Various characteristics of the American university operate to constrain its participation in changing economic and social institutions. It is understood that the university has multiple roles, has a long legitimized public service role which is becoming a university-wide commitment, must respond responsibly to the pressures for wider involvement in problem solving, is acquiring responsibility for lifelong education, is an instrument of national purpose and is a major component of the power structure. We are a society of large scale organizations. The implications of a social order dominated by large scale organizations and the ideal nature of a university's problem-solving mission have a considerable impact on the strategy that is adopted. The organization of the university has prevented a coordinated assault on urban problems; and although campuses resent having new organizational forms imposed on them from the outside, a national interdependent system of higher education is developing which will, perhaps, be more effective in accomplishing social change. The university today is beset with conflicting pressures from both within and without. If it is to attempt to alter social institutions, the faculty must become more conscious and respectful of the diversity of norms underlying behavior within the university; the reward system must be changed; the nature and processes of the university should be communicated to faculty and students; and some university outreach activities should be instituted. (JS)