In his 1990 book "Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate," Ernest L. Boyer set a stage of precedents for what is now seen as the pressing challenges for higher education. Boyer--who served as chancellor of the State University of New York, as US commissioner of education, and as president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching--called for "a new American college that is connected and committed to improving, in a very intentional way, the human condition." Taking off from this appeal, the author considers how close institutions of higher education can get to being public goods, if not in a purely technical sense, at least in the spirit of an aspirational metaphor. The author suggests that there are four inextricably intertwined aspects to the necessary transformation, all aimed at the public good. First, diversify the student body and faculty (building a critical mass of representation). Second, recognize and reward publicly engaged scholarship (giving, as Boyer said, "scholarship a richer, more vital meaning"). Third, cultivate genuinely reciprocal, sustained relationships between universities and communities (as stable, committed anchors of equitable growth and opportunity). Fourth, learn to overcome competitive instincts and collaborate across an ecosystem of institutions, organizations, and sectors (all committed to a movement of change).