Bill Maher has weighed in on the Cornell 7 controversy, and the outspoken liberal comedian is raising a question that conservatives might want to take seriously.
Should colleges get rid of fraternities altogether?
During Friday's episode of HBO's Real Time, Maher unloaded on fraternity culture in response to the allegations involving seven men accused of sexually assaulting a woman at Cornell University's Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
And Maher, a Cornell alumnus, wasn't exactly sentimental about his alma mater. Indeed, he used some coarse language when discussing it.
"Cornell sucks and I f*cking hated it and I’m glad to see them eating a sh*t sandwich," he said.Well, tell us how you really feel, Bill.
Behind the comedy is a serious argument about the dubious behavior that colleges have tolerated for decades inside frat houses.
Maher argued that fraternities create an environment where excessive drinking, hazing, peer pressure and mistreatment of women can become normalized.
"Everything that’s inherently bad about men gets worse if you put them in a fraternity. The drinking gets worse, the cruelty, the treatment of women, the tribalism, the peer pressure, one-upmanship, conformity, segregation, nepotism, bullying, elitism, and just general a**holery — boat shoes, for example."
Maher also challenged the counter-argument that fraternities are somehow developing young men into gentlemen.
He described the Cornell controversy as an example of what happens when young people make reckless decisions involving alcohol, drugs and sex.
"A young woman made a bad decision, as 20-year-olds do, when she went to a frat house drunk and did Ketamine. And for that, she claims to have paid a price no woman should have to pay."
"No one was there [or] knows what happened, but I do know what a gentleman is — a gentleman-gentleman is someone who in that situation doesn’t exploit the woman, he saves her."
That's a fair argument that most conservatives would agree with.
As RedState covered on Sunday, the Cornell case has become a political circus, with Democrat officials rushing to characterize disputed allegations as established facts while newly disclosed text messages complicate the narrative.
Whatever the eventual outcome of the Cornell investigation, the accounts of heavy intoxication, drug use and group sexual activity at a fraternity house ought to concern parents sending their children off to college.
Maher cited 128 hazing-related deaths since 2000 as another reason to abolish fraternities. He even suggested sororities should go, too, although his description of them as "b*tch factories producing the Karens of tomorrow" — a vintage Maher line.
Banning Greek organizations outright is a sweeping proposal. But why should universities continue giving fraternity and sorority houses so much freedom to operate with lax supervision?
Campus police and university administrators should be watching these organizations like hawks, particularly when it comes to illegal drugs, underage drinking, hazing and dangerous parties.
And they should intervene before somebody winds up injured, assaulted or dead, rather than waiting for another scandal to erupt.
Whether or not that means frats and sororities should be banned or more seriously restricted is a debate worth having. As usual, the perpetual “gadfly” Maher provides ample fodder when considering this serious argument.