Academia in the US has been productized and the need for academic talent abstracted away. Students don't attend a given school because of specific star professors. They attend because of the things that admin does. Maintain the brand and messaging- a management and marketing exercise, not intellectual. Set up competitive housing, food, entertainment, job search and other amenities- also administrative, not intellectual. Operate the real estate and digital portfolios- also management. etc. For the lucky, manage the endowment.
I say this as a parent with 2, soon 3, college age kids. Universities in the US are hotels that provide a particular flavor of entertainment to their attendees. Particularly in undergrad.
Yes, students learn some subject domain material while there, usually, because that's what humans do in every situation they're in. But curricula are a dime a dozen. The open curriculum movements from the early 2000s, like open source, benefit those academics who are able to produce new material, harm those who cannot (but who may be good at teaching) but mostly they make it easy to commodify the actual academic talent in any given university.
And student success? Not an academic issue. It's an administrative concern. Good thing, too.
There is no action academics can take to "take back" their university. To think that something like that even makes sense is to live in fantasyland. It is neither how the university machine works (any more, if ever it did) nor is it what the payers in the market value.
No students would attend a university run by academics, rather than run by managers. Without competitive amenities and messaging, the venture would be a failure. Any that succeeded would do so because of the academics took over ran the place like managers.
Apologies for the strong language. There is no cynicism here. Just humor at the disconnect. Though expensive I find the university offerings in the US appropriate for my kids. As human beings first they need all of the things the administrative state provides. The actual intellectual/academic parts of the journey- even given the fact that they are all academically strong, 1500 SATs, etc- are relatively minor and incidental.
Cheers. Hope this helps.