Wall Street's new cash cow: You
Tomo Chien
September 15, 2025
Good morning. It’s Monday, and I’m watching Stephen Colbert’s speech at the Emmys. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Two Wall Street-backed textbook giants — Barnes and Noble and Follett — are dominating the college market with a simple playbook. Convince schools to adopt programs that auto-bill students for books. Make opting out a hassle. Then tell students the book bundles are bargains (they usually aren’t). USC partners with Follett.
2.
Interim President Beong-Soo Kim will chat with Arnold Schwarzenegger on campus today. The “Democracy Day” talk, held noon at Town and Gown, could prove especially relevant in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. “We must find agreement that we don’t solve our debates with violence,” Schwarzenegger has said.
3.
The Trump administration’s proposed $1.2 billion settlement with UCLA includes several stunning demands. The typo-ridden, 28-page letter calls for the school to: publicly disavow transgender identities, end gender-affirming care for minors, reject “anti-Western” international students, and pay for an outside monitor.
4.
In labor news: Loyola Marymount University refused to recognize its faculty union, citing a religious exemption under federal labor law. The president of the Catholic university said the move “safeguards our autonomy to carry out our mission without a third party that may not share our values.”
5.
Flying taxis got one step closer to making their promised debut at USC. That’s thanks to a new federal program that’ll allow supervised trials of the vehicles before they receive Federal Aviation Administration certification. Archer Aviation, which says it’ll build a landing port at USC by 2026, is participating.