Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said the existing law was one reason his office initially declined to pursue charges against several Cornell students accused of sexually assaulting a woman on October 19, 2024.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, was 20 at the time. She has since filed a civil lawsuit against seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, as well as Cornell University and several other defendants.

The lawsuit alleges fraternity members gave her alcohol and ketamine and sexually assaulted her after she became incapacitated.

Doe also reported her allegations to campus police in November 2024.

In a statement explaining why his office did not pursue charges afterwards, Van Houten said Doe never claimed at the time that she had been involuntarily intoxicated, physically forced or unconscious. He also said she did not clearly express that she did not consent.

Any of those circumstances could have provided grounds for prosecutors to pursue rape charges under New York law, according to the district attorney.

“On the contrary, Jane Doe’s statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual,” Van Houten wrote.

“In this case, multiple prosecutors and criminal investigators reviewed Jane Doe’s statement and correctly determined the alleged facts as set forth in the statement do not constitute a crime.”

Since the lawsuit was filed, Van Houten’s office has faced intense scrutiny. It said on Monday that it will reopen the investigation and bring the case before a grand jury, which will consider whether there is enough evidence to indict anyone.

Van Houten also told CBS News on Wednesday that he had not seen a transcript of a campus police interview conducted three weeks after the alleged assault in which the woman said: “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”

Cornell has defended its handling of the case, saying it investigated the allegations and disciplined the accused students, with penalties ranging from suspension to expulsion.

On Wednesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the university had agreed to her request to bring in an outside law firm to conduct a new investigation into its handling of the case.

Previous efforts to change New York’s sexual assault laws have foundered in the state legislature. Senate bill S10632 has passed its chamber but has never received a vote on the Assembly floor.

“Rape is the only crime that I’m aware of where, if the victim was drunk, they may not get justice,” Dinowitz, the assembly member, said in an interview with Reuters. “There shouldn’t be any difference in terms of the survivors of sexual assault between the people who are voluntarily intoxicated and who are involuntarily intoxicated.”

New York is one of 19 states where a person can be considered mentally incapacitated because of intoxication only if they did not willingly become intoxicated, according to Elizabeth Jeglic, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies sexual abuse.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Jeglic said. “If you’re incapacitated, you’re incapacitated, regardless of whether you consumed it yourself or somebody else gave it to you without your consent.”

Lovely Professional University in Punjab suspends classes for 10 days due to campus unrest over rape allegations that university officials deny.

A university in the Indian state of Punjab has suspended classes for 10 days after protests on campus over an alleged rape last week, a claim that university officials have denied.

In an announcement on Monday, Lovely Professional University in Phagwara also postponed midterm examinations due to the demonstrations, which turned violent.

“Students may, in consultation with their parents/guardians, travel to their hometowns during this 10-day period, if they wish to do so,” it said in a statement.

“Students who stay back are advised to stay inside their hostels/places of residence and avoid unnecessary movement or involvement in any unrest-related activities in the interest of their own safety.”

According to posts on social media, a female student was raped on campus. Some claimed the student committed suicide. Police said they were investigating the alleged incident, adding that the identity of the student had not been established, the news magazine India Today reported.

The protests escalated on Sunday as demonstrators clashed with police, and reports in local media said there were incidents of vandalism inside the university.

Protesters allegedly threw stones, smashed windows and set fire to vehicles on campus as well as damaging police vehicles, according to reports. Students also reportedly blocked a nearby highway.

University registrar Monica Gulati denied the rape had taken place, saying on Sunday that there was “no truth” to the allegations.

“The manner in which such false and misleading information is being systematically circulated appears to be a deliberate and concerted attempt to malign the reputation of the university and tarnish its image,” The Times of India, the country’s largest English newspaper, reported.

Meanwhile, three female students residing in the same building where the alleged rape took place appeared in a video featuring Gulati and backing the registrar’s claims that no rape had taken place.

However, according to the news channel NDTV, a separate video emerged later in which the same three students said they were instructed on what statements to make.

Ongoing concerns around sexual violence

The incident comes as the Supreme Court on Monday ⁠⁠pushed for ⁠⁠accountability over a recent spate of rape cases in the national capital and neighbouring districts, saying ⁠⁠they reflected a “failure of law enforcement”.

Hundreds of students protested in Delhi ⁠⁠last week to demand better safety for women after a teenager said she was raped by three men at a park in the city.

Last month, a 17-year-old ‌‌girl was allegedly raped in a moving bus by the driver and conductor, local media reported.

Sexual violence ⁠⁠is a major problem across ⁠⁠India with more than 80 rapes reported to police every day, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Activists said that number is a major undercount and many victims do not report rapes because of social stigma or coercion.

Head of the Roman Catholic Church holds ’emotional’ two-hour meeting with seven abuse victims in French town of Lourdes.

Pope Leo XIV has thanked a group of survivors of clerical abuse “for their painful testimony” and “reaffirmed his commitment” to end harm by Catholic priests at a meeting in southwestern France, the Vatican said.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day visit to France.

On Sunday, the pontiff visited the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, where he privately met seven survivors of child abuse, now adults, and promised to further efforts to reform the Church in the wake of the global sexual abuse scandal.

The group said in a later news conference that the meeting was emotional and touching.

“When he saw the state I was in, he took me into his arms,” survivor Jean-Marie Delbos said, adding, “It was an extraordinary moment.”

The 80-year-old was abused as a pupil at the nearby boarding school of Notre-Dame de Betharram, where staff have been accused of physical and sexual abuse over several decades.

The survivors said they felt heard and that they were impressed by Leo’s compassion and knowledge of their individual cases.

But they hoped the words would be accompanied by action.

Jerome Guillement, who has written about a priest abusing him as a teenager, said at the news conference that the pope understood the “systemic” nature of sexual abuse in the Church.

“From his point of view, the perpetrators are individuals, but what allows it to continue is the systemic dimension within the institution,” he said.

“He certainly believes that the Church has done a great deal in France, but he also believes that the Church in France still has a tremendous amount left to do.”

Local leaders hoped Leo’s visit would help repair the Church’s standing after a 2021 independent inquiry found that some 330,000 French children had been abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders over seven decades.

The pope told an estimated 150,000 people gathered for a Mass in a field near the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes earlier on Sunday that the Church must have the courage to face its past.

Veronique Garnier, another survivor who met with the pontiff, said she had found the Mass, in which Leo referred to abuse without directly apologising for it, troubling and wondered why she had attended.

But she said she was encouraged by her meeting with Leo.

“I do indeed believe there is hope – hope that there can be change and truly listening to us at a deep level, rather than just superficially with beautiful words that are never followed by any real action,” she said.

Leo also spoke about the abuse scandals in a closed-door meeting with French bishops on Sunday, according to a Vatican-provided text.

He was expected to visit the northeastern city of Metz on Monday before returning to Rome the same day.

Harvey Weinstein’s winding legal saga took a new turn this week, one that reaffirmed that the former Hollywood kingmaker — whose alleged history of sexual assault and abuse sparked the cross-industry #MeToo reckoning — will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

Weinstein, 74, was sentenced on Wednesday to 15 years in prison for a felony sex crime tied to allegations from former “Project Runway” production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haley. After a retrial last year, a majority-female jury found the disgraced Hollywood mogul and co-founder of the defunct Weinstein Co. guilty of sexually assaulting Haley in 2006 at his New York apartment.

Haley described the lasting and “devastating” effects of Weinstein’s assault as she addressed the court during Wednesday’s sentencing.

“Making the decision to speak up will have me looking over my shoulder for years to come,” she said. “It’s a life sentence for me.”

Weinstein said he has “remorse for Miriam Haley’s pain,” but maintained that he’s innocent.

The New York sentencing this week was not the first time Weinstein received a lengthy prison sentence for sex crimes. Since the damning sexual assault and harassment allegations against Weinstein first entered the legal spotlight in 2017, the Oscar-winning producer has faced convictions for rape and sexual assault over the course of trials — and retrials — from 2020 to 2025.

Weinstein has already served more than six years in New York, leaving him with about nine years left on that sentence. A pending resentencing in California — he was sentenced to more than a decade for a 2013 rape — could keep the mogul behind bars for life, the Associated Press reported.

Here’s a look back on Weinstein’s previous convictions and the prison sentences that followed.

March 2020: 23-year prison sentence in New York

Weinstein was first sentenced for his sex crimes against women in New York almost three years after the #MeToo movement upended his career as a prolific movie producer.

The mogul’s 2020 sexual assault trial, the first in a handful that would follow in the coming years, ended in February 2020 with a jury delivering a mixed verdict. The jury convicted Weinstein of committing a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape based on accusations from Haley and former actor Jessica Mann, respectively. The jury acquitted him on the most serious charges, including two counts of predatory sexual assault.

Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse for jury deliberations in his rape trial, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020, in New York.

(Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

A month later, New York Supreme Court Judge James Burke announced that Weinstein would carry out a 23-year prison sentence for his crimes. He was ordered to serve 20 years for his 2006 attack against Haley in his Manhattan apartment. The judge added three years to Weinstein’s sentence for raping Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013. Weinstein was to serve those sentences consecutively.

At the time, the Miramax co-founder denied all wrongdoing and planned to appeal. Those efforts come into play in 2024.

February 2023: 16 years in California

Weinstein, a movie titan who once dominated Hollywood and produced some of the modern film industry’s most defining titles, including “Pulp Fiction” and the divisive Oscar best picture winner “Shakespeare in Love,” was tried in his stamping grounds in October 2022. He was prosecuted for allegations that he raped and attacked four women in Beverly Hills hotel rooms between 2004 and 2013. Before the trial, Weinstein was indicted on 11 counts of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual battery in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. He denied all wrongdoing.

The acrimonious trial, which stretched more than a month, ended in December 2022 with a jury convicting Weinstein of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object. The jury acquitted Weinstein of the sexual battery of a massage therapist and failed to reach verdicts on counts involving two other women. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench declared a mistrial on the charges that left the jury deadlocked.

Weinstein’s conviction hinged on an account from an Italian model and actor identified in court as Jane Doe 1. She said the producer barged into her hotel room in Beverly Hills, where she was staying while attending a film festival, to assault her. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in February 2023.

Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Oct. 4, 2022, in Los Angeles.

(Pool / Getty Images)

“There is no prison sentence long enough to erase the damage,” Doe said during the sentencing. “He deserves to experience the same shame, humiliation and fear as I did.”

Lench ruled at the time that Weinstein cannot serve his New York and Los Angeles sentences concurrently. His attorney said the producer would return to New York to carry out the remainder of that sentence before going to prison in California.

Earlier this year, a three-panel judge from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously agreed to deny Weinstein’s efforts to appeal the Los Angeles conviction. The Los Angeles trial judge was also ordered to resentence the mogul.

“This is not the end of the appellate process,” Juda Engelmayer, Weinstein’s publicist, said in June. “We intend to seek review in the California Supreme Court because we continue to believe significant legal errors affected the proceedings and warrant further review.”

Weinstein is awaiting resentencing for this case.

April 2024 to now: New York retrial leads to an updated prison sentence

Weinstein, imprisoned and suffering from declining health, sought relief in both California and New York. A glimmer of that relief arrived in April 2024, when a New York appeals court overturned the sex assault conviction that launched his first lengthy prison sentence.

In a dramatic reversal of the landmark #MeToo case, a state appeals court found that the judge who presided over Weinstein’s 2020 trial prejudiced his case by allowing four women who said Weinstein had assaulted them to serve as witnesses, even though their allegations were not part of the case. The appeals court also ruled the judge made a mistake in ruling prosecutors could cross-examine Weinstein about uncharged and decades-old allegations if he decided to testify.

What ensued was a retrial in 2025 that exceeded a month and featured emotional testimony from former accusers Haley and Mann, and model Kaja Sokola, who did not testify against the mogul in the 2020 trial.

The fallen Hollywood boss was retried on the allegations that led to his original rape and criminal sex act convictions. He was also tried on a new sexual assault charge stemming from Sokola’s allegation that he forced oral sex on her in 2006 when she was 19. Weinstein pleaded not guilty and his defense maintained the alleged sexual encounters were consensual. He did not take the stand, similar to his first trial in New York and his rape trial in Los Angeles.

Before Weinstein was convicted in June 2025 of forcing oral sex on Haley, he declared “it’s just not fair.”

“My life is on the line, and you know what? It’s not fair,” he said at the time. “It’s time, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time to say this trial is over.”

Time, it appears, is of the utmost importance for Weinstein, considering his renewed prison sentences in New York and an incoming sentence in California. Weinstein spoke at length with the Hollywood Reporter in March about carrying out his sentence and the possibility of dying behind bars. The former executive was jailed at the notorious Riker’s Island jail complex in New York at the time of the interview.

“It scares the s— out of me. Cold and heartless,” he told THR. “It’s incredible to have the life that I had and the things that I did for society and not have the leniency to deal with me in a kinder way. Whatever they think I did bad in my life, I didn’t get the death penalty.

“I don’t want to die in here.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.