Today higher education faces the challenge of reconsidering and realigning its public agenda to serve better an era in which educated people, the knowledge they produce, and the innovation and entrepreneurial skills they possess have become the keys to economic prosperity, national security, and social well-being. The imperatives of expanding educational opportunity at all levels, conducting research of world-class quality, and producing outstanding scientists, engineers, physicians, teachers, and other knowledge professionals in an increasingly competitive world will only require not only substantial changes in the leadership and governance of universities, but also challenge their most fundamental structure and purpose. (Contains 2 footnotes.)