"Managerialism" represents a relatively new orientation to college and university administration, one that arises from the coincidence of three distinct features of the contemporary landscape: market rationality, nihilism, and the modern wish for a new beginning. In this article, the author offers simple clarification as to the nature of this phenomenon, and takes note of its affinity for programs of strategic planning and assessment. He suggests that managerialism is a major factor in struggles over the shape and substance of education today, and one that is not friendly to education as the cultivation of the kinds of human beings we so urgently need. But, on the positive side, the author also wants to suggest that an alternative is available and gradually emerging in educational communities and practices.