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 engagement in higher education and the related responsibility to prepare students for civic action now and throughout their lives. She asks if higher education is prepared to become the architect of the future imagined by all, one that leverages a diverse, democratic society with a eye toward a diverse democratic society.