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At colleges and universities, initial reactions to the report have been positive-interspersed with some perceptive demurrers. Chancellor Clifton Wharton Jr. of the State University of New York, for example, considers student worries about future jobs to be entirely legitimate. The difficulty, as he sees it, is "in providing job skills and occupational mobility and at the same time providing a broad general education and doing it all in four years."
Though the colleges were unlikely to come up with any quick solutions, there were signs last week that Bennett himself might soon show how a student in the humanities can find a good job after graduation. In the wake of his strong report, some Washington insiders claim that Bennett has a lock on the position of Secretary of Education, left open by the announced resignation of T.H. Bell. Bennett insists that there is "no connection" between the study and the secretaryship, adding, "It would break my heart if it were read that way." On the other hand no one, including Humanist Bennett, claimed he would be brokenhearted if he got the job.
—By Ezra Bowen. Reported by Patricia Delaney/Washington