The purpose of this article is to discuss the dilemma of the multi-university in sustainable education, research, and outreach by addressing some of the ways in which universities, must generate actions that seek to address these challenges, develop strategic relationships, and maximize their potential in the areas of teaching, research and service to society. Significantly, we examine how sustainability is experienced by nations--in our case Mexico--by analyzing higher education and its mission in developing citizens and economic sovereignty. The author's goal is to establish a new paradigm by which practitioners and researchers can collaborate to produce the ideas that stimulate sustainable development.