On April 27, Purdue University’s president, Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana, unveiled a dramatic new program that he and the board of trustees had been fashioning in secret for months. This self-proclaimed world-class university would be acquiring Kaplan University, one of several controversial for-profit, online education companies that have emerged over the last twenty years.

The announcement surprised the university community, who learned about the deal either during a hastily called meeting between Daniels and select faculty or through an email message. When the Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed students and professors about the proposed merger, many expressed concern.

My colleague David Sanders decried the “Walmartization” of higher education, in which degrees are provided quickly and cheaply. “When speed and cost become more important than quality,” he explained, “faculty are going to object.”