This weekend brought a bit of everything in the United States, from the Major League Baseball Division Series—which reignited the passion for sports among millions of fans—to Taylor Swift’s surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live alongside Dakota Johnson, while Donald Trump announced a $90 payment for more than 20 million Medicare beneficiaries.
All of this is part of life in a country that produces spectacle, money, culture, and power on a massive scale. However, while one part of the United States goes about its routine of major sporting events, celebrities, and an election campaign entering its final stretch, another news story has forced us to turn our attention to an issue that once again brings to the forefront the kind of society we have built and the kind of society we intend to pass on to our children.
The case involves a former Cornell student who accuses seven members of a fraternity of sexually assaulting her after she consumed alcohol and ketamine during a party in October 2024. The university expelled two students and ordered the permanent closure of the fraternity, while the others named in the case continued with their academic and professional lives, some of them later securing positions at major companies.
It is important to view this case from a broader perspective, because a university that educates those who will later hold positions of responsibility in companies and institutions has an obligation that goes beyond the prestige of its classrooms. The way it responds to such a serious allegation speaks to the principles it instills in its students and the rules it expects them to follow off campus.
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Defending the United States also means acknowledging the things that are troubling. Our country can remain a leading economic, technological, military, and cultural power, even as that strength coexists with social problems that do not disappear despite the size of our economy or the influence we wield in the world. A nation can lead markets, attract talent, and produce some of the most prestigious universities on the planet, while simultaneously harboring deep divisions on such fundamental issues as safety, sexual violence, and trust in its institutions.
Nor does this make Cornell or this case representative of all of American society. The allegations must run their course, and responsibility will have to be determined based on evidence, but the incident does reopen a discussion that we have put off far too many times. What are we teaching our children about respect, consent, responsibility, and consequences? What does this say about our institutional culture if a person has to file a lawsuit to get a university to reconsider a complaint of this nature?
We Americans often talk about global leadership, opportunities, and freedom, because our economic and political clout is based on real foundations. That strength, however, also compels us to hold ourselves to higher standards. It is not enough to have powerful companies, renowned universities, and an economy capable of setting the international pace if, within our own institutions, there are behaviors that force us to ask ourselves what kind of citizens we are shaping.
The United States will remain a superpower because it still has the resources, talent, and capacity to correct its mistakes. The true defense of the country also lies in ensuring that these strengths extend into everyday life, that those who speak out are heard, and that prestige does not serve as a shield against accountability. That is the society we should aspire to leave to our children, because a country’s greatness is also measured by how it treats those with less power.
