Your Future and Your University

- 4 - many to provide the many forms of leadership and good judgment essential in a democratic society. Quantity and quality: it is all too easy to talk about one without taking into account the need for the other, and that is why many plausible-sounding plans to solve our higher education problems painlessly are afoot today. The problem is, of course, that in order not to lose ground relatively, enrollments in our colleges and universities should double within the next ten years. Public higher education will have to take a large share of that increase. Some would have us solve the problem by educating only the top few on such inaccurate measures of ability as we now have. Some would go even further than this and say we should educate only those in the top few who have the money to pay for it or are willing to borrow it. (I hate to think what will happen to the teaching profession, or the ministry, or research, or public service, if the idea prevails that the sole purpose of higher education is to make money and, therefore, the "consumer" should pay for it.) Others want to put something called a college in every town, so that every student can live at home and walk to college. There is merit—-for many states and areas--in increasing the number of two- and four-year colleges. But I suggest that the people of every state and every community should take a good hard look at all such proposals, in terms of the need for quality and quantity. Nothing is gained and much is lost by subtracting from quality. One may end up by having poor quality at greater financial cost. California, with its vast population and resources, can afford to have a great state university system with at least two campuses of outstanding distinction, many state colleges, and a large system of junior colleges. The adjoining state of Nevada, with its vast area, relatively small population and lesser resources, could more easily afford to transport every college student in the state to the university campus and pay the full cost of his board, room, and fees, than to attempt to develop a second set of professional and graduate schools of any respectable standard. The thir