University bridge to nowhere?

Public universities across the United States are facing serious budget crises. As a result, they may be in the process of building a bridge to nowhere.

One response to these crises is for flagship campuses (and, in some cases, public university systems as a whole) to obtain greater autonomy. Wisconsin is one state in a tendency that also includes Oregon, Ohio, and Louisiana.

“There is a real tension between serving the public needs, on one hand, and doing what they have to do to ensure that their institution can compete in the marketplace,” said Jane Wellman, executive director of the Delta Cost Project.

“Madison seceding from the union sends the message, ‘We’re not like you, we’re better than you, we’re going to cut our own deal,’ ” she said. “They may be better and different, but they still have a responsibility to assert a leadership role rather than cut their own deal.”

It looks like public universities that can (like Madison) are becoming more like private universities. Meanwhile, well-endowed private institutions may be the only universities where the idea of the university, as a space for critical thinking, is being safeguarded. Combined, the two tendencies—the privatization of public universities and the privatization of the idea of the university—may represent a bridge to the end of the public university system as we have known it in the United States.

If that’s true, it would leave us nowhere.