THE FACULTY SABBATICAL on the chopping block? A lot of people who would have stepped up to defend higher education a decade ago won’t do so now, because it’s become more politicized, and less respected. Alas, we don’t have sabbaticals at my school anyway, so I have no dog in this fight. However, places that have instituted them have seen faculty research productivity go up substantially.

The problem is, governments are broke. When governments are broke, cuts hit the least-powerful constituencies first. That means universities are likely to get cut so that other, more-politically-powerful state employees can preserve their situations. And, within universities, faculty will get hit before administration, even though administrative bloat accounts for most of the rise in costs.