The September 2006 report "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," by the commission appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, identifies many areas of improvement for U.S. higher education and specifies numerous recommendations (totaling more than 50, according to some counts) for consideration by states, the federal government, institutions, policy-makers, businesses, faculty, and accreditors. Reports such as this, and the various initiatives that may follow, will undoubtedly influence future institutional goals and objectives. Yet heeding the commission's calls for improved access, affordability, accountability, quality, and innovation and mapping them to the return on investment in specific technology strategies is a challenge. This challenge is called the challenge of "mission-to-technology alignment." So, how should colleges and universities respond to a laundry list of 50-plus recommendations put forth by an esteemed commission of experts? How should those in IT respond? The answer depends on whether the desire is to respond with management or with leadership. Leadership in IT will require investigating how the appropriately defined learning outcomes can be enabled by applied "innovation"; it will require engendering widespread "adoption"; and it will require being accountable and taking the lead in establishing and ascertaining the "learning impact" of an institution's strategic investments in technology. But most of all, leadership in IT will require understanding the alignment of external factors--access, affordability, perceived quality--to the core mission and integrity of the institution. (Contains 4 figures and 34 notes.)