Eric Fingerhut doesn't want to talk about a ''merger'' of the University of Akron and Cleveland State University. The chancellor of the state Board of Regents cautions that the concept invites misunderstandings, defensiveness, hostility. He wants Northeast Ohio to think hard about restructuring, reorganizing or reshaping the landscape of higher education with the goal of creating something stronger academically and economically.

This indispensable notion of advancing the whole should be kept foremost in mind as the conversation continues, Fingerhut crafting a 10-year strategic plan for what Gov. Ted Strickland calls the University System of Ohio. The plan is due in March. As part of the effort, Fingerhut has been encouraging (in a good way) the many players to think boldly, differently and broadly about making improvements. He isn't pursuing mere savings and efficiencies. He wants to structure higher education around centers of excellence, positioning regions and the state to take advantage of established strengths and thus flourish in the emerging knowledge economy.

No surprise, then, that the discussion would turn to how best to build on the sciences and engineering at the University of Akron. Or that the thought would occur about the medical industrial complex in Cleveland, driven by the superb Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, benefiting from the neighborly presence of a public medical school attached to Cleveland State University.

Logic follows that the future of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine would enter the conversation. Fingerhut knows how jealously each of the state's universities protects its turf. He is persuasive in explaining that for now nothing has been decided. He is listening and learning. When alerted to designs in Akron for an orthopedic center involving the three major hospitals, UA and NEOUCOM, he recognized the substantial promise.

Almost any step in the direction of consolidation, merger or whatever will involve complexities and difficulties. For starters, Dr. Lois Nora, the president of NEOUCOM, raised concerns about the wisdom of abandoning the Rootstown campus to erect something wholly new elsewhere. Luis Proenza, the UA president, noted the established links between the Akron hospitals and the medical school.

Again, Fingerhut put the exercise in perspective, emphasizing that this isn't his attempt, or the governor's, to dictate a new structure of higher education in the region (as if either could). He seeks a dialogue and, most important, a shared vision.

A Northeast Ohio struggling to navigate an essential economic transition must take advantage of the opportunity, resisting the impulse to be parochial, especially in Cleveland, if truth be told. Fingerhut rightly wishes to examine the value of pulling together what would be one of the largest public universities in the country. The challenge is to engage in a thoughtful, open-minded examination, one with a particular eye on ensuring a more vibrant regional economy in 10, 15, 20 years and beyond.