Education: Vicious Circle

For most college presidents, the topic under discussion—industrial and foundation aid to higher education—would have been a heartening one. But the more President K. Duane Hurley of West Virginia's little (306 full-time students) Salem College heard at the meeting of fellow presidents one day last summer, the more depressed he became. "For two days," said he, "I listened to reports about trie Ford Foundation and what it expected to do, about the National Merit Scholarship program, the Sears Roebuck scholarship plan and similar ones." Yet for all these benefactions, Salem remained completely ineligible....