There's an old Swedish saying that "worry gives a small thing a big shadow." What started out as a subprime borrowing crisis is now casting a long shadow over the entire economy, including higher education, and everyone is, indeed, very worried--including college trustees, who fear the impact of smaller endowments, less annual giving, and potentially lower enrollments. Board members, responsible for matters both fiduciary and visionary, are concerned that their colleges not be caught flat-footed in confronting the substantial challenges ahead. An essential task of presidents is to work with boards in channeling anxiety away from panic responses and toward carefully crafted strategic responses that will serve their institutions both now and in the future. To do so, administrators and trustees alike must work hard to better verse themselves in higher-education finance. College trustees should set guidelines now for the strategies they will use if falling revenue forces them to trim the budget.