I guess, when I think about it, being an editor-owner is a lot more fun than working for people and worrying about getting fired. It is especially fun during the "months with money."

Universities used to have royal patrons and ecclesiastical rulers who would control the curriculum (like publishers controlling editorial content).

In the next stage, the faculty (i.e., editors) came to control the university; patrons could no longer dictate who would be hired, what would be taught, and so forth (like Talking Points Memo now).

But as time goes on, universities need more and more money. Fundraising becomes more important. The university president is no longer just a member of the faculty with a leadership position. He is at best an intellectual figurehead who is really a gifted administrator. But, more and more, he is fundamentally a businessman and fundraiser.

You see where this is going?

Like Talking Points Memo with its publisher, the university charges the president to grow the business side of things. But the prerogatives of his office and the development-mission begin to shape the intellectual life of the university too much, to the extent that its focus, mission, and landscape are changed. What gets funding? How much? What is emphasized in teaching and research?

He who pays piper doesn't call the tune, not exactly, in the sense that donors can't pick faculty, and so forth. It's just that the exigencies of business often have unexpected and widespread effects on the organization.