The institutional mission orientation of land grant universities and problems faced by these institutions are discussed, along with five tasks involved in redefining and revitalizing the land grant university. A traditional responsibility of land grant universities was to apply science and technology to solve societal problems. Faculty were rewarded for working on societal problems and not solely for publishing in scholarly journals. Alternative research organizations in the private sector, such as the Rand Corporation, do much of the applied research that land grant universities once did and get public support that universities might have received. The educational functions of universities are being displaced by employer-provided education, which tends to exclude liberal and comprehensive learning. It is recommended that land grant universities turn to the previously mentioned five tasks: apply what has been learned about agricultural development to the rest of the economy; respond to the changed economics of education; train and educate students for the international economy; span the gap between the frontier of knowledge and the problems of society; and give university administrators more responsibility in resource allocation. (SW)