Problems facing Brazilian universities are rooted in a problem of goals, the disintegration of the community of scholars, and growth and bureaucratization. Different goals of the university that need to be conciliated are the roles of teaching and research, or helping the young become men and conducting scientific and technological investigations capable of assuring the autonomy of Brazilian industrial expansion. In Brazilian universities it is difficult to exchange professors with foreign institutions, acquire and subscribe to books and journals, and hire and transfer professors. The growing diversity of the fields of knowledge has led to departmentalization and specialization with the consequence of isolating professors. Students cannot limit themselves exclusively to studying and exchanging ideas because of socioeconomic conditions. The university department is the operational unit responsible for teaching, research, and extension of all fields of knowledge and should coordinate and integrate these functions. Coordination is the principle problem of an organization. An administrative body should be based upon the departments; administrators should be trained at the department level and rise to higher levels with a sensitivity to the problems of the smaller departmental unit. The university should characterize itself as an integrated functional unit where everyone has specific and interdependent functions. The organizational theory of Mary Parker Follett is discussed. (SW)