Searching questions are the fashion of the day. In a world where economy reigns, every institution, every activity must justify itself. It is essential that higher education be subjected to the same skeptical analysis as everything else. Such analysis will have an impact on the individual student as well as on the system as a whole.

For the individual student the question of the value of a college education assumes a significance which it has hitherto lacked. Today education involves sacrifice, in greater or less degree, for almost everyone. Until now most Americans have gone to college because it never occurred to them not to; today such luxury cannot be afforded. The question on application blanks for every institution in the country-- Why do you want to go to college?"-- has at last become a question which every student must honestly face and for which every student must have a valid answer.

Education has too long been taken for granted in America. Democratic theory has enshrined it as an indisputable right; but there is no right with-out duty. It is the inescapable and solemn task of both institutions and individuals to fulfill that duty.

--From the annual report of the National Student Federation of America.