{"id":368922,"date":"2026-10-09T14:10:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T14:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368922\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T14:10:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T14:10:24","slug":"nys-lawmaker-pitches-bill-to-give-sex-assault-victims-tuition-reimbursement-in-wake-of-cornell-7-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368922\/","title":{"rendered":"NYS lawmaker pitches bill to give sex assault victims tuition reimbursement in wake of Cornell 7 case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new state bill would require colleges to reimburse tuition to sexual assault victims \u2013 after a report that Cornell denied a refund to the student at the center of the \u201cCornell 7\u201d gang rape scandal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State Assembly member Grace Lee (D-Manhattan) will introduce the \u201cSurvivor\u2019s Choice Act\u201d Thursday, which will require all public and private higher ed schools in the Empire State to refund tuition for a semester they take leave or withdraw from classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo survivor of sexual assault should have to choose between their recovery and their education,\u201d Lee said a statement to The Post. \u201cThe Survivor\u2019s Choice Act gives survivors the freedom to step away from school without being punished academically or financially.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assembly member Grace Lee, the primary sponsor of the survivors choice act. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The bill would also allow alleged victims of sexual assault to rollover payments when they reenroll as full-time students. <\/p>\n

The Chi Pi fraternity house is shown on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Friday, October 2, 2026 \u2014 where Jane Doe alleges she was gang raped by seven of the greek organization\u2019s fraternity members. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Manhattan lawmaker is sponsoring the bill in the wake of the \u201cCornell 7\u201d case<\/a> \u2013 after Jane Doe\u2019s attorney claimed in an interview with CNN that Cornell University denied her a tuition refund when she tried to take a leave of absence following her alleged 2024 gang rape<\/a> by seven members of the school\u2019s Chi Phi Fraternity.<\/p>\n

\u201c(She) wanted to leave the university and go home and heal,\u201d attorney Thomas Giffura said \u2014 adding that instead, \u201cshe spent an entire semester on campus where she saw these guys on a fairly regular basis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Survivor\u2019s Choice Act would apply to any individual taking leave of absence or withdrawing as a result of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and\/or sexual assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill language claims that students seeking to invoke the act must provide their university with either an order of protection, a police report, a medical record or a signed statement from a counselor, advocate, doctor, attorney or clergy member.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few dozen Columbia and Barnard students gather at 116th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, New York, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. The group gathered to show support for Jane Doe, a female student at Cornell who was sexually assaulted by a group of male students. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n

The legislation \u2013 which is modeled after the current standards in place for active military duty personnel \u2013 also guarantees that students in good standing are guaranteed readmission within two years of their withdrawal from school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Survivor\u2019s Choice Act would also protect students from receiving \u201cW\u201d or failing grades on their transcript when deciding to take leave \u2013 and would require the institution cover and federal aid loans requiring repayment,<\/p>\n

\u201cColleges have a responsibility to support survivors not stick them with a tuition bill for a school they can\u2019t attend, and we\u2019re going to hold them to it,\u201d Lee said in a statement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new state bill would require colleges to reimburse tuition to sexual assault victims \u2013 after a report…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[134741,6005,68,57,9,11,10,49,17566,51,50,3018,58],"class_list":["post-368922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cornell-7","tag-cornell-university","tag-exclusive","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-assembly","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-rape","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}