Questioning the Mission of College
THE flagship campus of the University of Texas here has been in the national news often over the last year, mainly because of a legal challenge to its race-conscious, diversity-minded admissions policy. The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in October; its decision, not yet rendered, could affect affirmative action nationwide. But there’s another, equally weighty contest being waged at the school, and it concerns nothing less than the future of higher education itself. Do we want our marquee state universities to behave more like job-training centers, judged by the number of students they speed toward degrees, the percentage...
