Wes Moore: To prevent the next Cornell 7 case, we must raise better men

I am father to a daughter and a son. I want both of my children to grow up with all of their God-honoring and God-given opportunities.

As I read about the case involving Cornell fraternity members and the horrifying acts that an anonymous student described enduring, I think of my own children.

I worry for my daughter’s future safety when some college campuses seem more concerned with protecting their reputation than protecting their students. I think about my son, too, and the conversations he and I have had and will keep having — about being a provider, a protector, and about whom he will fight for, especially when others will not and when it is not easy.

All students deserve to feel safe at their own schools. That’s why I recently directed the Maryland Higher Education Commission to issue comprehensive and actionable recommendations for improving and strengthening campus sexual assault policies and disciplinary standards across the state’s institutions of higher education.

Ensuring our colleges and universities aren’t set up in a way that protects perpetrators of violence is a basic act of justice we owe to those who have survived these violent acts. It’s the floor. But if it is where our action starts and ends, then we are not doing enough.

Cases like the one at Cornell reflect a failing of an entire culture — a failure that calls us to reexamine the values we instill in our young men and how we teach them to treat women. That starts with better sex education in schools, more fathers willing to have tough conversations with sons and male role-models having these same conversations.

This year, I signed legislation requiring our department of education to establish standard operating procedures on sexual abuse which every local school system must then adopt. Maryland is also one of only 16 states that require sex education to cover consent . But these conversations cannot only take place at school, which is why Maryland is partnering with the Parent Encouragement Program to provide a structured course for fathers to have these discussions. Too often, those conversations are left to mothers or don’t happen at all.

My father died when I was three years old. My mother raised my sisters and me while working multiple jobs. She — along with my sisters — did a lot to support me and lift me up. But she could not teach me how to be a man.

The places where I came together in community with other men were foundational in shaping me, from basketball courts to the military to my fraternity. In these spaces I found values like integrity, service, respect and empathy — values that embody brotherhood at its best.

The allegations by Jane Doe about what happened at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity embodied the exact opposite.

I know what it’s like to be a young man looking for somewhere to belong. Young men are always looking for that, and they’ll find it one way or another. What matters is whether they find spaces that make them better, hold them accountable and help them grow.

Here in Maryland, we have created those spaces through initiatives like our Service Year Option , a paid year-long work opportunity that gives young people mentorship and real-world work experience through serving their communities. We also created Thrive Academy , which targets our most at-risk youth and provides them with individualized services, including a life coach, to help change their trajectory for the better. What makes these programs different is the presence of engaged, caring adults, a curriculum and a program that is about more than just oneself.

A large and growing problem is not the community young men build in-person, but online. Content that normalizes gender-based violence is pervasive and too easy for young people to access.

In Maryland, we’re working with organizations like Diverting Hate to identify ways to interrupt the so-called “manosphere” by redirecting men from harmful content to positive resources. We’re also exploring ways to protect young people from deepfakes. Maryland is one of the only, if not the only, state to have a task force that focuses on combating crimes committed using AI and identifying deepfakes. And in 2025, I signed legislation to expand Maryland’s revenge porn law to protect victims of AI-generated deepfakes.

Too often, action to address sexual violence is focused on how institutions like universities or workplaces can better protect women. This is an important, but incomplete solution. We must also focus on how we can raise better men. That imperative falls on policymakers just as much as it does on fathers, teachers and mentors. There are tangible actions leaders at the state and federal level must take.

In Maryland, through our Young Men and Boys Initiative , we are working to address the data showing young men and boys are falling behind. But that work is incomplete if we don’t also examine how young men — and the systems that protect them — have failed women.

We don’t do false choices. Lifting up our young men and protecting our young women are not competing missions. They are intertwined. And it requires raising boys who know that real strength means protecting others, not overpowering them.

Wes Moore (D) is the 63rd governor of Maryland.