Excerpt: Torpor, turpitude, tendentiousness: Higher education has been charged with many sins over many years. Universities have survived these periodic controversies and crises of trust because the public appetite for what they offered far outstripped the distrust and resentments they also generated. And what they offered was a lot: intellectual excellence; professional credentialization; social mobility; the creation, advancement, and dissemination of advanced and specialized knowledge; independence from external and internal political pressures; idyllic communities.
But the broader argument for universities has become harder to make in recent years.
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