During the fat years, most of our higher-education system engorged itself on government and privately donated funds. Now that the party is over (at least for the time being), there is a need to cut back, and not merely with token gestures. (“We were looking for a vice-provost for Curricular Diversity, but let’s put that off for a while.”)

One state where there appears to be a serious effort at getting costs down is Tennessee, and my Pope Center colleague Jane Shaw writes about it here.