Eaglin was charged and arrested by Cornell University Police Department on March 6, 2016 for charges including first degree rape and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation.
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).
The alleged sexual assault reportedly took place on Feb. 15 around midnight in the victim’s dorm room in Balch Hall, a first-year women’s dormitory on North Campus.
Cornell police charged Xavier Eaglin ’19 with first-degree rape, three counts of first-degree criminal sexual assault and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation.