We in higher education have allowed the balance of the private and public purposes of liberal education to become skewed in our angst over fully embracing a central role in restoring prosperity and preparing our increasingly diverse population for the evolving responsibility of mending our fraying democracy. As we consider how best to reshape…

Nancy Cantor is chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark. This article was adapted from Cantor's address at "The Power of Civic Engagement--Across Campus, Within Communities, Beyond Borders," the premeeting symposium at the 2018 annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Cantor contemplates the power of civic…