The authors assert that higher education has a significant role to play in the reinvigoration of American democracy, and that narrow specialization of academic interests, technocratic practices and assumptions, and privatizing values throughout colleges and universities limit the ability of higher education to play this role. These dynamics also thwart our institutions’ capacities to interact in fluid and respectful ways with citizens and civic institutions outside higher education in generating the knowledge needed in a flourishing democratic society. The authors use examples of public work and community organizing in higher education institutions to demonstrate the possibilities for wide civic and democratic changes.