Universities seeking to regain public trust need to examine how their own growth has changed their priorities, a Harvard professor told a Cornell audience Sept. 17. Rakesh Khurana, a Cornell graduate and former dean of Harvard College, argued that institutions have expanded programs and administration faster than they have clarified their central educational mission.
Khurana delivered the ILR School's annual Milton Konvitz Memorial Lecture in Ives Hall. The lecture offered his interpretation of higher education's challenges rather than announcing a change at Cornell. He described himself as a “loving critic” who sees room for universities to change course.
How universities expanded
Khurana said the growth of American universities after World War II was fueled by enrollment, state support and federal research funding. More fields and specialties followed, along with centers and institutes focused on increasingly distinct work. He said the number of federal codes used to describe academic fields has risen more than 500% since 1980.
Universities became good at adding new work but less willing to consolidate older activities, he argued. More reliance on federal support and wealthy donors added other pressures, while tuition grew faster than inflation and admission became more selective at prestigious schools, according to Khurana.
He did not suggest that every new office was unnecessary. Student advising, mental health counseling, disability services and support for first-generation and international students became more professionalized partly to make those services more consistent and accessible, he said. But each addition also made the institution more complex and created a group with a stake in keeping the service.
Khurana said leaders were then chosen increasingly for their ability to manage large administrative systems. In his view, that can pull attention from questions about why a university exists and whom it serves. His argument was directed at higher education broadly rather than at a single Cornell office or program.
Trust and mission
The public once gave universities broad confidence as places of learning, research and innovation, Khurana said. He argued that rising costs, perceptions of elitism, political bias and the handling of controversies had weakened that confidence before recent fights over federal research funding intensified it.
Khurana said universities depend on legitimacy because their benefits, such as educating citizens or supporting discoveries, can be difficult to measure quickly. When confidence falls, that complexity can instead fuel misunderstanding and disappointment, he said.
He urged universities to examine their own choices rather than attribute all distrust to outside political pressure. Khurana pointed to Cornell's Committee on the Future of the American University as one example of a collective effort to consider what institutions should preserve and what they should change.
Alexander Colvin, the ILR School's dean, introduced Khurana and cited his experience in academic leadership. Khurana served as dean of Harvard College from 2014 to 2025 and is a professor of leadership development and organizational behavior at Harvard Business School.
Despite the criticism, Khurana said he remains optimistic that universities can restore confidence by making their purpose clearer. The lecture did not announce a timetable, budget or administrative change at Cornell; it was a call for institutions to judge their structures against their educational mission.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.