From their column in the Washington Post, “U.S. universities have lost sight of their core task“:

America’s elite universities have superb engineering, computer science and medical programs that produce talented graduates. Yet even at the finest flagship schools, and certainly at the hundreds of other schools, too many of our most promising undergraduates remain in a cocoon of expensive dormitories, fluff curriculums, fraternity parties, overly solicitous faculty and isolation from the rigors of global competition. …

The question before the country is simple: Will American universities continue to prioritize institutional prestige over national purpose, or will they recognize that the nation’s future may depend on their willingness to collaborate?

James B. Murray Jr. is a former rector of the boards of the University of Virginia and William & Mary. Meredith Woo, former dean of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia and former president of Sweet Briar College, is on the faculty at Arizona State University.