The decision by Dartmouth College’s president not to sign a letter condemning the government’s efforts to reform higher education strikes us as a moment to mark. Sian Beilock, Dartmouth’s leader of only two years, was the only Ivy League president to refrain from signing the petition, which has garnered some 200 signatures of college presidents. It’s good to know that there’s a university leader prepared to challenge the pack.  

The letter, issued by the American Association of Colleges and Universities this week, called on hundreds of American college and university presidents to “speak with one voice” in opposing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference,” which they believe is “endangering American higher education.” They specifically denounce the administration’s “coercive use of public research funding.” 

It’s not that we think these universities shouldn’t be allowed to question the government’s efforts. It’s that they, for all their lamentations over the government’s “political interference,” fail to consider their own responsibility in getting themselves into this very mess. Even more confounding, they maintain their unique role in preparing “an educated citizenry to sustain our democracy” to promote “the common good.” 

We wonder whether the leaders of Columbia University — whose president is among the letter’s list of signatories — believe that they helped foster a class of democracy defenders while flouting their own rules and policies at the expense of their Jewish students. Maybe they, and their peers, presume that the students who took their pro-Hamas advocacy to the lawns of their universities passed time in their tents by discussing the merits of democracy. 

In stark contrast, Ms. Beilock offers a sobering dose of humility. “Higher-education institutions, especially the most elite among us, are not above reproach,” she wrote last week explaining her decision not to sign on. “Not only is trust in higher education at an all-time low, but that trust is hugely polarized, second in polarization only to the U.S. presidency. If we don’t ask ourselves why, we will squander this opportunity to do better.” 

Ms. Beilock reflects approvingly on the “long, successful partnership” between American research universities and the federal government — but adds that we would be wise not to take it for granted. “We owe it to our country to look for ways to move forward and for solutions that protect our fierce independence as institutions of higher education while improving who we are and what we offer,” she writes. 

Ms. Beilock managed to spare Dartmouth an unlawful anti-Israel tent city by doing what other universities all too often shrank from doing — calling in law enforcement and shutting the trouble down before it could dig in. Now, she’s focused on maintaining the crucial flow of federal research funds to important work, rather than participating in the political theater that appears to have taken over her peers. 

It’s no surprise that Ms. Beilock, a cognitive scientist, is a leading expert on the brain science behind human performance. Her 2011 book, “Choke: The Secret To Performing Under Pressure,” examines why some people, when faced with a high stakes situation, will founder, while others excel. Ms. Beilock’s university-president peers could do well to take a page from her book — a copy is available online for $10.90.