smash

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.

THEY soared up the charts in the early noughties with an impressive rap cover of Bananarama’s We’re Really Saying Something.

Over two decades later, girl group Buffalo G may be a distant memory to the music industry, but one star has become very successful in her own right.

Formed of duo Naomi Lynch and Olive Tucker, Buffalo G were an Irish duo who disbanded shortly after the success of their rap hit.

Their song reached the UK top 20 Charts and peaked at #13 in the Irish charts.

Naomi is the sister of Boyzone’s Shane Lynch and B*Witched singers Edele and Keavy Lynch, but has disappeared from the spotlight herself since rising to fame in 2000.

However, her bandmate Olive has become a success in another sector – swapping rap for the hair industry.

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Olive is now a multi-award winning hairdresser and educator – often sharing snippets of her hair career online.

With 10K followers on Instagram regularly updates her fans with family and work life snaps.

She also has her own podcasts with her two sisters, dubbed Tuck In Sisters.

When it comes to her personal life, Olive shares 12-year-old daughter Lola – a budding dancer – and son Sonny, nine, with her husband.

Olive was just 17 at the time of her fame with Naomi, and the pair still follow one another on social media 26 years later – suggesting they are still in touch.

Naomi now works as a fire dancer and choreographer, travelling around the world for work.

She shares two sons with her TV producer husband, Rowland French.