Qamar Bashir
At Cornell University of the United States, a former student identified as Jane Doe lodged a complaint that seven fraternity members sexually assaulted her after she was pressured to consume alcohol and drugs at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024. Her September 2026 civil lawsuit brought renewed scrutiny to the university and the authorities who initially declined prosecution. The alleged violence is horrifying. The handling of her complaint demands an equally searching examination.
Reflecting back, when my niece received a scholarship to study in Copenhagen, our family confronted a question familiar to countless Pakistani households: should a young woman travel abroad alone and live independently for three years? I was then serving as Pakistan’s press minister in France. The family consulted me, and I encouraged them to support her. I trusted that the institutions around her would protect her freedom, dignity and safety. She completed her studies and returned to Pakistan with her qualification and happy memories.
Today, my own daughter attends the University of Michigan–Dearborn. Her bus journey takes approximately two hours there and back. That same confidence was shaken when, during her journey home, an adult man approached her, forced his telephone number on her and pressured her to date him. His intimidating behavior turned an ordinary commute into an unsettling experience.
Reading the allegations emerging from Cornell deepened that father’s fear. Families send their children to universities with dreams. Neither the campus nor the journey home should become a place where intimidation restricts their freedom.
She reported the alleged assault to police in November 2024 but the entire system instead of taking the matter seriously and conducting a thorough investigation stood with the system and protected the abhorrent rapists.
However, she gathered the courage once again and nearly two years later, her pursuit of accountability became a national controversy. Every institution involved must answer a question that no carefully drafted statement can erase: what did you do when she first asked for help?.
District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he received a six-page statement and a Snapchat video and put them under the carpet is now being asked difficult questions. Why did his office not obtain the underlying material before deciding against prosecution? A prosecutor’s responsibility demands active inquiry, particularly when a complaint leaves consequential questions unanswered.
Cornell’s assertion that it shared all investigatory information makes the discrepancy more serious. What records existed? Which were transmitted? Who reviewed them? Who decided that further investigation was unnecessary? These questions require documents, testimony and independent scrutiny. The woman who sought protection should never have been left to expose weaknesses in the machinery responsible for investigating her complaint.
Promises of greater diligence now demand an explanation of why comparable diligence was not exercised earlier. Missing information should provoke further inquiry. It cannot serve as a satisfactory endpoint. The handling of this complaint requires its own reckoning alongside the investigation of the alleged assault.
On October 1, Governor Kathy Hochul appointed the New York attorney general’s office as special prosecutor. This intervention must establish the evidence and examine the decisions surrounding the original investigation. Transferring a case cannot become a substitute for accounting for its history. Every proven instance of obstruction, misconduct or neglect must carry consequences.
Cornell reports that its disciplinary proceedings produced expulsions, suspensions and other sanctions. Those actions do not settle whether the university fulfilled every responsibility to the complainant. It must answer for the treatment she received, the handling of evidence and the adequacy of its response. Institutional accountability cannot end where an institution’s preferred explanation begins.
Cornell’s own survey makes complacency indefensible. Among undergraduate women responding to its 2025 survey, 35 percent reported nonconsensual sexual contact during their time at the university. That finding demands sustained action from its leadership. Students’ experiences of sexual harm cannot be answered indefinitely with expressions of concern, committees and recommendations. Prevention, support and accountability must be measured by what changes in students’ lives.
University culture must change wherever reputation takes precedence over confronting violence. A student who reports an assault deserves compassion, protection and a determined pursuit of truth. Burying complaints, discouraging disclosure or interfering with an investigation compounds the original harm. Wherever such conduct occurs, it is an institutional betrayal.
Universities must stand beside students seeking help and commit their resources to securing justice. Supporting a complainant requires immediate care, protection against retaliation and a thorough, independent investigation capable of producing reliable findings. An institution earns honor by confronting wrongdoing within its walls. Concealment only deepens the eventual disgrace. Transparency and accountability make a university worthy of trust.
The same obligation extends to transport authorities. Students must be able to report threatening behavior without being dismissed or forced to navigate an inaccessible complaints system. Universities should coordinate with transit providers on clear reporting procedures and practical assistance. The daily journey to an education must receive serious attention in any credible commitment to student safety.
Families have responsibilities too. The shame of sexual violence belongs to those who commit it. Reporting an assault does not dishonor a family. Drinking, taking drugs, entering a fraternity house or trusting an acquaintance gives nobody permission to violate another person’s body. A student seeking help should never face an interrogation of her worthiness to receive it.
International students can face additional obstacles: distance from family, unfamiliar procedures, language barriers and uncertainty about whom to trust. Universities that recruit them must provide accessible, independent assistance. The promise of a world-class education carries a duty of care that cannot disappear when a complaint becomes inconvenient.
Reform must examine how campus police, health services, disciplinary offices and prosecutors handle allegations and exchange information. Original accounts and relevant evidence must be preserved. Transfers must be documented. Decisions to discontinue investigations must withstand meaningful review. Where institutional conflicts exist, students need a clear route to independent authorities.
Medical care, appropriate forensic services, confidential advocacy and protection against retaliation must be readily available. No fraternity, athletic program, donor relationship or tradition should be insulated from scrutiny. Policies matter only when they are enforced, and leadership means accepting responsibility when enforcement fails.
The answer cannot be to withdraw daughters from education or confine their lives until fear determines their choices. Students deserve freedom without being left alone to manage the risks. The burden belongs on those who commit violence and the institutions responsible for preventing, investigating and addressing it.
Cornell must become a turning point. Establish the truth. Prosecute where the evidence warrants. Investigate every credible allegation of obstruction or neglect. Publish institutional findings while protecting the complainant’s privacy. A reputation damaged by questions of accountability can be restored only through accountability.
Parents send their children to build a future. They do not surrender them to violence, intimidation or bureaucratic abandonment. No university’s prestige outweighs a student’s dignity. No official’s position excuses a failure of duty. Justice must reach anyone proven responsible for the assault, and accountability must reach every institution proven to have failed the student who sought its help. Anything less would leave the deepest betrayal intact.
The writer is Press Secretary to the President (Rtd),Former Press Minister, Embassy of Pakistan to France,Former Press Attaché to Malaysia and Former MD, SRBC.He is living in Michigan, USA
