A growing endowment generates wealth. A small part of that wealth is invested to bolster an administration tasked with generating prestige, and, as students rush to take out federal loans, raising tuition and fees.
As Americans' faith in higher education reacts to rising costs, mounting debts, and the growing sense that preparation for the workforce need not take a four-year degree, the post-World War II ambitions of higher education may prove to be a noble failure.