New York has put a special prosecutor on a Cornell gang-rape case, bad news for the university and for a Greek system now facing calls to be shut down.

• A former Cornell student says she was drugged and raped by seven fraternity men at a 2024 party; the local DA declined to charge, pointing to her own sworn statements describing the drug use and sex as voluntary.
• She has now sued the university, the fraternity, her sorority, and the seven men, and Governor Hochul forced an outside investigation and named Letitia James special prosecutor.
• Her text messages are the fight: some say nothing illegal happened, later ones say most of the night was not consensual.
• Ketamine sits at the center of the dispute — a heavy dose leaves someone unable to track reality, so whether she could consent, and whether the men could tell, is the whole case.
• Cornell's Greek system has a long hazing and death record, and the harder question is whether fraternities should exist at all rather than who said what that night.

Outlook: Expect a drawn-out legal fight with no criminal charges yet, and more pressure on Ivy League schools to rein in or scrap fraternities.