We may never know exactly what happened at the Chi Pi fraternity on the Cornell campus on an October night in 2024. Memories fade and become selective over time. The participants were in varied states of intoxication.
But whatever uncertainties linger, and regardless of whatever new evidence emerges, one fact remains salient. Each young man at the scene had an opportunity to behave honorably. Each had a chance to act in a way that would have made his parents proud. To enlist some quaint language: Each young man had an opportunity to behave like a gentleman.
None did. Instead, each young man behaved abysmally.
Legal scholars have observed that law and morality are concentric circles with the same center but different radii. That observation is germane here.
In the pending criminal proceeding, the court may rule that the young men’s behavior did not violate the law. New York sexual assault law is convoluted, especially in situations where the victim has become severely impaired by voluntarily consuming alcohol or drugs. But even if the court ultimately finds no violation of the law, there was assuredly a violation of common decency. The text messages exchanged among the fraternity brothers — “free pussy upstairs,” “like you can walk in and whip it out,” and “is the shop still open?” – display a shameful moral depravity.
College is a time of experimentation, and freedom often leads to excess. Young men are not expected to behave like Puritans, and fraternities are not expected to serve as cities on a hill. But one does expect young men to refrain from exploiting an obviously helpless young woman – regardless of how she came to be in that state.
In a different age and a different culture, masculine forbearance had a name. It was called chivalry. The name comes from the French word for knight, “chevalier.” It was a code whose rules date back to The Song of Roland, the epic poem of France. It enjoined knights to fear God, serve their liege lord, live by honor and for glory, protect the weak, and respect the honor of women.
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