Business and Education

The hushed whispers and the shaking of heads went on at a faster pace last week when newspapers throughout the country reported President Pusey's "Attack on business" speech at Brown University. To may, he seemed to be biting the hand that holds the spoon, for business contributions have become the lifeblood of private education. The philanthropist-million-aires who once endowed colleges belong to a bygone age; state aid, with its danger of state control, is unacceptable. Contributions from industry seem to be the only answer to soaring educational costs. But fears that Mr. Pusey was repudiating this aid arise from a misreading of his message. Far from attacking business support, he was acknowledging the universities' dependence on it. Rather than expressing what had better been left unsaid, he was making a necessary and timely statement of first principles.

Nothing industry's reliance on education for its top personnel, he deplored the assumption that education is but an instrument for financial success. Calling attention to the increasing dependence by universities on "government and business for the sustenance they must have to keep alive," he warned, nevertheless, that educational institutions must transcend their environment so that they may be critics of it. Industry, he held, should not attempt to exert control over educational policies, no matter what its financial contribution.

Such remarks, even though they may be misunderstood by some, were needed from an educational spokesman of Mr. Pusey's stature. Although such warnings have often been used in reference to the government, they needed to be extended to industry's role in education, where there is equal danger of outside control. For industry is showing ever-increasing concern with educational problems at a time when private education's resources are dwindling. Whereas endowment provided as much as 25 percent of private institutions' income before the war, both inflation and increased operating expenses have reduced its contributions to approximately 12 percent today. At the same time, business has reevaluated its attitude toward private education. Previously its gifts consisted largely in specific grants for research and scholarships in certain areas. These expenses could be justified in stockholders' eyes as necessary for technical manpower and information. Industry's own figures, however, have convinced it that it must undertake a policy of unrestricted donations. Studies by the Chamber of Commerce indicate a direct correlation between a community's educational level and its buying power. Investigations into executive backgrounds show that over 80 percent come from private colleges. In the last few months. U.S. Steel, General Motors, General Electric, and other concerns have set up many new financial arrangements and foundations. These companies have offered to do such thing as matching contributions of alumni employees to their alma maters in unrestricted funds.

This increased interest in education may be the financial salvation of the universities. Nevertheless, underlying much of it, is the assumption that the general education provided by the independent liberal arts university is only a means to industry's financial well-being. There is a latent danger in this assumption, as Mr. Pusey has recognized, that business will begin to exert control over university policies. Such attempts are not unknown; often in the past wealthy alumni have attempted to mold educational policy. With greater university dependence today on corporation gifts, the threat of similar attempts grows. Already business is exerting an unexpressed, but very real pressure on colleges. Mr. Pusey in his annual report last month deplored the decrease in students majoring in the humanities. Yet at Yale last year only 16 manufacturers out of 117 who interviewed graduating seniors were willing to consider humanistic concentrators for jobs. Many students are being forced into the sciences in order to earn a living.

With such pressures already being put on education, a statement such as Mr Pusey's was needed. It is a warning to the private college or university not to sell its soul to business, and an admonition to industry to pay its way without expecting to formulate university policy in return.