ABSTRACT
The classical university as it evolved was committed to exacting standards of intellectual and aesthetic excellence and competence, and the university attracted scholars and students who pursued inquiries that were often "irrelevant" to immediate social interests. In particular, a new form of egalitarianism is blowing strong, and this is often detrimental to efforts to maintain high standards of excellence. Paradoxically, one of the major threats to scholarship today comes from those who, in the name of egalitarian democracy, would smother the independence of the university because it is found irrelevant to democratic ends. Democracy and elitism are incompatible where elites are based upon class, race, ethnic origin, or sex. Egalitarians' uncritical application of democracy to the university threatens its viability as a free institution dedicated to learning and inquiry. However, that everyone should attend institutions of higher learning is questionable on other grounds.
