At present, there are at least 13 major federal laws and at least 439 separate statutory authorities regulating various aspects of college and university behavior. In addition, various state coordinating and governing boards are making increasing demands for data from the campuses and are ordering colleges to drop high cost and/or low enrollment programs, to retrench, and to freeze salaries, construction, and other major budget items. The resulting centralized management is destroying the democratic philosophy of institutions of American higher education and is having an adverse impact on students, as well as teachers and administrators. The accountability movement focuses on intermediate mechanisms and processes, without considering the basic goal of higher education, which is to provide direction and cohesiveness for young people. If students are, as they have so often been told, the future of this country, they must become full partners in the adventure of learning. Moreover, if education is for students, rather than for the politicians, accountability must begin to focus on the quality of education, rather than on those aspects susceptible to quantitative measurement. In short, our institutions of higher education will be irreparably damaged if governments, rather than the students, teachers, and administrators, continue to dictate their course. (DC)