The former Cornell fraternity president who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor sex offense was sentenced on Tuesday to six years of probation and will be required to stay away from the victim for three years.
District Attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to comment on whether the initial court documents alleging that Ballinger locked a woman in his fraternity bedroom and attempted to have sex with her were accurate.
“I know for a fact he’s taking at least one online hotel management course at NYU and his email is in the NYU database,” the source told NYU Local in a message Tuesday.
The Tompkins County Supreme Court granted Ballinger a temporary restraining order on Monday that prevents Cornell from adjudicating claims until June 30.
It’s especially scary when, on the front page of the news, there’s a mugshot of someone you frequently see in your dorm, the dining hall, parties or classes being charged with rape. My heart goes out to the courageous women who survived these ordeals and rightfully reported them. Whenever I hear about these terrible crimes, I cannot ignore the small voice that says, “it could have been you.” Sexual harassment is happening to us individually on the daily, even if we do not realize it, and we must realize this in order to truly help others. Wolf-whistling, cat-calling and lurid up-and-down gazes are so commonplace that most women just brush them off and move on but such sexual gestures indicate that regarding women as sexual objects still persists. Furthermore, it may seem like the recent highly-publicized Wolfgang Ballinger and Xavier Eaglin rape crimes are isolated exceptions within a peaceful, liberal and crime-free campus but the shocking fact is that 5% of women on college campuses in America are victims of rape or attempted rape every year (Kilpatrick, Resnick, Riggierio, Conoscenti, & McCauley, 2007; American College Health Association, 2013).
Baker War Memorial Flagpole was covered with graffiti that said “All frats rape,” and a side door at the unaffiliated Delta Upsilon fraternity house was graffitied with the word “Rapist.”