Focused on undergraduate education, the debate about the curriculum in higher education in the 1980s has been carried on primarily by the higher education system itself. Various national reports and national politics have, at most, provided the environment within which the college and university citizens make the real decisions on campus. However, because there is much at stake and because the culture of the university prizes consultation, decisions about curriculum are especially laborious and time-consuming. In fact, campus political systems do not seem to have institutionalized the capacity to make judgments about long-term concerns. We must think creatively about dealing with the lethargy of existing campuses and reconsider the substance and procedure of decisions about academic matters. Presidents, provosts, and boards of trustees need to create deliberative bodies for all segments of the college community, delegating authority and power where appropriate, and then resolving conflict through small, representative cabinets that advise the whole institution and whose word decides most issues. Most important is the belief that everyone is participating in a community that they have voluntarily joined, a strategy far more likely to improve the quality of American higher education than assessment, testing, and management by objectives. (KM)