Book Forum 

# *Let Colleges Fail*

### *How to Unleash the Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education* 

Published By Independent Institute • 2025 

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Date and Time 

June 16, 2025 4 - 5:15 PM EDT 

Location 

Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 

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##### Featuring 

![Richard K. Vedder - cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-05/Richard-K-Vedder-circle.jpg?itok=JcPzNZ_b) 

Richard K. Vedder 

Senior Fellow, Independent Institute Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Economics, Ohio University

[![Andrew Gillen - cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2024-04/andrew-gillen-cropped.jpg?itok=uRHLF979)](/people/andrew-gillen) 

[Andrew Gillen](/people/andrew-gillen)

Research Fellow, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://twitter.com/Gillen_Andrew_J) 

From declining enrollments and skyrocketing tuition to the stifling of intellectual diversity, Richard Vedder’s *Let Colleges Fail* exposes how centralized control, administrative bloat, and ideological orthodoxy have corroded our college campuses. But rather than lament, Vedder’s book proposes *market-oriented reforms* that could revive academic freedom and restore genuine competition in the world of ideas.

Can higher education be saved from the grip of bureaucracy and groupthink? What policies might unleash its true potential? Don’t miss this urgent conversation between Cato research fellow Andrew Gillen and Vedder about tackling the rot and dysfunction plaguing American higher education.

**Reception to follow.**

![Let Colleges Fail: How to Unleash the Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education - book cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block_book_cover_1x/public/2025-05/Book%20cover%2C%20Gillen%2C%2006.16.jpg?itok=pO5uUnYG) 

##### Featured Book 

### *[Let Colleges Fail](https://www.amazon.com/Let-Colleges-Fail-Destruction-Education/dp/1598134035/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*

Everyone knows American universities are more expensive and less impressive than ever. But no one has come up with a plan to fix them. No one… Until now. ***Let Colleges Fail: The Promise of Creative Destruction in Higher Education*** is *the* hard-hitting instruction manual America needs in order to save its institutions of higher learning. The solutions proposed herein are unorthodox. They’re stern. They’re tough. To some, they might even sound utterly shocking. *But they’re bound to work.*

[Purchase Book](https://www.amazon.com/Let-Colleges-Fail-Destruction-Education/dp/1598134035?tag=catoinstitute-20) 

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