Education in Illinois will face a number of problems in the 1980s: decline in student enrollment, inflation, and decline in public support of education. It is impossible to estimate how these forces will affect speech communication and theatre programs, but three factors suggest that real opportunities exist for speech and theatre among the aforementioned challenges. First, speaking and listening are being accorded major attention as central to the educational process and as areas in which the skills of all individuals must be fully developed. Second, there is growing general public awareness of the importance of oral communication skills. Third, the speech profession has matured to a point where it is ready to respond to the communication needs of business. But the speech profession must continue to work toward greater quality. In this challenge to excellence four things must be considered: (1) there must be a vision of the future; (2) speech and theatre professionals must work in cooperation with colleagues, particularly those in English; (3) the quality of such programs must be discernible; and (4) speech professionals must cope with the conflict between the desire for high standards and the desire to provide every person with a quality flexible education. (HTH)