Your Future and Your University

- 2 - benefitted from one of the finest living expressions of the American dream of educa- tinoal opportunity for all who have the talent to benefit from it; of a land where the individual is valued above the State, so that society as a whole pools its resources to the end that each individual's God-given worth and dignity may be enhanced...to its utmost extent. And it is part of the American dream and faith, amply validated in experience, that by giving each individual the opportunity to develop his or her talents, society as a whole is benefitted most. A century ago higher education in this country was essentially dedicated to the education and perpetuation of an elite. There must be a strong appeal to this theory of a chosen few benevolently guiding the destinies of a vast uneducated or semi-educated majority toward wise ends, because it keeps cropping up again in every generation. When you press those who advocate it, however, you find they want themselves and their children to be part of the chosen few. They don't mind that someone else's children get left out! In final analysis, the theory of the chosen few always turns out to be the self-chosen few, guiding the people to ends which, however wise they may be proclaimed, generally coincide with the selfish interests of the few. The Land-Grant movement and the rise of the public college and university put an end to the conception of higher education as limited to the few in numbers and the few in professions. It opened the doors of the university to people on the basis of intellectual ability whether this happened to coincide with wealth or not. It opened higher education to young people interested in a wide variety of professions other than the traditional ones of a century ago of law, medicine, teaching, or governing. The great contribution of the public university was to provide access to higher education in quantity, quality, and variety. The need for variety is obvious, so I will for a minute or two talk about the need for both quantity and quality; for a great deal of educational opportunity for a great many young people