ABSTRACT
Higher education is widely regarded as an American success story. Over 3,000 colleges and universities across the nation educate IS million students of all backgrounds in a vast array of programs and sustain an unrivaled research base. Growth over the past one hundred years has been phenomenal, prompting education leader Clark Kerr to recently describe it as a “golden century” for higher education (Kerr, 1997). By almost any measure, higher education is a vital part of the U.S. economy and society, critical to our national well-being: it educates our citizens; produces both basic and applied research; supports national security; generates spin-off technology; and helps improve quality of life in communities throughout the country by supporting cultural, recreational, and continuing education activities. Much of this success is due to the tremendous innovations that have occurred over the past two centuries.
