Re: /m8

There is a unifying vision at work right now in the universities but it is an administrative vision: "the University of Excellence" -- where "Excellence" is a term that can refer to whatever is convenient (athletics, service to business, etc.) as long as it can be structured in accounting terms. (See http://www.hup.harvard.edu/reviews/REAUNI_R.html)

This vision has been at work for at least two decades in North American (and British?) universities, and it is what makes Morrison's title so deeply ironic. It doesn't really matter that some former ruling idea (say, that of a national culture)has passed away. All that matters (administratively, corporately) is that the accounting structure be preserved.