Director of American studies, Andrew Delbanco, took to the NYTimes op-ed section yesterday to voice frustration about elitism in higher education.

THE Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently set off a ruckus when he attacked America’s colleges as “indoctrination mills” from which God-fearing Americans should keep their distance. Calling President Obama a “snob” for urging all Americans to go to college, he joined a long tradition that runs from Andrew Carnegie, who more than a century ago described colleges as places that prepare students for “life upon another planet,” to Newt Gingrich, who has claimed that alumni donations are often used “to subsidize bizarre and destructive visions of reality.”

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In this respect, I agree with Mr. Santorum that our leading colleges could use a little more of their own old-time religion — not in any doctrinal sense, but in the sense of taking seriously the Christian virtues of humility and charity. In secular terms, this means recognizing that people with good prospects owe much to their good fortune — and to fellow citizens less fortunate than themselves.