CHICAGO (AP) — Police are investigating a woman's report that she was sexually assaulted during a fraternity party near the University of Chicago campus, an allegation that comes at a time of heightened awareness of sexual violence on college campuses.
Chicago police said no one had been charged Wednesday, a day after university officials posted an alert saying that a person of interest had been identified.
Click to Gallery
Cups and cans are seen outside the AEPi fraternity house near the University of Chicago campus in Chicago, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, where an alleged sexual assault was reported at a weekend party. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The AEPi fraternity house near the University of Chicago campus in Chicago, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, where an alleged sexual assault was reported at a weekend party. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The Lambda chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity near the University of Chicago on the South Side, is shown on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
University of Chicago sign is displayed on the campus in Chicago, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The Lambda chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity near the University of Chicago on the South Side, is shown on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
The Chicago case comes amid an uproar over Cornell University's handling of a woman's allegations that she was drugged and gang raped by fraternity members in 2024. A campus investigation led to internal disciplinary action by the university, but no criminal charges were ever filed.
The University of Chicago, a top-ranked U.S. research school with an enrollment of 18,000 students, said in a statement that a woman reported being sexually assaulted early Sunday during a party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house.
The university said the perpetrator fled the house after being confronted by another person.
The 21-year-old woman reported the assault to police and went to a hospital for treatment, according to Chicago police. The university said she is not a student.
Chicago police did not immediately provide a copy of the incident report on the alleged attack when The Associated Press requested it Wednesday.
The Chicago Sun-Times, citing the police report, said the woman told police she had been drinking and dancing at the party before she began feeling unwell. The Sun-Times said the report stated two of the woman's friends then found her “not fully conscious” in a bathroom with a man and that both were partially undressed.
The friends told police that to get into the bathroom, they had to force their way through several men who were “cheering and appearing to encourage the activity inside,” the Sun-Times reported.
Alpha Epsilon Pi said no fraternity members took part in the alleged attack or encouraged it. The fraternity's University of Chicago chapter said in a statement that its members rushed to help the woman after being alerted by one of her friends and ended the party immediately.
“There is no evidence at all that any AEPi members participated in this assault or were aware of it while it was transpiring,” Jonathan Pierce, a spokesperson for the fraternity's national organization, said in a statement Wednesday.
The fraternity said the perpetrator was chased out of the house and was recorded by cameras while fleeing.
University officials said the person of interest who has been identified is not a student or otherwise affiliated with the school.
The Cornell case came to light last month after a woman filed a lawsuit against the university and seven fraternity members, saying she was repeatedly assaulted at a fraternity house in October 2024. She went to campus police three weeks later and gave a detailed interview, but local prosecutors never pursued charges. The men she accused have denied wrongdoing.
Cornell announced Tuesday it's banning parties at fraternity houses until next year. The university said it will include New York State Police in investigations of campus sexual assaults.
Fraternities have also been under scrutiny at the University of Arizona, which suspended fraternity activities earlier this month following multiple reports of assault, hazing and other misconduct.
Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
Cups and cans are seen outside the AEPi fraternity house near the University of Chicago campus in Chicago, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, where an alleged sexual assault was reported at a weekend party. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The AEPi fraternity house near the University of Chicago campus in Chicago, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, where an alleged sexual assault was reported at a weekend party. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The Lambda chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity near the University of Chicago on the South Side, is shown on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
University of Chicago sign is displayed on the campus in Chicago, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The Lambda chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity near the University of Chicago on the South Side, is shown on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump arrived in Montana for a campaign rally on Wednesday evening after visiting Arizona earlier in the day, where he defended his acceptance of a gifted luxury jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One.
Speaking in an economically struggling corner of rural Arizona, Trump opened his remarks by talking about how he learned that the Qataris had “the best of all the 747s.” He described to the crowd, which was standing in the sun at a rural desert airport to hear him speak, about how he called Qatar's emir and asked to borrow the aircraft before the leader instead offered it instead as a gift.
“When you’re given gifts, you take ’em, right?” Trump told the crowd in Bullhead City. “When they give you a 747 you say two words: ‘thank you.’”
Trump’s comments came as was on his second and final day of a Western campaign swing, part of a midterm roadshow designed to rally the Republican Party ahead of Nov. 3 elections that will determine control of Congress.
As Americans have grappled with persistent concerns about their cost-of-living, candidates in the midterm elections are increasingly trying to speak to those economic worries. But Trump, as he has for months, has focused less on costs and often reverts to to some of his priorities, including renovation projects in Washington or trappings of the presidency, including the luxury jet.
Trump accepted the airplane last year despite strong criticism, including from some of his staunchest Republican supporters.
The visits to Arizona and Montana on Wednesday followed trips to Alaska on Tuesday and Ohio on Monday,
In Arizona, soaring music played as the former Qatari jet flew low over the local airport where supporters awaited Trump in the heat. The president, wearing his signature red baseball cap, emerged with a wave and a fist bump and slowly descended the stairs as speakers blasted Lee Greenwood's “God Bless the USA," the song that marks Trump's entrance at campaign events.
Air Force One, now wearing Trump's new red, white, blue and gold paint scheme, and mountains filled the background as he started speaking.
Mohave County, where Bullhead City is located, has higher poverty and unemployment rates than the state and nation, with a lower per-capita income, according to Census and state unemployment data.
Trump also spoke extensively about his aesthetic flourishes around Washington: the White House ballroom that is under construction and a just-completed helipad on the South Lawn, along with a triumphal arch he has planned for the capital city.
"The fake news media doesn't talk about how well we're doing" as a country, Trump said. Journalists ask him instead about “affordability," he said, pronouncing the word in a dismissive tone.
Trump traveled to Arizona to rally support for Rep. Andy Biggs, who is seeking to defeat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Republicans running in the state's two competitive U.S. House districts, Jay Feely and Rep. Juan Ciscomani, did not attend the event.
Afterward, Trump headed to Western Montana's 1st District to try to boost Aaron Flint, a former aide to retiring Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, who was Interior secretary in Trump's first-term Cabinet.
Trump has kept up a brisk pace of hour-plus-long rallies — new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia called it a “midterm blitz” — in his effort to stem expected Republican losses and fight a historical trend in which the president's party typically loses seats in elections halfway through their term in the White House.
Arizona stands out as the lone swing state among the president's recent stops, though the airport rally was in a county Trump won with 78% of the vote in 2024.
His other visits so far in October have taken him into traditionally solid Republican territory — Alabama, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas — as he weathers low approval ratings, rising costs and the Iran war.
With under three weeks left in the campaign, the Western swing comes as Trump's party has begun retreating from a handful of battleground U.S. House races and Democrats aim to raise money for candidates who seemed like long shots earlier this year.
The shifting money in the final weeks of midterm campaigns reflects an increasingly defensive posture by Republicans, who have already trimmed their expectations in U.S. Senate races, and new aggression from Democrats, who are trying to capitalize on Trump’s low public approval.
Trump twice won Arizona, in 2016 and 2024, but lost the state in 2020. Montana's 1st District is slightly less Republican overall than the state, which voted for Trump by double digits in each of his three presidential campaigns.
Biggs, of Arizona, has been a stalwart ally of the president and assisted Trump's attempt to block certification by the House of Trump's 2020 election defeat. A one-time head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, he's represented a safe GOP seat since winning election in 2016.
He faces Hobbs, who narrowly defeated Republican Kari Lake in the governor's race four years ago. Arizona was long a GOP stronghold, and registered Republicans still outnumber Democrats and independents by a comfortable margin, but voters have repeatedly rejected Trump allies and handed the state's top offices to Democrats.
Trump said Biggs “will always stand with law enforcement” and took aim at Hobbs, who he said “does the bidding of the cartels” on the U.S.-Mexico border. Hobbs counters that she has strengthened the border by sending National Guard troops there and has boosted local law enforcement funding.
In Montana, Flint won the president's and Zinke's endorsement during the June primary. An Army veteran and talk-radio host, Flint assails progressive Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as part of his campaign.
Flint's opponent is Sam Forstag, a Democratic labor union leader and Forest Service smokejumper, a specialized firefighter who gets to fires by aircraft and parachute.
Catalini reported from Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and Cooper from Phoenix.
President Donald Trump greets Arizona gubernatorial candidate Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., at a campaign rally at the Laughlin Bullhead International Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Bullhead City, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Laughlin Bullhead International Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Bullhead City, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People cheer as President Donald Trump arrives at Laughlin Bullhead International Airport for a campaign rally, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Bullhead, Ariz. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Laughlin Bullhead International Airport for a campaign rally, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Bullhead, Ariz. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Air Force One with President Donald Trump aboard flys past before landing for a campaign rally at the Laughlin Bullhead International Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Bullhead City, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at Harry Reid International Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
