ABSTRACT
For the first time in American higher education dramatic metamorphosis must occur without incremental resources or broad public support, and with the major potential competitors not being other academic institutions. The fundamental transformation may be inevitable, but it is not clear where it will lead, and there is no consistent vision about how higher education ought to look as a result. Without such an overview of the future to structure and insulate a planning process, there can be greater risks than potential rewards to institutional leaders who try to use planning to leverage change, even for those who value the process more than the product. Without the ability to tackle the unknown, planning becomes a technical process of perpetuating past techniques onto future scenarios. To enter an even more treacherous arena, like the reform of K-12 education, is to invite disaster and depression-but society, led by our traditional academic institution, has no choice (Ehrlich, Munitz and Wellman, in press).
