Industry's aid to education The spread between what is permitted by law

and what is provided is not exactly a record to rest on

The U.S. has long worked toward the principle of universal education. As we extend the

principle to ever higher levels of education, how­ever, it remains to be proved that we will have the ability to continue to evolve a system that will serve us well. By 1975, for example, two-and four-year colleges will have about 8 million students enrolled in them. That 's the same num­ber as were enrolled in high schools in 1956, and one question we now face is, do we want the col­lege education system of 1975 to resemble that of our high school system of 1956?

Dr. Kenneth Pitzer, president of Rice, was in New York a few days ago to accept honorary membership in The Chemists ' Club, and that's the question he addressed himself to. As he sees it, we now have a very diverse system of higher education that meets the needs of the range of talents enrolled. However, rapid growth, such as we now face, will tend to replace diversity with uniformity, and with uniformity will come lower quality, especially for the really talented who will be the major contributors to scientific advances a decade or two hence.

Dr. Pitzer suggests that strong private colleges and universities will aid in keeping quality up where it should be. In such institutions the minds of tomorrow's scholars will be honed toward perfection. In addition, by providing high standards of excellence, the private institu­tions will help the public ones to maintain their diversity, too.

Unfortunately, private institutions lack money, and they will probably have to turn more and more to public funds for support. Public fund­ing "by the very distant and impersonal nature of its control," he observes, "tends toward a pat tern of financing by formula and eventual uniform­ity . . . . [However] it is not the positive forces of [public] financing which are likely to attenu­

ate the special characteristics of private colleges and universities; rather it is simply the inade­quacy of the private support which may prevent their growing and developing in a manner main­taining their unique characteristics."

Speaking in Baltimore some months ago, Ger­ald L. Phillippe, chairman of General Electric, said, "When it comes to state support, all of us are aware of schools in which relatively small changes in philosophy and budget can have almost cataclysmic effects on system stability when there is a change of leadership in the state capital. In the situation as it actually is, the pri­vate unrestricted dollar . . . often becomes the dollar of maximum leverage for keeping a school on course."

The chemical industry has been better than most in aiding education ( C&EN, Oct. 23, 1967, page 54) . The men who control the indus­try's dollars, however, might well ask themselves if they are close to doing enough. How much the industry gives for education has never been determined exactly, but it probably devotes about 1 % of its pretax earnings to philanthropies of all types, with somewhat more than half of that going to aid education. Contributions thus run in the $60 million-a-year range, some $30 million of which goes to education. Tax laws allow cor­porations to give up to 5 % of their pretax earn­ings to all causes. Stockholders might be ex­pected to look for new managements were contri­butions suddenly to rise to something nearer the $300 million permit ted by law. The spread be­tween what is done and what is permitted, how­ever, is not exactly a record to rest on.

EDITORIAL

APRIL 1, 19o8 C&EN 5