“WE CAN BUILD A UNIVERSITY IN THREE YEARS, BUT IT TAKES THREE HUNDRED YEARS TO REBUILD A REPUTATION,” to paraphrase Admiral Cunningham. What happens to the presidents of Harvard and MIT, and what’s happened to the president of Penn, is small ball. The big news is the trashing of literally centuries-old reputations at institutions whose chief capital is reputational. Sure, they have big endowments, but that’s not where their clout comes from.

Bear that in mind.