[WS:] On one level, I agree. But on another level, this call seems to rest on a dubious assumption that institutions can function independently of their socio-political environment. From that pov, asking to "redeem" universities is like asking, say, to redeem the brain of a patient who has a lung cancer and is addicted to smoking. You cannot just redeem his brain without treating his cancer and his addiction.
A better proposition would be to redeem the whole "Unis" (to quote Michael Smith whose debating skills impressed me), their rotten institutional framework, and their addiction to anything private. The feasibility of this is a moot proposition, however.
Wojtek