Universities and the Coming Storm
As the incoming Trump administration develops plans to seize control of American universities from the “Marxist maniacs” who allegedly rule them, it’s worth taking a closer look at their systems of governance. The past year’s events, with its impassioned protests and theatrical congressional hearings, overshadow a reality sharply different from the one of conservative fantasies—of woke tenured professors imposing their politics across their institutions.
Universities today no longer resemble the bucolic, faculty-run campuses of the imagination. With their sprawling real estate holdings, giant medical complexes, revenue-generating degree programs, and ballooning investment portfolios, our nation’s major universities look more like corporate conglomerates than mission-driven nonprofits. Hedge funds with universities attached, as the quip goes.
