In this article, Ira Harkavy points to the beliefs that education and schooling significantly determine the character of a society, and that higher education has broad societal impacts, including helping to shape the rest of the schooling system. It is this core idea that unites the work of Benjamin Franklin and Ernest Boyer and serves as the basis of their revolutionary vision for higher education. Both men believed that higher education should be of service to society for the progressive betterment of the human condition; therefore, Franklin in 1749, and Boyer 245 years later in 1994, wrote what were in effect proposals to create the New American College. Harkavy includes examples of their thoughts, and states that colleges and universities have increasingly been called on to do the right thing and engage with their communities in comprehensive and mutually beneficial university-community-school partnerships. In order for them to engage effectively, however, they must overcome the burden of tradition. By focusing on solving universal problems that are manifested in their local communities, institutions of higher learning will be better able to reduce the "ancient customs and habitudes" that are impeding college and university community engagement. This, in turn, will advance research, teaching, learning, and service, thus making it possible to realize Benjamin Franklin and Ernest Boyer's revolutionary vision for higher education--that of active engagement and service.