Harvard is still, ridiculously, the most prestigious U.S. university, and the fish rots from the head down. (I learned that at Harvard, in “Ichthyology 101.”) Honeycutt feels it necessary to write repeatedly, some version of “there are praiseworthy things happening in higher education.” I view that as sophistry from an academic who is too timid to state the throbbing truth: “Let’s face it: higher education is another victim of ideological capture. It can’t be fixed, not as long as those who run it are too biased to see its outrageous domination by the political left as even a problem.”

The essay begins,

“Last month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon issued a “Call to Action” asking every U.S. college and university to publicly describe how they will strengthen free speech, intellectual pluralism, academic rigor, affordability, and other areas on their campuses. Whatever one thinks of the administration’s approach, the implicit underlying question is a legitimate one: if trust and confidence are low, what would actually restore it?”

Gee, that’s a tough one. How about institutions insisting that classes teach rather than indoctrinate, admitting students based on their ability and achievements rather than their color and ethnicity, actually giving out grades that range from A to F so academic excellence can be recognized, resisting taking political positions, aggressively encouraging free speech and academic freedom, not seeking to undermine American values and culture, and not charging obscene tuition in the process? How about that?

It ends with this:

“Higher education’s problem isn’t that Americans see it inaccurately. It’s what Americans will see when they take an even closer look. Trust and confidence will not be restored by making the status quo easier to explain, but rather by making the reality easier to defend.”

Translation: Higher education sucks, and the more one examines it, the more awful it is. But we knew that. Didn’t we?