The war on higher education is now underway.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon formally declared a “war on drugs” that would be directed to combat the use of illicit drugs in the U.S. This and other “wars,” such as the “war on gangs” or “war on cancer” have come to signify major efforts by the federal government against something they perceive as a threat. In past articles in this column I have written about concerted efforts by some groups and conservative media to diminish funding for higher education, defame college education as a passport to better standards of living, portray colleges and universities as “liberal nests” out of control, and promote anti-intellectualism. But now, in the last two weeks, we have seen signs of major efforts by the federal government to undermine some of the basic tenets of how colleges and universities, both private and public, operate