Cornell University faces backlash over explicit sex education materials

Cornell University is facing public criticism over explicit sexual education materials handed out to students, the Daily Mail reported. The materials included a checklist that encouraged students to discuss group sex, BDSM, having multiple sexual partners, and encounters involving alcohol or recreational drugs. According to the Daily Mail, the materials were produced by Cornell Health. [1]

The controversy arrives while the university continues to deal with allegations of a gang rape involving seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, the Daily Mail and The New York Times reported. As FTMQ News reported earlier, about 80 students recently held a seven-hour sit-in protest on campus over concerns that university leadership mishandled the investigation into the alleged assault of an anonymous student identified as Jane Doe. [1][2][7]

Cornell University is a private Ivy League research institution located in Ithaca, New York. It was co-founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White as a co-educational, nonsectarian school. Wikipedia notes that the university enrolled 16,128 undergraduate students and 10,665 postgraduate students as of fall 2024. [3]

Legal challenges related to the fraternity case are also ongoing. As FTMQ News reported earlier, defense attorneys filed a bar ethics complaint and legal petitions to remove New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case over alleged bias. The New York Times reported that Jane Doe was also recently the victim of a swatting incident at her home. [2][8]