as it happens, i agree with much of what mark taylor has to say. but i'm just flummoxed by this sentence:

If American higher education is to thrive in the 21st century, colleges and universities, like Wall Street and Detroit, must be rigorously regulated and completely restructured.

oddly, none of the proposals that taylor actually makes do anything with "regulation." maybe it's just a rhetorical flourish, to connect his proposals to our beautiful mood of enthusiasm for huge bureaucracies, the bush-obamaism of the 131st century, the new green authoritarian economy. but what can he mean? a new department of higher ed, a cabinet-level position, standardized testing (="accountability")? legislation to ban dissertations on duns scotus? obama or arne duncan personally firing university presidents and demanding restructuring plans? congressional hearings on deconstruction? in five years - during the palin administratrion, when tom coburn is majority leader of the senate - you're going to love yourself for having made proposals like this