Universities: Anxiety Behind the Facade

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autonomy. The U.S. Senate passed a plan (it died in a conference committee) for reducing the federal income tax by as much as $352 for parents with children in college—but some educators concede that tuition hikes would nullify the taxpayers' gain. Most prefer federal scholarships that a student could use at any school, public or private; some suggest additional grants to the school that the student selects. Almost everyone wants federal research support expanded in size, geographical spread and subjects covered. Perkins predicts that by 1970 an independent, education —controlled commission will even be channeling federal funds directly to institutions for general operating use.

Good v. Bad. Whatever the final prescription to cure the college cash ailments, it will be certain to drastically reshape U.S. higher education. As undergraduates gain a new mobility to go where the teaching is best, inferior schools will have to merge or die. As state universities seek ever more private dollars and private schools rely ever more on Government funds, the distinction between public and private education will blur. This does not bother Harvard's Pusey, who insists that "the distinction between public and private is pretty nonsensical—the important distinction is between the good schools and the bad schools."

No one wants the distinction blurred completely, since private education has traditionally pioneered new paths of learning, and by its example, has helped public universities fight for their own freedom. No educator is more dedicated to the preservation of the best values of the private university than Kingman Brewster. "Yale," he says, is free to "make up its own mind about what a good education is and hope that if it's right, the profession will come around." Full of faith in both Yale and the U.S., he is optimistic about the future. "I cannot believe," he says, "that the nation will allow the great private institutions to go to the wall."

*Constance, a George Washington University senior; Kingman III, 19, who will be an Occidental freshman next fall; Deborah, 17, who hopes to go to Vassar; Alden, 14, a student-at Groton prep school; Riley, 12, who attends New Haven's private Foote School.

*Which includes Federal Reserve Board Chairman William McChesney Martin, New York Mayor John Lindsay, Pan American World Airways Chairman Juan Trippe, Assistant Secretary of State William Bundy.