Unless it is dramatic, erosion usually goes unnoticed. Or, unless one leaves for some time and then returns to notice what is often subtle and slow. Cultural shifts are often much like erosion. This is true of the modern American university. Its once impressive place on the landscape as a positive force in shaping society has been in question for several years now. While some of the criticism comes from pragmatists arguing, "it just isn't practical" other critics observe how the university has dug its own grave. One of the most impressive, insightful, and at times caustic analyses of the plight of the loss of the university is agrarian, Wendell Berry. His essay "The Loss of the University" can be found in his Home Economics and it was also recently released by the Trinity Forum as a booklet. When I read it for the first time in 1991, I was struck by how much Berry understood some of the real enemies of the university. Enemies both ins...