Epistemic asymmetries silently structure what counts as knowledge and who counts as a knower within the university. This leads to critiques on dominant logics of academic legitimacy, revealing how curricula, credentials, and canons often perpetuate historical exclusions under the guise of neutrality. Such critiques, crucial but only a starting point, are only part of the task. If the university is to be reimagined, it must be not only deconstructed but also reconstructed through generative visions that are grounded in the lived experience of those who inhabit it daily. We therefore turn to the lived experiences and empirical realities of those navigating the university’s evolving role. This chapter builds on the conceptual groundwork by drawing from interviews, foresight-in sessions, and student focus groups to uncover how faculty and students perceive and enact the university’s role today. It presents two parts. First, it presents the voices expressed in both studies regarding the role they envision for the university. Second it describes their voices which offer insight into how epistemic tensionsEpistemic Tensions are felt, resisted, or reimagined and, crucially, they illuminate the emerging contours of a university that is not merely reformed but re-envisioned from within. These reflections inspire pathways beyond asymmetry, toward an academic spaceAcademic Space that is more just, more responsive, and more aligned with the complex world it seeks to serve.