Four tough things the schools could do (but won’t):

“The American university is a grand political accommodation,” says Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist and founder of the Center for College Productivity and Affordability. College presidents, he argues, appease faculty members by giving them control over what and how they teach. They appease students and parents with high grades and good facilities. They appease alumni with expensive sports teams. They appease politicians with shiny new research centers. “The idea is to buy off any group that might upset the political equilibrium,” Vedder said.

I was particularly struck by the worthlessness of the majority of research, as judge by the number of citations.

By “won’t,” of course, I mean they won’t until they are forced to when they run out of other peoples’ money. That day may be approaching.