Issues and trends relating to science and technology, liberal education and the aims of the university, and academic governance in U.S. universities are considered in 10 essays. Questions are raised concerning: whether universities should be linked to industrial research projects, how America's universities should respond to the wave of computer technology, the place of liberal education in the modern research-oriented university, and the role research play in science education. Titles and authors are as follows: "Science and Liberal Education: What Lies Ahead" (David S. Saxon); "University Research: Prospects and Problems" (John B. Slaughter); "Private Industry and University Research" (Howard E. Simmons, Jr., Alan McClelland); "The Impact of Computer Technology on Higher Education" (Richard L. Venezky); "Creativity and Order: Liberal Education in Transition" (Virginia B. Smith); "The Search for Ends: Liberal Education and the Modern University" (Jan H. Blits); "Paradoxes of a University at Risk" (Frank B. Murray); "Managing the University for Excellence" (Eric Brucker); "People and Productivity in the American University" (C. Harold Brown, Linda Tom); and "Afterword: A Short History of the University of Delaware" (John A. Munroe). (SW)