THE MICHIGAN DAILY
atcher Speaks Out on FederalAid to Educa
tion
e*>
4.
TOR'S NOTE: This article,
d by University President
Hatcher, appeared in the
an Business Review, Vol. XIV,
May, 1960. it is reprinted
a part, with the permission
L J. Philip Wernette of the
s administration school,bed-
the Review. Figures have been
I
Y HARLAN HATCHER
kRT with a truism: This is
st-moving era; It is hard to
t in focus or in perspective.
must take some specific
mark in time, like the
ate Europe in 1947 and the
r1y Act or Marshall Plan
April, 1948, and measure it
t the present prosperity of
Germany and the debate on
2th-year extension of the
vith a budget of over $4 bil-
you weigh the fact that we
ger control the A-bomb, but
it with Great Britain and
France, and are in danger
ng surpassed by the USSR.
And we consider the new debate
touched off by the missile and
space age.
In industry we have only to
measure the magnificent General
Motors and Ford research centers
in their campus settings against
these same establishments when
I became president of the Univer-
sity nine years ago. Pre-World
War II plants are largely out of
date and have been replaced with
new ones making products that
were only in the research stage a;
few years ago.
These are only three random
samples of the nature of our
changing world environment. You
may add your own. They will
touch every detail of your person-
al, community andy national life.
* * *
THE UNIVERSITY helps cre-
ate changes. It must also respond
to the changes which it has helped
to effect. There are perhaps a
dozen or so pace-setters ,among
the universities in the world to-
day. Without trying to rank them
in order of distinction and serv-
ice, the University must accept the
honor and responsibility of being
one of them.
Our University would have to
undergo constant change merely
to retain its relative position. It
must move aggressively forward to
provide the research and training
on the rising levels which the safe-
ty and welfare of the nation so ur-
gently demand.
We are having some trouble get-
ting really conscious of the nature
of these demands and adjusting to
the rising level. We have all been
so busy trying to keep up with the
needs of our growing children on
their way through nursery, kin-
dergarten, the grades, and now
the high schools, that we haven't
actually attacked the problems
confronting the colleges and uni-
versities.
We haven't much time, and we
can't put it off much longer.
We still seem to think that it
is just a matter of some more
teachers and classrooms and a TV
program to accommodate more
undergraduate students in our
colleges. It is that, of course, but
in this decade and for this gener-
ation a baccalaureate .degree is
only a beginning. It is now rough-
ly the equivalent of a high school
diploma in our fathers' day.
Of the (25,000) students en-
rolled now at the University, al-
most 40 per cent already have at-
tained their first degree. On this
one thread you may unravel the
story of the swift pace of change
in our time. And from it you may
deduce the problems which we
must proceed confidently to solve.
* * *
THE UNIVEItSITY is a consti-
tutional corporation with a budget
for all operations for the year end-
ing June 30 (1962) of (practically
$110 million). Of this amount,
(about 27 per cent) was spent for
research and (about 45 per cent)
in the general fund primarily for
U
Books and Supplies
salaries and wages. This general
fund item is the heart and center
of our budget.
Of this (general fund), 25 per
cent comes from student fees and
(the rest) as a direct appropria-
tion by the State Legislature.
Another vital part of our pro-
gram is capital outlay. We were
making good progress on over-
coming obsolescence and adding
urgently needed space for our 16
colleges and schools. But in 1957
the program came to an abrupt
halt, and (very little) money has
been provided by the state for new
construction since that time.
THESE FEW FACTS will help
pose the most pressing problem
the University has confronted in
many years. When and how will
we be able to regain our tradition-
al place in faculty salaries to
guarantee the retention of, and
addition to, our distinguished fac-
ulty? When and how can we get
started again on building the fa-
cilities needed by all units, but
especially by engineering and the
sciences, by medicine, dentistry,
education, architecture and music?
Under the special stresses of our
time, and the resulting American
psychology, it has become natural
to turn to Washington and ask for
federal aid for a great variety of
services - including some aspects
of education.
The American tradition has
been, and still is in theory, that
full responsibility for education
rests in the community, the dis-
trict or the state. By and large
these local agencies have done a
fair job, and in some cases a most
outstanding one.
But, the problem is big and get-
ting bigger; the needs are now
pressing and becoming critical and
national in scope. We have been
edging into, or drifting into, or
backing into stronger and stronger
federal involvement.
The national government is al-
ready spending heavily for re-
search. The research demands of
the country, especially in all as-
pects of defense, have become as
stupendous as they are urgent.
The scientific personnel in our
universities have been called upon
for help. The federal government
enters into contracts with the uni-
versity for this research service,
and the universities have respond-
ed, often for patriotic reasons at
some expense, and sacrifice of
mission to themselves.
Ever-increasing sums of federal
money go to the support of this
effort. The program has become
so intertwined with the institu-
tions that serious consequences
would result if this support were.
suddenly cut off. It amounts to
+ MEDICINE
Our store is specially
NATIONAL ASSISTANCE-University President Harlan Hatcher
analyzes the problems of federal aid to education.
II
DENTISTRY equipped to fill your every
+ NURSING
HEALTH
need and a well
informed staff including
MEDICAL and DENTAL
students will serve you
about ($25 million) a year at the
University.
. The government has taken on
some major responsibilities in the
field of health and medical care
for the nation. Research, medical
training and patient care are ex-
pensive. The federal government
has given substantial aid to medi-
cal colleges and schools of public
health to provide buildings and
laboratories and to support cer-
tain programs of training and re-
search. Grants from this source
have enabled us to keep moving
in the last (several) years at the
University .. .
* * *
THE FEDERAL government re-
cently extended still further its
responsibility through the Nation-
al Science Foundation and the Na-
tional Defense Education Act. It
gave some recognition to the
teaching staff under the Fulbright
Bill.
It has also given aid to com-
munities where its activities have
required a large number of people
to take up residence and, there-
fore, imposed an undue burden
upon the established schools, and
where its installations removed
property from the tax rolls. For
many 'decades it has made sub-
stantial appropriations to the ag-
ricultural colleges for research
and extension services of many
types. And, in the days when the
federal government had some-
thing of its own to give away, it
granted government lands to the
states to establish schools .. .
This, together with school lunch
programs, teaching materials, and
kindred items, is not an exhaustive
list, but a fair sample of the na-
ture, extent and magnitude of fed-
eral aid to education as it has so
far developed.
The one critical final step that
has not been taken is a direct ap-
propriation by the Congress to pay
professorial salaries and to build
classrooms and teaching labora-
tories and libraries on the cam-
puses.
Yet, as I have already pointed
out, these two items, the operat-
ing budget and the classrooms of
all types, are right now among our
most urgent needs, and our state
legislatures are finding it difficult
to finance them.
Should the federal government'
take the final plunge and give aid
for these purposes?.
One of these days, the Congress
will have to give an answer for
that one. It may not be one dra-
matic act, but a series of smaller'
ones that will drift us into a
policy.
* * *
BY AND LARGE the states have.
done well by their universities. But
the individual states consider
themselves handicapped by the
present tax structure and the phil-
osophy behind it. In any quest for
taxes the federal government
comes first. The Congress of the
United States can and does levy
and collect taxes in Michigan be-
yond the imagination or practical
power of the Legislature
The Legislature says taxes are
already too high, and that other.
sources of revenue have been pre-
empted by the federal government.
They may recognize the' needs of
higher education for staff and fa-
cilities but they say they cannot
find the money after the federal
government has taken its levy.
Increasingly the mood of the
local units is to cut back or stand
still, or to seek aid from the fed-
eral government. Yet the hard fact
remains that the Congress has no
money it does not collect from the
same people whom the Legislature
says it cannot tax further. It is a
head-on collision nearing a stale-
mate. Some'accommodation to the
dilemma must be found soon.
It seems unlikely that the state
legislatures will move far enough
and fast enough to do what is na-
tionally required.
It is certain that the nation as
a whole must have bold, vigorous
and immediate action to protect
its stake in education, particularly
on the highest levels where the
expense is the greatest.
* 0
THE CONGRESS, therefore, has
a limited number of choices. To be
exact, it has three:d
11) It could make a direct appro-
priation in some form to help sup-
port faculty salaries, to provide
laboratories, libraries, and class-
rooms, and to aid the general op-
erations budget. Serious problems
of philosophy, tradition, law, and
administration attend this one.
This is the step not yet taken, and
it has many pitfalls that should be
carefully marked and labelled.
2) It could voluntarily and with
stated intent relinquish certain
sources of revenue, or allocate ear-
marked funds, to the states on
which they could levy for the sup-
port of education.
3) It could enter into partner-
ship with the legislatures in de-
termining what Joint responsibili-
ties they share on the national
and state level, and it could then
exercise its more potent taxing
power to see that the national as
well as the state interest in edu-
cation is served.
A possible fourth choice, that
of a hands-off policy, has long
since been exercised as we have
already indicated.
It is possible that any of these
alternatives could be operated
within the American tradition of
local responsibility and control of
education. It is no longer a ques-
tion of federal aid, but of how
much, in what form, for what pur-
pose.
We cannot permanently drift
along in our new world setting
without a more rational and as-
sured plan of support for our uni-
versities, and we should have a
firm and acceptable rationale for
federal participation.
,
OVERBECKBOKSTORE
The Medica Boo Center
Phone NO 3-9333... 1216 South University
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PREMIUM REDUCED
BENEFITS INCREASED
12 Months for
~$2o
A BAD FALL - AN ACCIDENT - an emergency operation - a battle with fever - each could result in
hospital and medical expenses far in excess of the income or savings alloted to your education. It doesn't
take long these days to spend hundreds of hard earned dollars for necessary medical treatment!
*YOUR STUDENT HEALTH PLAN, written according to specifications of the Student Government Council,
has been designed specifically to help defray these high hospital and medical expenses. This liberal Plan sup-
plements the existing Health Service Benefits furnished you by the University. The Student Health Plan
combined with the Health Service benefits provides more complete protection against the high costs of hospital
and medical care.
DESCRIPTIVE BROCHURES and applications have been mailed. Additional copies are conveniently located
throughout the campus. Be SURE that unforseen medical Expenses don't cost you a college education -
return your completed application and premium TODAY! Be prompt, the enrollment period is limited.
I
HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR
STUDENT HEALTH PLAN
0 Coverage in force 24 hours a day-on or
Additional Information through
.off campus
(including vacation periods).
" Eligible dependents can be included.
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