Higher education governance structures are ineffective and new structures of "prospective governance" are needed for future success. Trends affecting higher education include financial scarcity, lack of government funding juxtaposed with the growing public demand for better services, and the competitive pressures of commercialization and technology. Various historical structures such as a boxy, hierarchical model no longer meet the needs of students. There are various myths regarding governance that limit its reform. These include: the belief that reform must come from within; that bad economic times will evaporate; that debates about new governance should center on tradeoffs between campus autonomy and centralized control; that public sector institutions need government buffers to protect them from politics; that shared governance is the preferred form of faculty involvement and is compatible with strategic planning; that conflict must be avoided in order to foster collegial governance; and that the public served understand and respect higher education governance. Prospective governance must focus on what reform should achieve rather than how to achieve specific outcomes. Effective governance is participatory with common, collective goals, not an aggregation of particular goals. Prospective governance is also anticipatory and accountable and promotes agreement across various constituencies. (Contains 10 references.) (JLS)