This paper addresses concerns about effects of current changes in higher education on development of leadership personnel (professors and researchers) in special education. It suggests that current changes are a consequence of external expectations and a failure of faculty to protect the cultural values of academia. The prominent role of departments of special education in the interdisciplinary study of disability as well as income generation is noted, as is the influence of federal investment in leadership preparation since 1958, and the passage of Public Law 85-926, the "Training of Professional Personnel for the Education of Mentally Retarded Children" Act. The paper goes on to list major trends in higher education since this law and concludes that special education programs within universities are highly vulnerable unless they persist as research and development academic units with an interdisciplinary focus on disability. Among 10 recommendations are: (1) keeping an R&D focus, (2) resisting restructuring that diminishes the special education identity, (3) remaining interdisciplinary, and (4)recognizing the importance of collegiality within the department. (DB)