The relationship between the U.S. and its vast armada of colleges and universities has changed. The time has come for a reckoning.

When I graduated high school in 1983, about 90 percent of my class of 1,200 students were headed to college. I thought about the fact that in previous generations far fewer went beyond high school, and those who did saw it as an opportunity and a privilege. My generation seemed to treat it more as the natural step after finishing 12th grade. In the past, many graduates went to work or into the Army. In 1983 and beyond, college became a default destination—and for many people a waste of time and money.

There was a time when universities were the crown jewel of the West. Governments provided land, money and resources, and the schools trained future generations of scholars, scientists, engineers and leaders. Harry Truman is the only president in this and the previous century who did not have a college degree. Universities were also breeding grounds for many of the breakthrough technologies that were later incorporated into devices and goods that we use in our daily lives. Many drugs, advanced materials, and sophisticated electronic components got their starts in university labs funded by local, state, and federal sources. My first doctoral years in Madison were funded by NIH; when that grant ran out, my advisor tapped WARF (Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation) for continued support. WARF not surprisingly holds patents for everything from rat poison warfarin to Vitamin D added to every milk container in the U.S.

Since my time at Harvard, the relationship between the universities and the state has changed. Rather than support the mission of advancing U.S. interests........

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