Conference on Colleges

Most educators agree that the White House Conference on Education proposed as much help for the public school's problem as could be desired. They also agree that now is the time to focus national attention on the equally important problem, the impending crisis in higher education. Another White House Conference, this one concerned with higher education, appears to be the best way to discuss solutions for the problems which face the nation's colleges and universities.

Such a conference could be at least as significant as last week's meeting on secondary schools; for while the public schools' difficulties are immediate, demanding stop-gap action, the seriousness of the universities' difficulties will not appear for another five years. The conference's recommendations, as a result, will not only be preventive, but they will be able to set the course of college education for years to come.

The dilemma of higher education can be summarized in one word--expansion. The number of students wishing to attend college will more than double by 1965. To meet their demands, colleges quite obviously must expand greatly. Presumably, the conference will seek a solution for this question, bearing in mind the possibility of federal aid or even former President Conant's suggestion of a vast junior college program. If, like the public school representatives, the delegates do propose federal support, they must decide whether the aid should go only to state schools, or to private universities as well.

Finding a solution for the expansion question, however, will be only one matter the university-level conference should discuss. It must also face the demands of science and industry for more highly trained and specialized graduates and the already pressing need for more instructors.

The time to plan the higher education conference, considering the two years of planning for the public school meeting, is now. The country's educators and administrators should start organizing and planning without delay if the nation is to have an adequate system of higher education at the end of five years.