Do academic departments promote scholarship, protect higher learning from stagnation and interference, and provide a sound basis for hiring and advancing faculty? Or do they stifle teaching and research, foster parochialism, and limit the development of professors and students? There exist operating alternatives to conventional departments. Those at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and the Evergreen State College. The goals, faculty and administrative problems, achievements, and impact on higher education of these alternatives are examined. (MSE)