To engage presidents more directly in what is becoming an increasingly rancorous discussion of higher education's current priorities, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education convened a set of presidential soundings and exchanges in the spring and summer of 2010 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education. The process included one-on-one interviews and a two-day roundtable discussion to consider higher education's role in meeting the nation's need for a more highly educated and skilled population in a time of dramatic change and uncertainty. In all, the process involved presidents of 28 universities and colleges--including two- and four-year institutions large and small, public and independent, proprietary and nonprofit. A Presidential Roundtable convened in Leesburg, Virginia, in July 2010 included 16 of the 28 presidents initially interviewed who were able to participate. The goal of these presidential soundings was to provide a vision of higher education's continued vitality in a time of fiscal constraint, and to offer a set of actions that presidents can take to help both their institutions individually and the nation collectively to move forward.