Former Cornell fraternity members, dragged into scandal, ask university to clear their names

By Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at KatesG@cbsnews.com or grahamkates@protonmail.com Read Full Bio October 6, 2026 / 4:37 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google A group of former Cornell University students say they are being falsely connected to the  alleged 2024 fraternity house rape , and smeared and targeted online, and they want the college to say explicitly that they were not among men accused in the incident . The former students, members of the Chi Phi fraternity who graduated in 2022 and 2023, say online sleuths have wrongly pegged them for harassment, leading to negative personal and professional consequences.  A lawyer for the group asked the school in a letter on Oct. 3 to clear them and others who graduated prior to the alleged assault. “We understand that federal privacy law limits what Cornell may say about individual students, and we are not asking Cornell to identify anyone who was in the group chat,” wrote attorney Adam Ford, referring to a Snapchat message thread from the night of the October 2024 incident. “We are asking for the opposite: a public
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