Steven Roy Goodman writes,

Colleges have long been hotbeds of political agitation, of course. But where it was once students who did the acting out, as they spread their intellectual and philosophical wings, now the professors and administrators are more likely to be playing politics — and more and more Americans with college-age kids are getting fed up with it. In 18 years of in-the-trenches experience counseling kids on their college choices, I’ve never seen the unhappiness as widespread as it is today. If colleges don’t tone down the politics, and figure out how to control ballooning costs, they run the risk of turning off enough American consumers that many campuses could marginalize themselves right out of existence.

That’s why I think that the time is ripe for a Martin Luther of higher education. But I find it difficult to believe that the political stuff has as much impact on students and parents as Goodman suggests.

For Discussion. What first-hand evidence do you have of politics having an effect on campus life?