The real power of college has nothing to do with the classroom

In the wake of sexual assault allegations at Cornell University, the victimization of women on college campuses has returned to the public conversation.

Cornell’s 2025 state-mandated sexual misconduct survey reported that 35% of undergraduate women said they had experienced sexual assault since arriving at the university. The undergraduate response rate, however, was only 13%. Cornell’s presidential task force itself warned that the low response rate limits estimates and makes the results difficult to interpret.

People will sacrifice their daughters on the altar of the university for status. Imagine what else they will sacrifice.

If you take the headline number at face value, though, sending your daughter to Cornell sounds insane.

Conservative parents correctly tell a parallel story about the ideological and spiritual dangers of college. They complain that universities