Secretary Margaret Spellings directed Charles Miller, who heads the national commission on higher education, not to be “shy or mealy-mouthed” in producing its report on reforming campuses.

To his credit, Miller took Spellings at her word. Against resistance from some members, the commission has produced a no-nonsense draft report, and he’s got the establishment flustered, to judge by descriptions of its reaction in The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

One member decried the report as being “more negative than it needs to be…” Another complained that the process involved in creating it was “bollixed.” Another fretted (as rendered by The Chronicle) that the document’s “get-tough tone could backfire, alienating, rather than engaging and inspiring, academe.”

Alienate away, Mr. Miller! Whatever your final report, the academy will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the reform table.