On the surface, America has a great higher education system that works beautifully. Our colleges and universities, we are often told, are the best in the world. They consistently dominate the international rankings. A number of Nobel Prize award winners are closely associated with American institutions. Foreign students flock to our country to derive the benefits of those institutions. But below the surface, one can identify a number of flaws in the system. This article addresses what the author calls the "inconvenient truths" about American higher education and how they relate to the responsibilities of the boards of colleges and universities.