KEITH WHITTINGTON: On The Politics of University Autonomy. “No matter how normatively attractive an independent judiciary or an independent university might be, institutional independence is a political construct and must be maintained through political effort. And ‘independent’ institutions are always politically vulnerable to being rendered less independent if they become too politically costly. Strategic university leaders should recognize that university autonomy is politically contingent and cannot simply be assumed. Unfortunately, university faculty and administrators have become forgetful that university independence, like judicial independence, rests on political foundations.”

A number of years ago I had to explain to our then-Faculty Senate President that the legislature could do whatever it wanted with the University. She objected that they only provided a fraction of our funding. Yes, I said, but they effectively own the University. They could close it, turn it into a clown college, or make it a branch of Hamburger University if they wanted. Normally they leave us alone, but that’s contingent on not being provoked. The provocation at the time, if I recall correctly, was a number of faculty (mostly graduate assistants) who told their freshmen that their parents were dumb hicks and that they were going to help them unlearn all the dumb crap their parents had taught them. Weirdly, this was poorly received by the parents, who were voters. The legislative hearing on the subject was lit.

And it’s not as if our “independent” institutions have actually been lit. They’ve been fully captured by the Democratic blob, and if anyone in them dared to deviate an inch they were mobbed and often ruined. So small loss.