There is a collapse of confidence under way in U.S. colleges and universities. It is a collapse that has been documented in what seems like a steady stream of recent reports and books, including my own. Amid the many dire warnings there is one bright thread: advances in information technology are often viewed as a pathway to rebuilding public confidence in higher education by reducing costs, expanding access, improving outcomes, and increasing financial transparency. If technology could help rebuild public confidence, higher education would be better off for it, but without more engagement from the research community in attacking the problems facing the nation’s colleges and universities I am not optimistic that will happen.