Introduction

Higher education in the United States is a successful, prestigious enterprise that simultaneously elicits international praise along with intense critical debate at home. It is newsworthy, commanding attention on the front page and the sports page, along with being the focus of press conferences of governors and even central to State of the Union addresses by Presidents of the United States. This chapter discusses the brief inside-out views of the University of California and Liberty University along with LaGuardia Community College and Universities at Shady Grove (USG) foster appreciation for the diversity of American higher education. The significant issues facing higher education in the United States cut across past, present, and future. This seamless web persists because the really important questions and problems seldom are resolved once and for all. The issues associated with the internal workings of a college or university, however, ultimately extend to the broad arenas of public policies.