I saw this as good news: The New York Times reports on a study showing that the American public distrusts colleges, seeing them more as businesses committed to making money than as institutions committed to the education of American youth.

The analysis is flawed — colleges and universities are not run like businesses, but, rather, as well-funded nonprofits on a “maximize revenue” model, as Robert Martin discussed in a Pope Center paper. But the study’s implication — that the underlying motivation of most administrators is to bring in more income (as opposed to running a tight ship) — is correct.

Peter Drucker once wrote that businesses exist only by the “sufferance” of society at large. If they fail to live up to the standards demanded by society, they will lose their support in the broader community and ultimately cease to exist. That’s even more true of academia.

Stories like this help to undermine the complacent academic view that whatever they are doing is good for society.