Higher Education

Do We Really Need Campus Fraternities?

What's going on: On Tuesday, Cornell University announced that it was banning fraternity parties for the remainder of the 2026-2027 academic year as part of its response to allegations of a gang rape at a campus frat house. And it’s not just Cornell. Universities around the country are dealing with backlash in response to cases of sexual assault, hazing, drug dealing, and even deaths reported in connection to frats. A 2019 survey found that a quarter of undergraduate women had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact, with fraternities listed as the most common setting. “The Greek system, in my judgment, supports alcoholism, sexual harassment, bullying under the guise of hazing, groupthink and, of course, the objectification of women,” one Cornell professor told The Guardian. Some critics say the university’s party ban doesn’t go far enough — they're calling for an outright ban of Greek life.

Can that happen?: Banning fraternities is more difficult than it sounds. A university can disaffiliate a frat, but they can’t shut it down without running into “thorny legal issues around the first amendment right to freedom of assembly,” writes The Wall Street Journal. Disaffiliated frats often just move off campus. “It’s slightly naïve of Cornell to think that these parties won’t happen,” one Cornell student told The New York Times. For many colleges, frats are also a big part of social life and campus culture — not to mention a major part of attracting potential students. But the biggest reason frats have stood the test of time might be the money. When colleges discipline frats, alumni tend to push back and stop donations. That doesn’t mean banning fraternities hasn’t been done before: In 2019, Swarthmore College permanently banned Greek life after documents leaked discussing a fraternity’s “rape attic,” which led to protests and a hunger strike. “This was the work of the students that really made this happen,” one student told The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time.

Related: An Alleged Sexual Assault at a University of Chicago Frat Is Being Compared to Cornell (The New York Times gift link)

No Friend Requests

Hollywood’s New Villain

What’s going on: Gone are the days when tech founders were cast as scrappy underdogs in Hollywood — now, they’re cold, calculating villains. Four new major films and documentaries are shining a light on powerful tech pioneers like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Elizabeth Holmes, and Sam Altman. The four-hour documentary Musk saw a limited theatrical release last weekend, while The Social Reckoning — an unofficial sequel to 2010’s The Social Network — debuted nationwide and flopped at the box office (these Zuckerbergs are not the same). Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything, which is about the Theranos founder and former CEO, comes out tomorrow. OpenAI's controversial CEO is also getting the silver screen treatment, with Andrew Garfield playing Altman in the upcoming film Artificial. Television is picking up on the vibes, too: Cupertino piloted last week on CBS, while AMC’s The Audacity — a dark comedy capturing the “madness and failings” of Silicon Valley — hit small screens this spring. 

A watchful eye: These productions come as public trust in tech erodes, culminating in sharp skepticism against AI and data centers. While earlier films and shows like Jobs and Silicon Valley cast tech founders as brilliant, ambitious outsiders trying to change the world, their power and influence have changed, and so have their character arcs on screen. Today’s productions are darker and more pessimistic — instead of saving the world, tech is destroying it. As one Sony executive told Politico, these founders are “more significant than governments,” adding that so much power has been concentrated in so few people. Hollywood villains have long reflected our biggest cultural fears, and takeovers and competition have seemingly turned tech into Tinseltown’s own personal adversary. But it appears many tech CEOs aren’t taking it to heart. When asked about Artificial, Altman said he expected it to be inaccurate and “funny.”

Related: After Failed Warner Bros. Bid, Netflix Cuts 1,000 Jobs in Biggest Layoffs to Date (Variety)

Work Life

It’s Spooky Season for Young Workers

What's going on: Hug the teenager in your life today. The job market is haunting them. This summer, The Washington Post interviewed several teens who went to great lengths to land a summer job — they memorized elevator pitches, swapped professional clothes for interviews, and submitted hundreds of applications — only to come up empty-handed. “The opportunities for workers at the start of the career ladder started to dry up,” one economist told The Post about the summer job season. Recently, The Wall Street Journal found a teenager taking career anxiety to new extremes. Sixteen-year-old Avi Lichtenstein is so worried about his prospects that he put posters of his face all over New York City, where he lives. His ask? “Let me shadow you,” to get a better idea of what he wants to do with his life. So far, he’s shadowed a dog groomer, a radio show host, and a ramen shop owner. He might hop on a flight to shadow an airline captain next.

Does this count as extra credit?: Unclear, though Avi is getting part-time job offers. The approach is unconventional, but it’s a signal of broader tech-driven anxieties among teens and young adults. Young people are entering the workforce amid predictions that AI adoption will destroy their career prospects. The good-ish news? The vibes are terrible, but the numbers aren’t… yet. Researchers from UCLA Anderson studied job trends for 22-to-25-year-olds with bachelor’s degrees and found that they did just as well in the summer of 2026 (the first real test case for the AI-era job market) as their peers in recent years. But a separate study from the Census Bureau found that graduates with AI-exposed majors like computer science had a harder time finding work in their fields, often ending up in lower-paying industries like restaurants and retail. Maybe Avi will have mentors to spare.

Related: Calling All Hiring Managers… Tell Us About Your Stand-Out Entry-Level Hires (theSkimm)

Quick Hits

🎨 Move over, Pantone: Benjamin Moore named its color of the year for 2027, and it’s a “quintessential” shade of green that makes your home feel both stable and energetic.

🐣 These 11 classic baby names are about to fall off the charts. Save the Lizes.  

🇺🇲 Joni Mitchell is now an American citizen after living in the US for 62 years. She’s feeling red, white, and Blue. 

🎃 Turn your jack-o’-lantern’s guts into a snack: Pumpkin seeds aren’t just tasty, they’re also great for your cardiovascular health. 

💕 Beyoncé’s daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi helped their mom cut the ribbon at the opening of the new Knowles-Rowland House, which provides housing for people who are chronically homeless. Doing good together. 

👑 Royals, they’re just like us, but with bodyguards? Kate Middleton and Princess Charlotte were spotted riding the Tube in London along with their security detail.

🔪 We’re manifesting an invite to Nicole Richie’s gory, spooky Halloween dinner next year. At the very least, we need to know how she made pasta look this creepy.

🤎 The most flattering vintage jeans just got an espresso upgrade.*