Although innumerable interdepartmental institutes, centers, and laboratories have been established on US campuses since World II, they have been largely ineffective and unproductive. There are 3 distinct types: (1) the crossdisciplinary centers, in which researchers with problems in one discipline seek new methodologies, solutions or problems from another discipline; (2) the multidisciplinary centers in which individual scholars from different disciplines share common facilities, a common research approach or a common environment, but each works on problems posed by his own discipline; (3) the interdisciplinary centers where the problem determines the selection of personnel involved in a given project. The different centers vary greatly in their use of graduate students and administrative requirements. Most universities have established multidisciplinary centers which essentially serve the departments. If the university wants to address itself to today's problems, it must establish interdisciplinary centers which are administered, staffed, and run very differently from those of the present. (AF)