As university systems consolidate campuses, close redundant programs and re-think the need for residential instruction, the timing is perfect for serious design in higher education. What is a regional campus, for example? Does it have to look like the poor cousin of a nearby public research university? Higher education is at the same inflection point that the media industry was in 1995, the start of the Internet era. It is naive to think that an evolutionary path will be any kinder to incumbent institutions than the Web was to newspapers.
