Rating The Colleges
"Needed:
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is
taken from the June 15 NATIONAL
OBSERVER which adapted these re
marks from a recent speech delivered
in Los Angeles by Dr. Louis T. Bene
zet. The goodness of a college has
become a matter of importance to
a great many American people.
Years ago it used to matter only to
the small handful of studious or
wealthy souls who were able to go
to the few colleges then available.
And as like as not, how good one
college was, relative to another,
was decided on autumn Monday
mornings after the football scores
of the preceding week end had
been compared.
Our country is at the dawn of uni
versal higher education. California leads
the development, but other states follow
fast. Universal higher education is dic
tated not only by the personal ambitions
of parents for children but by the needs
of our technology for highly trained spe
cialists. America also needs highly edu
cated generalists, to give direction and
wisdom so that there may be a society
worth preserving. Currently we are not
doing so well in that category.
Thus some form of post-high-school
education will soon be the requirement
for everyone capable of producing at
that level for society. It becomes im
portant, then, to know that higher edu
cation everywhere shall be well done.
Just to have a college degree is mean-
The public buys its opin
ions as it buys its meat, or
takes in its milk, on the
principle that it is cheaper
to do this than to keep a
cow. So it is, but the milk
is -lore likely to be watered.
Samuel Butler
Tuesday, July 7, 1964
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I
i Union Presents
Lee Castle
Tomorrow
By Diana Goldenstein
Music of the '30's and '40's will be
featured by the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra
in the Student Union ballroom tomorrow
night.
The original Jimmy Dorsey orches
tra will present contemporary musical
numbers in addition to those that made
the group famous in the 1930's and 40's,
according to John C. Carlisle, Union
Program director. The concert, a feature
of the Summer Artist Series will begin
at 8.
Lee Castle is now conductor of the
orchestra. Castle actually performed
with Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey and is
often considered the third member of
the Dorsey family.
Another performer in the Summer
Artist Series is Max Morath, who will
play ragtime piano music next Monday
Max Morath
in the Union ballroom at 8 p.m. His
performance will be titled, "Ragtime
Revisited." Morath will play ragtime
that was popular during the turn of the
century while slides of that era are
shown.
Mora.h c:r.ies U the Union from an
engagement at Greenwich Village In
New York. He will return to New York
following his performance here.
An Italian film, "Bitter Rice," will
be shown at the ballroom Thursday at
8 p.m. The film is one of the Cinema
Classic Series presented by the Union.
"This is probably the greatest film
Silvana Mangano, the Italian female
star, has made," Carlisle said. Vittorio
Gassmani is the male lead of the pic
ture. The action of the film takes place in
the Italian rice fields where women are
recruited for seasonal work, according
to Carlisle.
A Cinema '64 film, "Picnic," will be
shown at the Love Library auditorium
Monday at 6:30 p.m. The film stars Wil
liam lloldea and Kim Novak.
A Scorecar
ing less and less. To have a college edu
cation that truly fits one to become a
productive member of society: This is
World Affairs Preview
attle: Ultimate Security
ars Start In Inner Not Outer Space
W
"Our ultimate security lies in the minds
of men in 'inner space.' Wars will not
start in outer space; if they come, they
will start in inner space in men's minds,
in ignorance, in prejudice, in overween
ing pride," Lucius D. Battle said at the
first World Affairs Preview.
Battle, who is Assistant Secretary of
State for Educational and Cultural Af
fairs, talked in the Student Union last
Thursday on "The Need to Explore Inner
Space."
Battle said in his address that :
"Educational exchanges related ac
tivities play a unique and a key role in
reaching men's minds; they enable peo
ple to see and hear for themselves.
They assist the formation of attitudes and
approaches based on understanding, rath
er than fixed answers which may be ob
solete in an evolving, changing world.
They encourage informed attitudes in
place of horseback opinions and other
glib and perhaps glittering answers. It
is the essence of successful diplomacy
in your time a time when more peo
ple have more to say about their diplom
acy and participate more fully them
selves as 'citizen diplomats' to recog
nize that the road to peace requires
great endurance and persistence. Atti
tudes and approaches based on under
standing, and adaptable to new facts or
requirements, offer the best prospect of
enabling us resolutely to stay the course.
"Educational exchanges and related ac
tivities have the further advantage of
providing a ladder for the national, as
well as individual, advancement so much
desired throughout the world not only in
emerging and newly-developing lands, but
in more mature societies as well . . .
"We do not suppose the influence of ed
ucational exchanges and relates activities
on world peace can be instant.
"But we believe it can be important,
over time. With passage of the Fulbright
Act in 1946 and subsequent legislation,
this country has written a 'Declaration of
Interdependence through exchanges a
declaration that mutual exhenage can do
much to bring mutual understanding.
"For exchange is an influence working
for mutual understanding in men's
'mind's in that inner space where the ul
timate course of our civilization on this
little outpost in stellar space will in
evitably be determined ...
"So there came a time when many
Americans let it be known that they pre
ferred to be let alone, and to go it alone.
These views were perhaps most marked
in the period between the Wars. Involve
ment in international affairs for many
persons consisted largely of the simple,
if painful, act of paying taxes.
"How far the pendulum has swung
since World War II is dramatically ap
parent to all of us. The United Nations,
the Atom Bomb, the Strategic Air Com
mand, the jet airplane, Fulbright Schol
arships, Sputnik, emerging nations, out
er space, Telstar these few words are
enough to evoke the whole new world of
the postwar era.
"So it is In such a world a world in
great tension in spite of, and to a degree
because of, its great technological ad
vancesthat we have seen education be
com a mors central concern in all our
tVVVSS
a modern necessity, or
cess will fall of its own
the whole pro
size and weight.
As our dependence upon
colleges for na
Summer Nebraskan
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wwwivn at art i nMiia D. Rattle Meftl is bcinc shown the All-State Art
display in the Union by Summer Sessions Director Frank Sorenson. Battle,
who is Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, spoke
. - . f a. rwt i
at the first World Aliairs treview lasi
thinking, individual, national and inter
national," Battle said.
"We have come to realize, as indi
viduals, that the increasingly complex
and technical processes of our lives can
be managed successfully only by en
larging the educational opportunities for
all our citizens. . .
"We have come to realise, too, as na
tionsin the early stage of development
and in advanced stages as well that ed
ucation is truly a ladder of national
growth and progress, and perhaps man
kind's last best hope of peace on earth!
"Confidence in the eff'cacy of educa
tion to help individuals and nations
achieve their goals in probably the most
widely accepted of all the common be
liefs of men today, the world around.
"This is true in nations on both sides
of the various curtains Iron, Bamboo,
and any other.
"It is truly a great current of our time.
"It is now but a simple step to see that;
international education offers opportuni
ties for developed nations to assist the
less developed. And it offers the less de
veloped a means of rising to higher
levels of economic and social stability,
where they can stregthen the whole
or Universities
tional production grows, so does the ne
cessity that all colleges be good.
The idea of a college degree as a
prestige badge dies hard. And so the
successor to the prestige value of any
college degree has become the prestige
value of degrees from a certain few
colleges. If you examine which colleges
these are, they will be for the most part
the oldest and wealthiest institutions,
which have become also the most ex
pensive and the hardest to get in.
Are these, then, the best colleges?
In many ways, yes, if we can allow
that money will buy better professors,
better laboratories, bigger library collec
tions. If you were selecting a corpora
tion for a long-term stock investment
you would consider that its continuous
years in business and the amount of its
capitalization are plus factors, and per
haps also is the price level of its pro
duct. Yet your scrutiny of the business cor
poration will not end there. You will
look for at least a dozen other indices
of business performance, and you will
be able to consult any of innumerable
business reporting services . . . Here
the anolngy with colleges ends. Colleges
have no Dun and Bradstreet or Fortune
Magazine Annual Survey. The success of
an educational program is not easily re
duced lo figures.
We have nothing -for the objective ap
praisal of a college except the regional
accrediting agencies, such as the West
ern Associaiton of Colleges and Schools,
and a range of individual professional
groups such as the American Chemical
Society. These do not rate colleges; they
merely accredit to a standard of readi
ness to do an effective educational job.
If you hear that some college or uni
versity rates "fourth in the nation" or
inursaay.
eriifnrp nf world sccuritv.' 'Battle said.
"Viewed in these broad, historical
terms, the wide-ranging system of ex
change we know today appears to have
been foreordained and inevitable. Ex
change of people and through them of
knowledge was clearly one of the most
hopeful means avilable to the hand of me
for building slowly, but securely the
foundations of enduring peace.
"Ironically perhaps, these means to
peace were first found in war or in the
aftermath of war, in foreign currencies
held to our credit in other countries from
the sale of surplus war materials. The
Fulbright Act of 1946, which made use
of these funds, was truly an example of
'beating swords into plowshares.'
"Exhangcs could, however, be no over
night solution to problems of misunder
standing and distrust. They could not be
expected to bring political problems to
neat solutions. But they could help to
build mutual understanding. They could
ease man's progress on what Secretary
Rusk has called 'the toilsome path to
peace.' And they could perhaps do more.
No one can say where the limits may He
when men first Identify the interests
they share, and then go on to find new
Is
"ninth in chemistry." then you hav
been listening to college fiction. No rec
ognized rating system of colleges exists,
nor of individual college departments,
on either a regional or national scale.
In 20 years I have found it impos
sible to convince laymen that this is so.
There is such passion in man to make
book on his cars, his horses, and his
About The Author
Dr. Louis T. Benezet, the author
of these remarks, is currently pres
ident of the Claremont (Calif.) Grad
uate School and University Center,
where he moved last year after
heading Colorado College in Colo
rado Springs since 1955. Before that,
he was president of Allegheny Col
lege in Meadville, Pa. He has also
served as consultant to the U.S.
Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare.
Born in La Crosse, Wis., in 1915,
Dr. Benezet studied at Dartmouth
College in Hanover, N. H. He re
ceived an M.A. degree in psychology
from Reed College, Portland, Ore.,
and a Ph.D. from Columbia Uni
versity in New York City.
other possessions that college ratings
have become one of the myths that nev
er die.
Lacking the means to an objective
appraisal of the goodness of a college,
the public judges by what it can see.
The public sees that certain colleges have
become hard to get in and costly to stay
in. These colleges thereby are publicly
very desiarble, and applications for ad
Continued on Page 4
Young men have a pas
sion for regarding their
elders as senile.
Henry Books Adams
No. 4
- JUL
areas of agreement they find they can
share. This is the kind of hope that lies
at the base of President Johnson's call
to continue to 'build bridges,' as he said,
'across the gulf which has divided us
from Eastern Europe.'
"But this is only a part of the almost
world-wide system of exchanges we have
developed in this country in less than 20
years' . . .
"Our open society lends itself peculiar
ly well to exchanges. It gives exchange
a maximum opportunity to be effective.
This works advantages both ways, of
course. Our visitors learn from us; and
we learn from our visitors. No society can
be sufficient unto itself in the realm of
ideas, any more than in the realm of
trade. Hence, we continue to be depend
ent on the importation of ideas, new
knowledge, new insights, new approach
es from other countries. American has
always encouraged free trade in ideas, in
scholarship, in literature, in science. For
eign visitors can be welcome carriers of
these ideas and insights, and good expon.
ents and defenders of them. On their
visits here their American hosts and col
leagues have the opportunity to discuss
ideas with them. Through the friendly
confrontation of exchange, the ideas that
divide can often be cut away, or at least
cut down in size and effect; and the ideas
that unite can be given greater force and
effect. . . .
"The pre-eminent source of strength for
our total international effort in educa
tional and cultural affairs is the private
sector. Within it our system of higher
education is a major resource base. In
both numbers and diversity, this system
is unparalleled in the world. More than
1800 colleges and universities in this
Continued on Page 2
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I Be Sure I
I To Read I
Thundering Herds
Echo From Pasl
This is the story of the buffalo. It
is the third in series of four stories which
use information in books published by
the University of Nebraska Press.
Page 4
Corps Trainees
Prepare To Assist
Rural Bolivia
The University is training 38 Peace
Corpsmcn for work in Bolivia. Dr Max
E. Hanson, director of the Bolivia Proj
ect, tells just what is expected from these
38.
Skinning rabbits and killing chickeni
are a part of this program.
Page 2
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