The Misuses of the University - Public Books

Have the funds that might have trained the next generation of scholars at the nation’s first research university have been blown on ostentatious new buildings?

The aging history professor—his beard graying, his posture slouching—parks his 1997 Honda and walks to his office at Johns Hopkins. Along the way he passes two giant glass cubes that, for the last five years, have slowly risen on the edge of campus. Limp signs on the fencing announce the opening of the SNF Agora Institute, by which, he’s informed, the university is “building stronger global democracy.” How’s that going? he wonders. In 2017, the institute was endowed with a $150 million gift from a Greek shipping fortune. The cost of the building, designed by Renzo Piano, has probably…

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