Jonathan R. Cole, currently the John Mitchell Mason Professor at Columbia University, is widely known throughout the United States for his fourteen years (1989-2003) as Columbia's provost, holding the position for the second-longest tenure in the university's 250-year history. He has also served as dean of faculties and vice president for arts and sciences. He lives in New York.

A renowned academic leader identifies the ways America's great universities should evolve in the decades ahead to maintain their global preeminence and enhance their intellectual stature and social mission as higher education confronts the twenty-first-century developments in technology, humanities, culture, and economics.

Jonathan R. Cole, former provost and current University Professor at Columbia University, addresses some of the biggest challenges facing the modern American university:
developing effective admission policies,
creating the most meaningful examinations,
dealing with rising costs,
making undergraduate education central to the university's mission,
exploring the role of the humanities,
facilitating new discoveries and innovation,
determining the place for professional schools,
developing the research campuses of the future,
assessing the role of sports,
designing leadership and governance,
and combating intellectual and legal threats to academic freedom.