Education and enlightenment of the individual uplifts society. It is because of this widely held belief, common sense, really, that the people are willing to build and support with public and private money, colleges and universities. Through history, even in societies that were desperately poor, as in post-civil war Texas, scarce resources were allocated to higher education. But although both public and private universities are financially dependent on the larger society, they must be intellectually independent. And that's no mean trick in this world of strong social tides and political passions.
Universities are at one and the same time durable and fragile.
They are durable in the sense that they have endured as social institutions for hundreds of years with their basic purpose and structure more or less intact. There have been some societies in some times that in the throes of ideological turmoil closed or abolished their universities, but even the most fanatical of ideologs soon realized what a high social cost was attached to that foolishness. But while the institution is durable, its intellectual integrity is fragile. There is abroad in the land an extreme form of egalitarianism that holds that excellence in undemocratic. This is a particularly insidious doctrine that takes political form in attempts to divert resources from public flagship universities.