For more than 40 percent of US presidents, the fraternity hall was an early stop on the road to the White House.
Fraternal organisations, more commonly known as fraternities or frats, have a long and storied history on college campuses in the United States.
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One industry group, the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), represents 58 fraternities spread across 600 schools. It claims nearly 200,000 undergraduate students as active members and an alumni population of 4.2 million.
The draw for college-aged men is the promise of brotherhood, a bond that transcends keg parties and late-night revelry. Like sororities and other members-only student organisations, fraternities are often touted as pathways to personal, academic and professional success.
But critics argue that some fraternities have leveraged their exclusivity to encourage and normalise violence, dangling social acceptance as a reward for compliance.
“This isn’t [some sort of] a hobbyist club,” said anthropologist Aldo Cimino, a Kent State University professor who studies fraternity hazing. “It is the seriousness of the affiliation that has generated the intensity of these induction rituals.”
In recent weeks, one case has renewed debate over fraternity culture and whether the campus organisations use their exclusivity to shield bad behaviour.
In September, an anonymous woman known as Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University and seven of its members, accusing them of gang raping her during a party on the night of October 19, 2024.
Doe’s sorority, Delta Delta Delta, and Cornell itself are among the co-defendants.
Her lawsuit raises questions about fraternity and sorority culture at US schools, collectively known as “Greek life” for the groups’ use of Greek lettering and symbols.
Upon her admission to Cornell, Doe argues she encountered a “glorified – yet materially false and misleading – facade” for Greek life.
“She arrived on a campus where the University actively promoted Greek membership as a ‘vital’ part of the campus community and endorsed these organizations as well-managed, worthy pathways to new friendships and improving one’s educational and professional opportunities,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint accuses the fraternities of instead perpetuating a pattern of sexual assault and abuse.
Now a multibillion-dollar industry, fraternities in the US trace their origins to men-only clubs established at some of the country’s oldest universities.
The tradition began at the College of William and Mary in 1776, when Phi Beta Kappa was founded as a secret society for debate and scholarly exchange.
Its adoption of the Greek alphabet, oath of secrecy, and arcane membership rites helped establish a blueprint for future fraternities and sororities. Often with houses of their own, fraternities eventually grew into informal extensions of the campus residential system.
Historian Nicholas Syrett wrote about the origins of such groups in his book The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, he explained that fraternities have long embraced so-called masculine ideals. But those ideals have changed from generation to generation.
In the past, fraternities sought to position themselves in “opposition to boyhood” by embracing “independence, strength of character, handsomeness and loyalty”, Syrett explained.
But their modern iteration has shifted to include a greater emphasis on “athleticism, sexual success with women, and recklessness” as well as alpha-male posturing.
Syrett argues that the fraternity system’s cult of toughness reflects a wider matrix of gendered expectations and social hierarchies.
Early fraternity men, Syrett says, prized intellect and academic distinction, provided neither betrayed too much effort. But “this has largely taken a backseat in contemporary fraternities”, he explained.
“When [men] are initiated, they are taught that loyalty to the brotherhood is of the utmost importance,” Syrett said of fraternities today. “This leads to the keeping of all kinds of secrets, including things that are against the rules and/or the law.”
In the two and a half centuries since the first fraternities were formed, Greek life has expanded to include different races and identities outside of white men.
Some Greek groups have even eschewed the traditional gender divide altogether to better embrace transgender and non-binary members.
But fraternities and sororities overall tend to act as “microcosms of the larger society”, according to Elizabeth Allan, a professor at the University of Maine and director of its Hazing Prevention Research Lab, “with race, pretty privilege and economic segregation helping shape the system”.
“The [social] stratification that we see in the larger society is going to be reflected, in large part, in many of these organisations, unless they’re actively working to disrupt it,” she added.
Between membership dues and rent at fraternity chapter houses, Greek organisations can price out all but the more affluent students, according to Allan.
“Pretty privilege” – the social bias in favour of those deemed conventionally attractive – can add to the pressure, with sorority applicants in particular shelling out hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for cosmetic treatments and outfits.
Experts say the sense of exclusivity that many fraternities and sororities cultivate is a powerful draw for incoming students, who see membership as a path to upward social mobility.
That perception is reinforced by the groups’ internal dynamics. Many sororities and fraternities encourage networking among members.
A 2021 Gallup survey commissioned by the NIC and the National Panhellenic Conference found that 42 percent of fraternity or sorority alumni said a fellow member had helped them find an internship or job.
Meanwhile, 51 percent of Greek members reported having a job waiting at graduation or found employment within two months. The rate was much lower among those who were not members of such fraternities or sororities, at 36 percent.
Critics often point to hazing rituals in particular as shaping a culture of violence at some fraternities and sororities.
Hazing is a process through which prospective Greek life members undergo humiliating and sometimes perilous tasks to secure admission.
The phenomenon is prohibited by law in most US states, though the definitions, penalties and scope of such laws vary. The consequences, however, can be deadly.
One of the earliest recorded deaths associated with fraternity hazing took place at Cornell in 1873.
At the time, a group of “pledges” – would-be fraternity members – were blindfolded and led far from campus at night, with instructions to make their way back on their own.
In the dark, one of the pledges, Mortimer M Leggett, and two fraternity members stumbled over a cliff and plunged into the gorge of Six Mile Creek. The two fraternity members survived. Leggett, however, did not.
Secret initiation rituals can forge an “informal psychological social contract in which members feel obligated to protect the organisation”, according to Pietro Sasso, who studies college student experience at Old Dominion University.
Some members may feel the need to rally around the fraternity even when “doing so conflicts with their personal values or responsibilities to others”, Sasso added.
“My research on fraternity cultures suggests that organisational socialisation can normalise behaviours that individuals might otherwise question, making the environment itself an important part of prevention,” he explained.
Doe’s case cites some of the social pressures and incentives that lead young men and women to Greek life on campus.
“She was drawn to the sorority and its promises of sisterhood and lifelong friendships, the status it conferred on its members, and the community it provided on campus when she was over 1,000 miles away from home,” the lawsuit said of Doe.
But Doe said she joined Cornell’s Greek community without being fully aware of the pattern of sexual assault associated with the local fraternities.
During Doe’s first semester, in 2022, there were at least five reported cases of victims at Cornell being drugged, and two alleged cases of sexual assault. All of those cases, according to her lawsuit, took place at fraternities.
Two years later, on the night of the alleged gang rape, Doe claims she was pressured by fraternity members to take drugs like ketamine, marijuana and alcohol. After agreeing to a threesome, she said she found herself in a “room full of predatory, fraternity men” who raped her while she was incapacitated.
A photo of a group chat included in her lawsuit shows one Chi Phi member informing his fellow fraternity brothers that there was “free pussy” in an upstairs alumni room. A member of the chat replies, “I f***ing love chi phi.” Another chimes in, “Like you can walk in and whip it out.”
Several of the men have denied any wrongdoing.
But the case has sparked questions about whether the culture of Greek life contributes to a high rate of sexual assault in fraternities and sororities.
One 2021 survey published by the American Psychological Association tracked male students from high school through their second year of college. It found that fraternity members were 62 percent more likely to report sexual aggression during their first two years of college.
Separately, a 2009 study published in the journal Violence Against Women estimated that 29 percent of sorority members reported suffering sexual assault during college, roughly four times the rate of non-members.
After the alleged gang rape in 2024, Cornell’s Chi Phi chapter was closed, and the fraternity remains barred from campus. Two male defendants in Doe’s lawsuit were expelled, while another two were suspended.
But some student activists say too little is being done to reform Greek life in the wake of Doe’s case. They want stronger measures to enforce accountability within private, members-only groups where secrecy often reigns.
CJ Barles, a junior at the University of California, Davis, is one of the students across the US organising protests in support of Doe. She told Al Jazeera she understands the appeal of the fraternity and sorority systems.
“Affiliated students say it looks good on their resume,” Barles explained. “They see it as a built-in cult, a seat at the table and a crew to call their own.”
But Barles said she has heard troubling reports. Some fraternities, she explained, hold parties “requiring every man” to arrive with several women in tow. That requirement says “a lot about the culture some of these spaces cultivate”, she added.
At a rally last week, Barles and other protesters called on the University of California system to implement new measures to hold fraternities accountable for sexual assault, including enshrining students’ right to withdraw consent during sexual encounters.
But Barles said she left feeling dumbstruck by the accounts of sexual violence shared by women on campus, many of whom spoke from personal experience.
“It’s unbelievably upsetting, the amount of stories I heard,” said Barles. The litany of grievances has fanned her scepticism of the Greek system: “I wouldn’t step within a mile of most of them.”
It’s an annual fall tradition that Disneyland increase its prices — and stealthily in the night. Starting Tuesday, guests will pay more to experience the Happiest Place on Earth.
But the increases are relatively light. For the eighth year in a row, Disneyland did not raise the cost of the lowest-priced ticket, which is $104. And its highest-priced ticket, which is $224, also did not change. The increases were felt primarily on mid-level tiers for single-day, single-park tickets, and were limited to $5 apiece.
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Other prices also remain unchanged. The cost of Disneyland’s popular annual pass program, the Magic Key, did not increase. The top-tiered Magic Keys have been subject to hefty yearly spikes over the last decade. Parking remains fixed at $40, and multiday tickets have not been affected.
Collectively, this is one of the smallest overall increases made by the Disneyland Resort in recent history, as last year, its highest-priced single-day ticket jumped in cost $18. At a time when leisure costs are rising and forcing Americans to stay home, it comes as somewhat of a relief that Disneyland is not asking its fans to pony up substantially more cash to get through the gates.
While the Walt Disney Co. provided no official statement on the increases, Disneyland Resort officials noted in an email that it is aware guests are more closely watching their wallets in 2026. Thomas Mazloum, chairman of Disney Experiences, in a comment given to CNN, said, “Our goal is to put guests at the center of our decision making, and that starts by listening to them. That matters more now when families are watching every dollar, and we see it in the choices they make every day — in how they plan, in how far ahead.”
It’s also an indication that, at least for the time being, the Disneyland Resort has pushed its prices as far as they can go. Disneyland is blessed with an in-demand product, but every commodity has its limits.
In May, the Walt Disney Co. reported a 1% decline in attendance at its U.S.-based parks compared with the prior year, which the company attributed to “continued softness” in international visitors. In August, however, Disney bounced back, and noted, especially at Florida’s Walt Disney World, that attendance had perked up. Overall, visitation at its U.S.-based theme parks was 3% higher than in the previous year’s third quarter, the company said. This boost was largely attributed to a variety of summer deals.
As someone who is at Disneyland nearly every week, I can report that summer crowds were relatively manageable. There have been some asterisks, such as the World Cup and high heat, both likely keeping guests away, but anecdotally, Disneyland crowding hasn’t been nearly as extreme this year. I simply believe that people do not currently have the excess funds that they once had.
And Disney seems to be responding to the economic climate, especially in making it easier for its biggest fans to visit the resort. In conjunction with the price increases, Disneyland President Jill Estorino announced Tuesday that the company would be removing its no-show penalty on annual passholders. Additionally, passholders can now cancel their reservations up to 11:59 p.m. on the day of their reservations.
These are welcome changes, as previously guests were allowed three no-show penalties before their ability to make reservations was restricted, and had to cancel the night before. But plans change, and the reservation system restrictions, initially put in place to manage crowding during the COVID-19 pandemic, had increasingly felt like an impediment. While reservations are still required, which Disneyland has stated helps the resort plan its crowd-forecasting and staffing, the system is more lax and user-friendly than it has been.
Digging deeper into Disneyland’s pricing, there have been some small changes elsewhere. The cost of the line-skipping feature Lightning Lane, which can fluctuate based on crowding levels, now has a top price of $38, an increase of $1. And the park-hopper add-on for single-day tickets, which can also fluctuate, increased $5-$10, depending on the day. And earlier this year Disneyland did increase its prices on a number of food items.
The Disneyland Resort, to be sure, is not cheap. In the world of entertainment, it remains a luxury good on par with postseason Dodgers tickets (albeit with cheaper parking than Dodger Stadium). But I credit the Disneyland Resort for reading the cultural room. Pulling the plug on its recent steady and hefty price increases, especially on annual passes, shows the company can occasionally listen to its audience as much as it does Wall Street. Sure, a price decrease would be nice, but we don’t live in a fantasyland.
The Disneyland Resort has added new collectible pin trading vending machines.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
Riders on Universal’s new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
There will be no shortage of updates and news on Universal’s new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster in the coming weeks, months and maybe even years, especially as the attraction continues todraw the ire of the park’s neighbors in Toluca Lake. Universal Studios Hollywood held a meeting with nearby residents on its studio lot last Wednesday. The session was closed to the media but was said to attract more than 350 neighbors. I spoke with a number of residents, as well as Universal, after the session, and indications are that the two sides still haven’t settled on a compromise. The issue, of course, stems from the sound of rider screams from the coaster drifting into the residential area.
Universal has promised, through the end of the year, to not begin operating the coaster before 9 a.m., and has also, in response to community feedback, installed a new sound barrier featuring an additional 1,900 square feet of sound absorbing material. The new barrier includes a sail that’s about 63 feet tall and 31 feet wide. But residents I spoke to feel it’s not yet enough. I’ve heard many stories from neighbors in recent weeks regarding the disruption caused to their lives. They range in extremes. A neighbor without air conditioning says they can no longer open their windows. A resident who offers meditation services from their home says their business is now potentially forever impacted. A teen was unable to complete a SAT prep test due to the incessant screaming. Many report insomnia from the rise in anxiety levels. There’s plenty more.
The meeting was said to grow contentious near its end. Residents provided data on how the effects of noise, specifically screams, can cause stress-related responses. Universal is said to have discussed the challenges in further mitigating the sound. County supervisor Kathryn Barger was in attendance and is calling for additional communication between the two sides. “The meeting’s dialogue made clear that the lives of surrounding residents are being impacted and disrupted,” Barger said via a statement. “I respect Universal’s decision to host this forum and listen to the concerns being raised. I encourage all stakeholders to maintain an ongoing honest dialogue.”
Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.
Ride on,
Todd Martens
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Former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Chapek knows his reputation among Disney fans, especially Disneyland loyalists. In his new book “Behind the Castle Walls,” he defends his changes to the Disneyland experience, the vast majority of which are still felt today.
“Contrary to what some people tried to paint me as,” he writes, “I wasn’t just a maniacal, money-optimizing machine.”
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When I had the chance to talk to him last week, I wanted to know if having that image bothers him.
“I’m not concerned about it,” he says, speaking via phone from his Florida home. “I don’t give that any thought at this point. But I’m very proud of the performance of the parks segment during my time. The numbers bear that out.”
Chapek, in his role as chairman of the parks division and later CEO of the company, presided over an eight-year period beginning in 2015 in which Disneyland would significantly raise prices, introduce add-on perks, and, in my opinion, create the unsettling sense that you could be having more fun if you just spent more money.
When Chapek took over the parks segment, Disneyland would begin to fully remake its annual passholder program, largely by significantly increasing its price and limiting access. (In 2015, the top priced annual pass was close to $800. Today, it’s $1,899.) Single-day tickets to the parks would also begin a period of aggressive price hikes. Today, a one-day, one-park ticket tops off at $224. It’s widely expected that Disneyland will be raising its prices again this October, as it has done nearly every year in recent history.
Additionally, benefits that Disneyland guests long took for granted as free, such as the line-skipping Fastpass program, would become a paid perk on Chapek’s watch. Access to some attractions would be grouped together as part of a package now known as a Lightning Lane. In-demand rides such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance would be sold separately.
Bob Chapek has defended price increases at Disneyland, noting that ambitious projects like Galaxy’s Edge require capital.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Prices on all of the above typically increase yearly. Today, guests who spring for the front-of-the-line Lightning Lane pass as well as individual access to Rise of the Resistance can expect to pay around an extra $65 per person once having their tickets scanned.
Chapek notes he faced significant opposition at Disney in making these changes.
“To all who come to this happy place, welcome,” goes Walt Disney’s original dedication speech, which for decades was used as a guiding light that every guest who entered Main Street, U.S.A., would be treated as an equal. That meant, with limited exceptions, no special access for anyone.
This was seen as an “inviolable virtue” at Disney, but one Chapek was ready to break, as he writes in his book.
“Everyone is equal when they come through the gates no matter what walk of life they come from,” Chapek tells me. “What’s different, though — and this isn’t because we say it’s different, it’s because the guests say it’s different — it’s that guests say they want an experience that’s tailored to what they can afford.”
Maybe. I don’t have access to guest satisfaction surveys, but that sounds like something only people with a certain privilege say. No doubt guests who can afford less don’t want a worse experience.
Chapek in his book describes himself as a “disruptor,” and considers Lightning Lane-like add-ons “bespoke” experiences that appeal to guests who crave a more customizable day. While they are common at nearly every theme or amusement park, I consider them classist, creating a haves-versus-have-nots mindset as soon as guests step through the gates.
Chapek defends the move to me, pointing out that while he presided over the parks, it’s lowest price one-day, one-park ticket stayed steady at $99 (today it’s $104). While true, and while Disneyland has even sought to increase the number of days offered at its introductory price since Chapek was ousted from the company in 2022, these are often midweek tickets, necessitating that working families take a day off and force a child to skip school.
“How about demand?” says former Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek, seen here with Minnie Mouse at Hong Kong Disneyland, when defending his price hikes.
(Kin Cheung / Associated Press)
“How about demand?” Chapek says to me when I point out that I have been critical of the moves. “Do people stop coming? That would obviously be a big concern. Even with the increase in prices that were taken on the annual passes, it would temporarily soften demand, but a year later they were subscribed just like they were before. Wall Street has certain expectations that may not be consistent with the expectations of guests of a certain pass type.”
Chapek reveals in his book that there is somewhere around 1.1 million annual passholders to Disneyland, which is today known as a Magic Key. With each price increase, he writes, that number would tumble to around 1 million, but within about 12 months they would be back to a level they were at before the rise in prices.
During Chapek’s reign, the company also introduced a reservation system, which asks guests to plan in advance. The price increase, later coupled with a reservation system, is designed to cut down, in part, on spontaneous trips to the resort, forcing guests to be more intentional about their Disneyland plans. This can aid, of course, in forecasting crowds and park staffing, but is also intended to limit days in which the park can feel overcrowded.
During his five-year tenure as parks chairman, Chapek writes that profits within the segment went up 18%. And that was largely due to an increase in individual guest spending. Over the decades, certain leaders of the Walt Disney Co. have arguably more closely ingratiated themselves with fans than Chapek has, but the fact remains that Chapek fundamentally and forever altered the approachability and the affordability of a Disneyland visit.
“In order to build things like Galaxy’s Edge and Avengers Campus, that takes capital,” Chapek says. “That capital takes revenue.”
My long-term fear, however, is that this has created a slippery slope. Disneyland guests now brace for yearly price hikes each fall, and this is coupled with yearly spikes on food prices each summer. Once the company and its shareholders become accustomed to such a financial boost, an environment where individual guest spending sharply increases even when domestic park attendance is soft or steady, there’s likely no turning back. Disney has created a business that will target the highest-spending consumer year in and year out.
And thus, guest equality, what was once an “inviolable virtue,” is forever a thing of the past, no matter who is in charge.
The X2 roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.
Ride on,
Todd Martens
Me, enjoying a beverage, on the now shuttered Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
There is one area where the former CEO of the Walt Disney Co. and I are in complete agreement. Chapek and I both miss Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, colloquially known as the Star Wars Hotel. The ambitious, but costly, multi-day experience was one of the most creatively inspiring offerings in company history.
In “Behind the Castle Walls,” Chapek writes that he believes it was shuttered too soon. The Starcruiser closed after about a year of operation. “Was it perfect the first time? Absolutely not,” Chapek tells me. “Was it one of the most ambitious lodging experiences we have ever created? Yes.”
A place dedicated to play — and light role-play — the Starcruiser allowed guests to fully inhabit a fictional world. It was an argument that interactivity could have been the future of theme parks. “It seemed to have the plug pulled on it prematurely,” Chapek says, “and I think it was a big opportunity missed.”
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Donny DBM
In the first half of 2026, issuers raised $137.9B through 208 initial public offerings on U.S. markets, boosting capital raised by 398% from the year-ago period, according to data released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
The