WE ARE JANE DOE.
JUSTICE FOR CORNELL'S JANE DOE AND ALL SURVIVORS.

The “Cornell 7” case refers to a September 2026 civil lawsuit filed by a former Cornell University student, known as Jane Doe. The lawsuit alleges she was drugged and gang raped by seven members of Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024, and names Cornell University and the fraternity among the defendants.

The Cornell Jane Doe lawsuit sparked massive outrage across the country and drew attention to the barriers survivors of campus sexual assault face when seeking justice. Following the lawsuit and public outcry, New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor to oversee a criminal investigation into the allegations.

We Are Jane Doe is a survivor-centered coalition of more than 30 organizations, led by UltraViolet, working to turn that outrage into action by fighting for justice, holding institutions accountable, and changing the systems that fail survivors.

We Are Jane Doe coalition is survivor-centered, meaning we believe every survivor of sexual violence deserves to be heard, supported, and empowered to make their own decisions about when, how, and whether to share their story and seek justice.

Jane Doe’s experience shows why this matters. After her alleged sexual assault in October 2024, Jane Doe initially struggled to process and name what had happened to her, according to testimony reviewed by ABC News. She reported the alleged assault to Cornell campus police in November 2024 and later spoke publicly  about feeling “unsupported and disbelieved” after learning that Cornell’s president had questioned why the alleged assault was not reported sooner.

Jane Doe’s experience reflects a painful reality for many rape and sexual assault survivors: processing sexual violence can take time, and survivors are too often questioned or judged for how they respond to trauma. According to  RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), many survivors need time to understand what happened, process their experiences, and decide when and whether to disclose or report sexual violence.

There is no right way or timeline to process sexual violence. Survivors should not have to justify why they didn’t come forward sooner, why they struggled to recognize what happened, or why they chose to share their story when they did.

Our coalition believes survivors deserve control over their own stories, their healing, and their decisions about how to seek justice. We want every survivor to know: You are not alone. We believe you. We support you. You have a community standing with you.

The We Are Jane Doe Coalition focuses on four goals to strengthen protections against rape and sexual assault and fight for justice for survivors:

1. Close loopholes in state sexual assault laws that prevent survivors from getting justice, including New York’s “voluntary intoxication” loophole. As The Washington Post reported, the Tompkins County District Attorney cited this legal loophole when explaining why criminal charges were not filed in the Cornell 7 case in 2024.
2. Strengthen federal Title IX protections for students facing sexual harassment and sexual assault. In September 2026, the Trump administration rolled back Title IX protections, making it harder for some survivors to get help and hold schools accountable.
3. Hold universities accountable through student-led organizing to prevent campus sexual assault, improve support for survivors, and give students a voice in how their schools respond to sexual violence.
4. Challenge rape culture and end the silencing of survivors by changing the attitudes, values, and behaviors that allow sexual violence to continue.

Survivors deserve laws that protect them no matter where they live. But rape and sexual assault laws vary widely from state to state, and gaps in those laws can make it harder to hold abusers accountable.

One example is the “voluntary intoxication” loophole in New York rape law, which can make it harder to prosecute sexual assault when the victim was too intoxicated to consent but voluntarily chose to drink alcohol or use drugs.

Let’s be clear: someone who is intoxicated cannot give consent, regardless of whether they chose to drink or use drugs. Choosing to consume alcohol or drugs is NOT the same as consenting to sexual activity – FULL STOP.

According to the Associated Press, 19 states have sexual assault laws that recognize intoxication as mental incapacity only when someone was drunk or drugged without their knowledge or consent. In 25 other states and Washington, D.C., it does not matter if the intoxication was voluntary or involuntary. Six states do not define this in state law.

In New York, lawmakers have introduced Assembly Bill A101 and Senate Bill S10632 to address this legal loophole by expanding protections for sexual assault victims who were voluntarily intoxicated. The Senate passed S10632 unanimously on June 4, 2026, with a vote of 60–0, but the legislation remains pending in the Assembly. S10632 followed an earlier Senate bill, S54, during the 2025–2026 legislative session.

UltraViolet is calling on New York lawmakers to immediately close the loophole and strengthen protections for survivors.

Title IX is a federal civil rights law that protects students from sex discrimination, including sexual harassment and sexual assault. It also sets rules for how colleges and schools respond when students report sexual assault.

The Trump administration has severely weakened protections for campus sexual assault survivors through changes to Title IX. In September 2026, the Department of Education formally reinstated past Title IX rules from Trump’s first term. Those rules use a much narrower definition of sexual harassment, create unnecessary barriers for students seeking help, and make it harder to hold schools accountable when they fail survivors.

The We Are Jane Doe coalition’s goal is to strengthen federal Title IX protections and hold universities accountable so every student can get an education free from sexual violence and discrimination.

We Are Jane Doe supports student-led organizing to hold colleges and universities accountable for preventing and responding to campus sexual assault.

Students are directly affected by sexual violence on campus and should play a leading role in shaping how their universities respond. Through student-led campaigns, we demand stronger survivor protections, greater transparency, and meaningful accountability from universities.

Our goal is to build student power so universities make campuses safer, improve support for survivors, and give students a voice in how their schools respond to sexual violence.

Rape culture refers to the beliefs, values, and behaviors that normalize, excuse, or minimize sexual violence and contribute to blaming or silencing survivors.

Rape culture can look like questioning survivors’ credibility, blaming victims for sexual assault, spreading harmful myths about consent, or protecting powerful people or institutions from accountability.

The We Are Jane Doe Coalition challenges rape culture through media advocacy, digital and technology accountability, and creative cultural campaigns.

In October 2026, UltraViolet pressured Polymarket, a website where people bet on real-world events, to remove a disgusting betting market about the Cornell 7 case. This is rape culture: sexual violence should never be treated as entertainment or something people can profit from.

UltraViolet and partner organizations are also calling out Big Tech companies like Meta for censoring posts and online discussion about the Cornell 7 case. This is rape culture: Big Tech should not be allowed to silence survivors and censor advocates who speak out about sexual violence — all while ignoring actual violence and harassment on its platforms.

Our goal is to change how people think, talk, and act around sexual violence and build a culture where survivors are believed and sexual assault is never minimized or ignored.