It is hard not to sympathize with the Trump administration’s criticisms of U.S. universities. The Ivory Tower has been badly corroded in recent years by the twin evils of the “woke mind virus” and administrative bloat. Some academic disciplines — all those “studies” — are fixated on the evils of the West. The administrative class has multiplied so fast that some universities have more administrators than professors.

The authorities have failed to stand up to mobs who threaten Jewish students or silence visiting speakers. And for all this some institutions have the gall to charge undergraduates upwards of $100,000 a year! Yet universities are far more than just incubators of wokery. They are also powerful engines of U.S. prosperity — central nodes in the world’s most successful innovation system, magnets for global talent, generators of patents and products and linchpins of the scientific-industrial complex.

The danger is that a prolonged standoff between the administration and academia — and it looks as if both sides are digging in — will damage these engines even as other countries, particularly China, are building powerful engines of their own. Why does America lead the world in a wide range of foundational technologies from IT to AI to genetics? Why does it boast the lion’s share of the world’s big tech companies? Why does it rejoice in more immigrant entrepreneurs than anywhere else? Why is it awash with patents and new products? The answer to all these questions lies in its universities.

Universities are at the heart of the most productive U.S. regions such as Silicon Valley and Raleigh-Durham. They are umbilically linked to its most successful companies such as Google. They suck in the........

© The Korea Times