University: A Reckoning

In this thrilling work, Lee C. Bollinger, perhaps the most consequential university leader of our time, argues that the university is an institution vital to the maintenance of democracy—and thus it is no surprise that it is coming under fierce attack from an authoritarian administration. Drawing on his years as president of the University of Michigan and then Columbia University, as well as his expertise on the First Amendment, Bollinger reveals how the structure of the university contributes to the success of the American system, and why that structure is both impossible to recreate and vulnerable to outside attack. The mission of the university—to preserve and enhance knowledge—is not merely a high–minded idea, but one rooted in the First Amendment, the basis of our shared political and social life. With the press fractured and diminished, it is the university that remains the only source of truth–seeking left to those who still believe in democracy. As Bollinger ultimately demonstrates, the university must be defended if the American experiment is to continue.