When it comes to aliens, close encounters of the fourth kind are said to leave humans with a transformed sense of reality. Maybe that explains some of what I’ve experienced over my decades in academia. If only I’d known at the outset I was in the presence of aliens, how different life might have been! The writer James Baldwin tells us, “The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.” That’s precisely the sort of thing an alien might say to all of us who imagine, create, lead: Our purpose is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers. Find out what Eric Holder, B.F. Skinner, Steve Jobs, and Vint Cerf have in common. Join me for a love letter to higher education—an irreverent celebration of aliens in academia, beings who have transformed my sense of reality over and over by laying bare the questions. WINNER: 2013 EDUCAUSE Community Leadership Award. Award sponsored by Moran Technology Consulting, a Silver Partner.