USG senate adopts statements on Cornell case, data center construction in South Brunswick

The Undergraduate Student Government senate unanimously adopted two statements at its Sunday meeting, addressing an alleged rape at a Cornell fraternity and the planned opening of a data center near campus in South Brunswick. The statements, sent to the student body Sunday night, criticized the handling of sexual assault investigations at Cornell and at Princeton and opposed the data center due to its potential health risks to Princeton residents.  

The first statement, addressed to “the Officers of the University,” responds to a former Cornell student’s allegation that a group of several men sexually assaulted her at a 2024 fraternity party. Her Sept. 16 lawsuit filed against multiple former Cornell students and the university, among others, has prompted national outrage over Cornell’s handling of its Title IX investigation and the local district attorney’s decision not to bring charges. 

“We call on the University to publicly express solidarity with Jane Doe and to amend its Title IX and Sexual Misconduct policies to create a safer campus, and to make the Title IX process work for survivors as opposed to protecting the University’s image,” the email to students from the USG senate read. 

The list of requests made by the USG senate included a public expression of solidarity with Jane Doe, the reform of the alternate resolution process — a voluntary mechanism used to resolve disciplinary complaints without a formal hearing — and expanding students’ access to information regarding sexual assault or misconduct resources. The letter requests that “a substantive response to this letter that explicitly addresses the requests made no later than close of business Thursday, October 8th.”

“We are also appalled by the systemic administrative failures this case reveals that continue to exist in higher education, Title IX offices, and the Ivy League,” the statement read. “The policy inadequacies that have failed Jane Doe are all too familiar at Princeton. We are alarmed by the parallel ways each institution has exhibited a lack of regard for student safety.”

According to records obtained by The New York Times, Cornell expelled two of the seven men accused of being involved in the assault and gave varying punishments to the others. Cornell initially said on Tuesday that it conducted a thorough Title IX investigation and published an FAQ saying it shared “all investigatory information” with the district attorney, Matthew Van Houten. The university later changed that FAQ to say it shared “the victim’s sworn statement” and a screenshot of a Snapchat discussion between fraternity brothers, according to reporting by the Cornell Daily Sun. 

The district attorney released a statement on Sept. 28 asserting that the Jane Doe’s November 2024 sworn statement did not “allege she was drugged against her will or gang raped.” 

On Thursday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor for the case. Cornell also agreed to an independent review of how it handled the case.  

The USG statement levied criticism against Princeton’s Title IX process. “At Princeton, Title IX investigations are long and arduous processes that treat survivors unacceptably and discourage reporting; the Title IX office is focused on protecting the University’s reputation rather than students’ well-being; and the alternate resolution process (ARP) forces survivors into an impossible choice between timely resolution and true justice,” the statement read.

Treasurer Marvel Jem Roth ’28 emphasized at the Sunday meeting that she met with current and prior Title IX office heads prior to the presentation of the statement to the senate. Roth said that she met with Dean of Undergraduate Students Regan Crotty ’00, who was the University’s first Director of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration from 2014 to 2022, and with current director Randy Hubert, while U-Council Chair Isaac Barsoum ’28 met with Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun. Roth noted in a statement to the ‘Prince’ that Crotty, Hubert, and Calhoun did not review the direct language statement prior to its publication, but answered clarifying questions and provided additional documents not otherwise publicly available.

Responding to questions during the meeting about victim safety on campus during active investigations, Barsoum pointed to the statement’s hope of “codifying systems to temporarily remove those from campus who pose a serious threat to safety.”

Barsoum is an associate Opinion editor for the ‘Prince.’

The senate’s second statement issued Sunday evening strongly urged the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to deny the air permit application for a new data center currently under construction in South Brunswick. “We are concerned about the development’s impact on community health in Princeton and the Princeton area, including but not limited to its effects on Princeton University students,” the statement read. 

The data center will be an approximately 341,000-square-foot facility run with 20 diesel generators providing backup power, though the statement said that they will be regularly tested. It is located on the former Princeton Nurseries site in South Brunswick, land the University sold to a developer in 2024 and the township approved for the project in May 2025. The company that will operate the facility is still unknown, according to a TAPinto Princeton article on the construction published Sept. 24. 

“The emissions from these diesel generators will blow over communities close to the data center, including ours. These diesel generators are disingenuously each characterized as ‘minor sources’ of emissions, but in sum, they will constitute a major source of pollution,” the statement read.  

The South Brunswick project is one of many data center fights nationwide, where worries about electricity costs, water use, and local control have fueled protests and moratoriums. An August Annenberg Public Policy Center survey found that 61 percent of U.S. adults oppose data center construction in their area.

Students were encouraged to sign onto a form in support of the “Statement in Opposition to Data Center Development in South Brunswick, N.J.” by Tuesday at 5 p.m. 

USG meetings are open to the public and held weekly on Sundays at 5 p.m. in Robertson 016. 

Nico David-Fox is a head News editor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Washington, D.C. and often covers breaking news. He can be reached at ndf[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Nika Schindler is the assistant News editor for the ‘Prince’ leading University operations coverage. She is from Atherton, Calif.

Grace Meyerle contributed reporting. 

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.