After receiving his PhD in 1970, the author has spent almost 30 years conducting research on the economics of higher education, chairing faculty budget committees at Cornell, serving as a Cornell vice president and then as a trustee of both Cornell and SUNY, and being associated with innumerable national commissions and higher education organizations. In this article, he describes the transformations that various types of public and private academic institutions have made in relation to the US economy over the years. In doing so, he provides four reasons for his conclusion that the financial models that private research universities (and some private liberal arts colleges as well) operate under are breaking down. He also provides additional details about each reason, as well as some speculations about what the future will bring. (Contains 14 resources.)