| Abstract: | In recent years a revolutionary shift has occurred in the federal goovernment—-higher education relationship. Why didn't higher education resist more vigorously federal encroachment in its autonomy? First, academia focused its attention on the wrong kind of threat. Second, federal involvement was useful for solving problems on campus and often was in keeping with objectives and values supported in academia institutions. Third, the rise of public institutions altered the receptivity of higher education to accepting federal funds and pursuing direct solutions to society's problems, i.e. to being “involved” at the expense of autonomy. Finally, higher education's traditional strategy of being aloof from partisan politics kept it from vigorously defending its interests. Alternatives for the future appear to be: 1) a reorganisation of higher education to make it a clear, systematic agent of national policy, or 2) a successful effort by higher education to convert itself into an effective national interest group. |
