This essay outlines several themes that encapsulate the findings from the authors'--both professors of education--previously published study, "The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers," and sheds light on several areas that urgently need further probing. Suggestions for ensuring a productive future for the academy and its core asset--the instructional staff--are included in this essay. The authors' analysis of the professoriate depicts a complex enterprise--the sprawling domain of American higher education--and an academic profession in rapid transformation. Findings suggest not only an unprecedented rate of change, but evidence of a restructured sector that is already a reality with much more change likely to contribute to further restructuring in the proximate future. Three fundamental elements of restructuring are well underway: (1) academic appointments; (2) academic work; and (3) academic careers. These interrelated trends are central to how academic life is being reconfigured in the U.S. They constitute the principal axes of the ongoing transformation of the American faculty. [For "The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers" (2008), see ED528761.]