President Skorton's commentary originally was published in the Nov. 21 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. It is reprinted with permission.

The deepening financial crisis that is now affecting markets and people around the globe gives new context to what our nation is facing. Americans cannot think of business as usual in any sector of public or private life, including higher education. President-elect Barack Obama will have very little financial latitude and enormous immediate problems, beginning with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a troubled health-care system, and the complex economic conundrum.

It is time to strengthen and clarify the role that we at colleges and universities can play in this unsettling environment. The nation is at an unprecedented moment, one that higher education can seize as an opportunity to become a more crucial determinant of the direction taken by the United States. Higher education has not been on the national agenda except insofar as we are viewed as less and less affordable, and to some extent less relevant to a broad range of challenges. In effect, policy makers and the public view us as an elective at a time when more, not less, knowledge and preparation are needed to overcome our national difficulties. That must change.

Foremost, our national leaders must reinforce the public sector's part in the "three-legged stool" business model that has made American higher education so successful. Those three sources of support are from students and their families, the university itself, and state and federal governments. Unfortunately and undeniably, the public-sector support has declined relative to need. For example, the value of Pell Grants has not kept pace with inflationary increases in the cost of education, and federal student aid has gravitated from grants to loans.

The inability or unwillingness of the public sector to carry its weight is creating enormous challenges at a time when demand for higher education has never been greater, and when the issue of affordability is paramount. The next administration must set policy parameters to preserve its stake in the "education compact" that has served the country so well, and in the long run ensure that higher education can play its relevant part in sustaining the national interest.

Higher education must also change. The political process, at a time of reduced flexibility in discretionary federal spending, has made colleges and higher-education associations appear to be just so many special-interest groups, rather than enterprises oriented toward helping the country solve its most pressing challenges. We approach Washington and our state capitals with a grab bag of requests. At times we seem more intent on protecting our own flanks than on dealing with issues that are relevant to society.

What specifically can and should we do to regain our credibility and help solve the difficult and complex problems now facing our country?

First, at a time of fiscal dislocation, there is nothing more compelling than leading by example. Those of us who work at colleges and universities can all learn from the significant streamlining that has been done at other higher-education institutions, particularly public universities. We all must work to aggressively and systematically reduce costs to gain savings, even if relatively marginal, and use those savings to slow the rate of tuition increases. For our students and their families, every dollar counts.

Second, the enormous potential of higher education to examine problems dispassionately and thoroughly must be deployed to inform the policy debate on the thorniest issues. We must cease abdicating our policy role to think tanks and once again become the nation's intellectual bully pulpits, debating the best ways to solve real-world problems -- health-care delivery and renewable energy, to name only two -- as an extrapolation of our missions of research and outreach. We can support the rise in student volunteerism in our local communities and nationally. We can focus more directly on our role in public culture by maintaining and even enhancing our efforts in the arts and the humanities.

Third, we must become better citizens locally and regionally and a force for economic development in our states. We need to help our states think about better ways to fulfill their obligations to their people even as public resources diminish. Our community colleges, already very valuable, can, with appropriate government support, become even more nimble and effective in responding to local needs for work-force retraining. Our four-year colleges and universities can also collaborate more aggressively with local companies to develop internships and summer-job opportunities that can pay off in highly skilled additions to the regional work force a few years down the road. Our land-grant universities have extension components that could be linked more closely to regional economic development. Our research universities can contribute even more in the area of technology transfer and the promotion of business incubators and start-ups.

Robust collaborations between higher education and the business community in every locale must be potent forces for economic development. Many of our institutions are already successfully pursuing such activities, but national models and best practices must be developed. The times require that we redouble our efforts.

Fourth, American higher-education institutions also have the duty to think internationally and set up the programs that ensure a sufficient work force for the new global economy and a ready flow of research leading to innovation. Our main industries of growth know no national boundaries. With the information and idea sharing that the Internet makes possible, we in higher education, too, must disregard those boundaries. We can accomplish basic research and innovation -- and their application in pharmaceutical development, agriculture, and numerous other areas -- as easily on the other side of the globe as down the hall. We must work with counterparts and partners overseas to build capacity so that all boats may rise. In short, our nation's well-being depends in part on the success of the global economy. That, in turn, depends on the availability of a sophisticated work force far larger than can be trained only in colleges and universities on American soil.

Fifth, in difficult economic times, colleges may be tempted to balance budgets on the backs of people. But we need to lead with humanity and attention to all employees in not only good times but also challenging ones. Faculty members are the heart of our institutions, and we must vigorously defend the tenure system as well as offer adequate salaries and start-up packages. Further, at most colleges and universities, the majority of employees are not in the faculty ranks yet are just as important, only in a different way. We should help ensure their financial welfare as much as possible. We must be employers that lead the way to show that American organizations should protect our human resources even, or especially, in a time of financial duress.

Finally, we need to explain ourselves more clearly and plainly to the American people, who struggle to pay our tuition. As the price of higher education continues to escalate, students and families are finding it harder to gauge what they think they will get out of a college degree. One of the great strengths of American higher education is the great variety of institutions it embraces. Yet we have not done as good a job as we should to articulate the distinguishing features of different colleges and universities and the types of students that each kind of institution can best serve. We have made a strong case that a college degree will improve one's career options, but we have forgotten to explain, in light of our distinctive missions, what we impart during the years of study. That explanation must clearly indicate the overarching importance of a liberal education and the place of the arts, humanities, and social sciences in developing educated citizens. It's time to reconnect.

At Cornell University, we claim no monopoly on good ideas, but we will use our resources to maintain a tight focus on access to higher education and faculty-initiated research, scholarship, and creative activity throughout the disciplines, and to act as an employer of choice -- following progressive human-resource practices, while recognizing that financial realities require doing so in a creative way.

I call on my fellow leaders in higher education -- in community colleges, liberal-arts institutions, and research universities -- to come together to make higher education more relevant on the national and international agenda. Through our presidents' associations, we need to share among ourselves the many innovations that individual colleges and universities have developed. Working with political and business leaders throughout the country and abroad, we must begin to act not as just another special interest but as an asset: a steppingstone to send forth generations into a world where the ability to apply knowledge makes all the difference.

If there was ever a time for higher education to be front and center in solving societal problems -- including those related to economic diversification and development -- that time is now.