Cornell University records show substantial drug activity at the Chi Phi fraternity house before a student alleged she was drugged and sexually assaulted there. Campus police made a drug-related arrest just hours before the reported group assault and responded to a ketamine overdose at the house the previous day.
According to Cornell University Police’s Daily Crime Log, officers arrived at Chi Phi around 1:05 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2024. During the approximately 40-minute response, police made a drug-related arrest and referred an individual to the university’s Office of Student Conduct.
A recently released Cornell Title IX hearing decision also references an overdose at the fraternity house.
“Ketamine was a substance used by multiple individuals in the Chi Phi house at the time, including [redacted] who had overdosed on or about Oct. 18, 2024,” the university document states, according to the Cornell Daily Sun.
The disclosures have prompted renewed questions about why Chi Phi was not suspended after the drug arrest and overdose — and before a woman says she was assaulted at the house.
The former Cornell student identified in court documents as Jane Doe says she arrived at Chi Phi at about 11 p.m., hours after the drug arrest. She alleges that fraternity members pressured her to take drugs before sexually assaulting her through the early morning hours of Oct. 20.
In her lawsuit, Doe claims Cornell “knew or should have known” about a pattern of drug use at Chi Phi, including ketamine. She also alleges that campus police responded to a drug-related incident at the house roughly one week before the reported assault.
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Cornell’s current Sorority and Fraternity Life policy bans illegal drugs in chapter houses. It also allows the university to impose an immediate interim suspension when alleged violations present health or safety concerns.
Chi Phi was eventually suspended on Nov. 8, 2024, after Doe reported the alleged assault to campus police.
At Cornell’s Ithaca campus, Chi Phi was known as the “rugby house.” Some students described its members as heavy-drinking, rowdy athletes.
In an online forum focused on Greek life, one student wrote, “Chi Phi have a lot of ruggers, they drink, of course, as a team, because that’s what rugby players do.”
Another described the fraternity as having “very fratty brothers who are usually real drunk at parties . . . and have turned [Chi Phi] into the rugby house.”
The Post reported that three members of the group dubbed the “Cornell Seven” belonged to the Cornell Rugby Football Club.
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A fourth fraternity member, who is not among the Cornell Seven but is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, also played for the rugby club for at least three years, through 2026, according to team rosters.
Doe’s lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses that member of “breaching his duty to supervise and maintain” the fraternity house’s safety while she was allegedly “plied with alcohol and drugs” and “sexually assaulted and raped” for at least four hours.
No criminal charges have been filed against any of the Cornell Seven or the other fraternity member.
According to the lawsuit, one rugby player proposed a threesome involving another fraternity member and took Doe upstairs sometime after she entered Chi Phi at 11 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2024.
At 1:42 a.m., a Snapchat group chat allegedly advertised “free p—y.” Another message responded, “like you can walk in and whip it out.”
The lawsuit alleges that five fraternity members went upstairs after the Snapchat messages, joined by three others, and snorted ketamine from Doe’s body while she lay on a bed.
One fraternity member has publicly denied taking part in the alleged assault. The remaining accused individuals have not responded to the allegations.
Two rugby players allegedly stayed behind when the other brothers left the room after doing ketamine and took Doe to another room where they did more ketamine and had another threesome while she was “completely incapacitated.”
The rugby club says it removed the players, but questions are mounting about what it knew over the past two years, given two of the men played for the team into 2026 — two years after the alleged rape.
While it was quick to say none of the current players are Chi Phi members — the frat has been suspended from campus since the incident — the house has been associated with the school’s rugby club for several years.
The rugby club said in an Instagram post last week it was “deeply disturbed” by the information that came to light, calling the allegations “horrific.”
The club’s head coach, Dave Burke, didn’t return The Post’s calls, and coach Zach Ahlin hung up when reached by a Post reporter.
“Players who were known to be connected with the alleged events were permanently removed from the team and alumni network as soon as their affiliation with the incident was established,” said the statement from Cornell Rugby Football Club posted to Instagram last week.
The club said nothing when the allegations first surfaced in 2024, even as Chi Phi was suspended by the university, yet claimed last week that “team leadership has acted as quickly and thoroughly as the available information has allowed.”
Cornell University didn’t respond to The Post’s questions about the rugby club or about the Oct. 18 and Oct. 19 alleged incidents. Cornell University Police also did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
