I don't think that has to happen in a setting that is isolated from the
> world of work, play, and home.
>
It doesn't have to, but it's nice for some of us. I've always appreciated the secluded greenery of traditional campuses considerably more than the academic floors one encounters in New York City skyscrapers. There's something to be said for an environment explicitly dedicated to pursuits of the mind, where one can retreat and focus on learning, to the exclusion of life's other concerns, even if it's hard to actually say it.
Now why such experiences are squandered on kids at an age where they would rather drink and screw, I don't know.
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."