This issue explores how competitive intercollegiate athletics affects both admissions practices and the nature of academic community at private colleges and universities that practice selective admission. It is based on a roundtable that took place in February 2003. It is clear that the athletic profile of such selective campuses is considerably different than the culture of high-stakes, big-media collegiate sports at the large, mainly public, universities. Athletic participation on these selective campuses can be seen as preparation for life rather than preparation for work. As the competition intensifies for admission to these institutions, so too does the contention over how athletic ability should figure in the mix of factors that determine which students gain admission from a pool of highly capable and promising applicants. At an earlier age, students in high-aspiration communities come to understand the need to excel in a specific area, to develop a talent that distinguishes them in the competition for admission to the most selective institutions. The subject of athletics has become a focal point for a deeper set of uncertainties within the academy, including the question of what values these institutions seek to foster in their students and learning communities. In all of higher education, there is an uneasy disparity between the drive to academic distinction and athletic prowess. What seems to be missing if not the discussion of athletics per se, but the articulation of the institutional and educational values to provide a context for considering the role that athletics should play and the resources it should command. The college president has the central leadership role in the explorations of these values and the place of college athletics. (SLD)