The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 19, 1968 Page: 7 of 10
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Council threatens universities-
(Continued from page 2)
proposal gives virtually no al-
ternatives for dealing with some
of the very real problems of
higher education—where to get
the money for teaching, how to
enable ill-equipped students to
benefit from college, and how
to make bad colleges better, in
teaching and scholarship.
The solution to all the prob-
lems, seemingly, lies in "better
communication" among the fed-
eral agencies who think they
run higher education in the Un-
ited States. (At first sight of
that tired phrase, the reader is
convinced he has read this re-
port, too, somewhere before).
And, of course, the report and
proposal make no provisions for
involving- student ideas in their
deliberations on university im-
provement.
Bureaucracy
The committee recommends
the establishment of a National
Council oft Higher Learning,
to consist of 15 or more "indi-
viduals broadly experienced and
knowledgeable in all facets of
American higher education"
who would be chosen as indi-
viduals, not as representatives
of associations or colleges.
Served by a full-time staff
and subcommittees with spe-
cific interests, the Council
would serve as a "forum for
the discussion of issues, con-
sideration of future needs, and
deliberation of the Federal
role" in higher education. It
would collect and process data
and do other research in the
area, and it would establish
priorities for existing programs
and define new ones in annual
reports to the President and
Congress.
The Council would be located
in the office of the Secretary of
Health, Education and Welfare
and responsible directly to him,
placing it high enough that it
"would have a complete over-
view of all of higher education,
including Federal programs ad-
ministered outside HEW." (Pre-
sumably "all of higher educa-
tion" includes both inside-HEW
and outside-HEW programs.)
No Scope
If the report's conclusion that
a new commission is the answer
is simplistic, its analysis of the
consequences of any or all fed-
eral programs for higher educa-
tion is non-existent.
The observation that the fed-
eral government is the "single
largest patron" of higher edu-
cation in America today is ob-
viously correct. In direct grants
to professors and departments
for research projects, contracts
with universities for research
leading to new products and
methods of government and
warfare, in matching-fund en-
dowments for construction of
new buildings, in discounts on
food for cafeterias and dormi-
tories, in loans to millions of
students—in all these areas the
government's hand is heavy.
Fait Accompli
The report accepts this "larg-
iest patron" role for the govern-
ment unquestioningly, even ap-
provingly. Not all American
educators and laymen have al-
ways accepted it in that spirit,
but their failure to make their
opposition meaningful in poli-
tical terms has meant that gov-
ernment financial dominance of
higher education is taken for
granted.
The only real problem the
committee sees with such ex-
tensive involvement is that it
is in large chunks which are
for all practical and tactical
purposes unconnected and un-
coordinated. The only correction
it would make is coordinating
the programs, making a big ef-
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ficient system out of them, thus
giving them (intentionally or
not) all the political and tactical
power their money commands.
The fragmented nature of
federal aid t<p education and re-
search projects is another fact;
but that uncoordination is at
the same time the fact that has
made federal involvement until
now innocuous politically.
Big Brother
Quite aside from the possible
moral interpretation of specific
government projects carried on
through the universities—like
the development of new de-
structive chemicals and weapons
—is the more fundamental ques-
tion of the government's using
its financial investment as a
lever with which to exercise
control over a school's policies
and practices. This is what op-
ponents of government aid to
education so long feared. Their
fears, luckily, were never sub-
stantiated—due in part to the
disjointed nature of govern-
ment's several roles in the col-
leges.
A very good question, then,
is whether coordination of the
type the committee proposes
will enable—or even force—gov-
ernment to take and use the
power its heavy financial in-
vestments imply for more or
less political purposes. One of
Congress' recent actions seems
aimed in that direction. Both
the House and Senate have ad-
ded riders to their Higher Edu-
cation Appropriation bills pro-
viding that federal grants and
loans will not be made avail-
able to, or will be taken away
from, students who have "en-
gaged in disruptive protests"
(House) or "used the money for
non-educational purposes "(Sen-
ate).
Uneducation
Cries have gone up protest-
ing infringement on academic
freedom, but the riders will no
doubt stand in the Appropria-
tions Act finally passed by both
chambers (the bill is now in
conference committee).
It is interesting that the re-
port mentions the word "stu-
dent" only once, and "learning"
not at all (except, ironically, in
the title of the new Council
proposed).
Education, for the Advisory
Committee, is a process that
trains people to fill the needs
of government and industry;
universities are essentially fac-
tories that stamp people into
the molds specified by those
pressure groups. Nowhere is
there mention of scholarship for
its own sake, the value of
knowledge and wisdom, the joy
of teaching and learning in an
open environment. The arts and
humanities get one sentence in
the report. _
Students Bought
"The government," the com-
mittee says, "is dependent on
the colleges and universities for
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its trained personnel and re-
search." The same applies to
industry. When that kind of de-
pendence is combined with
heavy government financial sup-
port of these same colleges and
universities, how can the bureau-
crats be expected to refrain
from demanding that their
money be used only in the train-
ing of that manpower force?
To let such pressure succeed
would seriously impair the cul-
tural value of our schools; to
even attempt it would place col-
lege administrations in pre-
carious positions on their own
campuses. Students who will
protest government defense con-
tracts will find it an easy move
to protest (and likely change)
the entire system of federal
support of education if that
support means control and re-
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the rice thresher, September 19, 1968—page 7
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Bahler, Dennis. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 19, 1968, newspaper, September 19, 1968; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245035/m1/7/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.