What quality above all others do college administrations and teachers strive to nurture on campus these days? Intellectual rigor? Not likely. That presupposes maintaining high standards, and, as we have been repeatedly told, high standards are invidious. Houston Baker, a former president of the Modern Language Association, spoke for many in his profession when he said that choosing between Shakespeare and Jacqueline Susann (for instance) is “no different from choosing between a hoagy and a pizza.” Professor Baker added, “I am one whose career is dedicated to the day when we have a disappearance of those standards.” Michael Harris, a professor of religious studies at the University of Tennessee, put it this way: “when you see the word ‘qualifications’ used, remember that this is the new code word for whites.”

If not intellectual rigor, then what? How about the patient ha ...

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