The change in climate of opinion and attitude toward higher education and the structural and political context within which it seeks support are considered with attention directed to state staffs. Studies have indicated that higher education has reached a new low in terms of priority among state services and that little long-range comprehensive planning is taking place at the state level. With some exceptions among the states, planners are not engaged in conceiving new initiatives in programming, in setting system goals, in reviewing or redefining institutional missions, or in establishing other parameters for the development of individual campuses within a system of public and private institutions. Legislators and governors have been found to be much concerned over the lack of direction or focus in higher education. Results of a 1975 survey of 2,500 college and university presidents on how institutions were responding and planning to respond to leveling enrollments and funding patterns are presented and analyzed. The administrators were sufficiently satisfied with their recent tactics and strategies for recruiting new clientele, adopting new programs, and meeting staffing needs, to report no major changes in activities beyond those already underway in 1974. It is suggested that governors and legislators want the state-level agencies and the institutions to take a more studied and aggressive stand on how and in what dimensions each campus will fit into the new spectrum of agencies and modes of education. State pressures for better and more comprehensive long-range planning are undoubtedly going to come from the politicians and will be directed at the state coordinating and planning boards. It is suggested that an aggressive, realistic planning mode is the best defense against imposition from without of roles and programs for an individual institution. (SW)