The author questions the high cost of innovation in higher education. He states that much of the literature and other communications convey the sense that improvements in university functioning are more a capital-intensive, than a thought- or labor-intensive enterprise, especially for small public institutions, which educate a substantial proportion of American students. He proposes some modest steps that he thinks have the potential to advance an institution's educational mission. From the President (with an academic officer) walking around campus to convey leadership and mission to "common reading" programs during Freshman Orientation to promote student life and early success, he suggests that the cumulative effect of modest innovations can make a real difference in higher education.