~Wtt&1 - - Hoover Library

usy faculties, senousstudents, and hard coursesOf all American institutions, that which is mostprofoundly affected by the new tempo of radicalchange is the school. And, although all levels ofschooling are feeling the pressure to change, thoseprobably feeling it the most are our colleges anduniversities.ATTHE HEART of America's shift to a newlife of constant change is a revolution in the roleand nature of higher education. Increasingly, all ofus live in a society shaped by our colleges anduniversities.From the campuses has come the expertise totravel to the moon, to crack the genetic code, andto develop computers that calculate as fast as light.From the campuses has come new informationabout Africa's resources, Latin-American economics,and Oriental politics. In the past 15 years, collegeand university scholars have produced a dozenor more accurate translations of the Bible, morethan were produced in the past 15 centuries. Universityresearchers have helped virtually to wipeout three of the nation's worst diseases: malaria,tuberculosis, and polio. The chief work in art andmusic, outside of a few large cities, is now beingdone in our colleges and universities. And profoundconcern for the U.S. racial situation, for U.S. foreignpolicy, for the problems of increasing urbanism,and for new religious forms is now being expressedby students and professors inside the academicsof higher learning.As American colleges and universi Lieshave beeninstrumental in creating a new world of whirlwindchange, so have they themselves been subjected tounprecedented pressures to change. They are differentplaces from what they were 15 years ago-insome cases almost unrecognizably different. Thefaculties are busier, the students more serious, andthe courses harder. The campuses gleam with newbuildings. While the shady-grove and paneledlibrarycolleges used to spend nearly all of theirtime teaching the young, they have now beenburdened with an array of new duties.Clark Kerr, president of the University of California,has put the new situation succinctly: "Theuniversity has become a prime instrument of nationa.lpurpose. This is new. This is the essence ofthe transformation now engulfing our universities."The colleges have always assisted the nationalpurpose by helping to produce better clergymen,farmers, lawyers, businessmen, doctors, and teachers.Through athletics, through religious and moralguidance, and through fairly demanding academicwork, particularly in history and literature, thecolleges have helped to keep a sizable portion ofthe men who have ruled America rugged, reason.ably upright and public-spirited, and informed andsensible. The problem of an effete, selfish, or ignorantupper class that plagues certain other nationshas largely been avoided in the United States.But never before have the colleges and universitiesbeen expected to fulfill so many dreams and projectsof the American people. Will we outdistance theRussians in the space race? It depends on the caliber