Olivia Rodrigo delivers scathing words to Cornell as she rallies around the woman who accused students of rape

Olivia Rodrigo has issued an impassioned statement rallying around Jane Doe, the woman who claims she was drugged and raped by multiple male students at a Cornell University fraternity house two years ago. 

Seven students have been accused of sexually assaulting the unknown women while she was intoxicated at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024 in a case that has become known as the 'Cornell Seven.' 

In a lawsuit filed filed last month, Doe claimed that she was plied with alcohol, pressured to take ketamine and repeatedly sexually assaulted for hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024. 

Rodrigo has now joined A-listers Florence Pugh, Mariska Hargitay, and more in condemning the alleged sexual assault and response with a blistering statement in which she slammed the school and all other institutions who have allegedly protected 'rapists and abusers over women.' 

'Shame on Cornell and on every institution who protects rapists and abusers over women,' Rodrigo posted to her Instagram Stories on Saturday. 'I stand with Jane Doe. Her bravery reverberates across the country and the crimes against her will not go unpunished. 

'What she lived through matters, and so does the failure of those who could have intervened but chose not to. She deserves answers, consequences, and lasting change.' 

Along with the statement, Rodrigo re-posted a call for schools to provide 'economic reparations' to survivors along with a screenshot of a Substack article reflecting on Carry That Weight, a 2014 visual arts piece conducted by Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz who alleged to have been raped by a classmate.

The Cornell case gained renewed attention after Jane Doe filed a civil suit on September 16.

'Jane Doe' accused seven male students of raping and sexually assaulting her while she was intoxicated at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.

At the time Cornell conducted its own investigation and disciplined several students, but a criminal probe under District Attorney Matthew Van Houten's office did not result in any charges.

However Doe's lawsuit earlier this month sparked renewed interest in the case after it detailed fresh allegations and New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed has now Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor in the case.

Doe eventually dropped out of the university. The lawsuit also alleges that only two of the seven alleged attackers were expelled and some were asked only to submit essays.

The lawsuit names the university, seven fraternity brothers and a local bar as defendants. None of the seven men have been criminally charged. 

Three of the accused men, Scott Kretzschmar, Scott Norris and Gillio Lopes, have now publicly denied participating in the alleged sexual assaults or drug use described in the complaint. 

At the time of Cornell's 2024 investigation, the other four defendants admitted to sexual contact with Jane Doe but insisted it was consensual.

Rodrigo is not the first A-lister to speak out on the Cornell 7 scandal - Florence Pugh, Mariska Hargitay, Hudson Williams, and Josh Gad have also blasted the accused men and the university. 

Pugh issued a lengthy statement in which she saluted the people at the school for 'fighting for that girl' and 'exposing those boys' accused in the criminal attack.

'After reading about the young woman who was gang raped at her college by her friend and school peers,' the Academy Award-nominated actress said, 'I’m feeling uneasy and sick and anxious.'

'I’m processing quietly and watching everything and everyone and every man,' Pugh said. 'This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us.

'You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are. How can you expect us to trust that it’s "not all men" when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?'

Hargitay, meanwhile, posted: 'We refuse for this victim to be reduced to just another story. Cornell has failed to protect its students.'

'When we start setting a precedent that our girls and women can be brutally raped, and the resulting disciplinary action is to hand out (checks notes) ESSAYS (like it’s Bart Simpson being a lil’ rascal) about why it was wrong to brutally violate an innocent girl, we have lost our f**king minds,' Gad posted. 

'Arrest them,' Hudson posted. 'F**k them and f**k Cornell, too!'