This article is a response to John Silber's article, "Marketing Higher Education: The Survival Value of Integrity." Silber speaks to the very heart of the academy about its integrity and ethics, and does so in timeless fashion through the decades to the current era. In his introduction, he characterizes the "business of education" as inevitable and necessary in spite of how the academy decries terms, such as "sales" and "marketing." Using the vehicle of the admission office, Silber tackles everything from privilege to open admission and gives more than a little ink to the consequences of offering admission to "those who are almost certain to end in utter failure." He warns of the "cultural drift of the age" wherein higher education was being renamed as "postsecondary" education: an era marked by what he saw as the watering down of the curriculum in some of America's best and most emulated universities. Perhaps the issues and rancor surrounding the rankings publications of this age are symptomatic of the "cultural drift" Silber decries. Silber had strong opinions about the issues of his day, surrounding what he saw as the erosion of standards in the curriculum, the oversimplification of admission standards without understanding the importance of true preparation for higher education, and the rise of economic self-interest in both institutions and faculty. Perhaps one should hark back to Silber's advice in what some might see as an unusual spate of optimism from this outspoken critic of and advocate for higher education. If academics maintain their integrity, they shall have grounds for optimism that they will weather the storms of criticism and the fierceness of scrutiny that seem to define this age.