The prospect of seriously lowered educational standards in the country disturbs such students of the problem as Seymour E. Harris '20, professor of Economics. In his view, the biggest danger of all-a deficiency of first-class teacher is beginning to show itself already.
Harris points out that to earn "a decent living" professors are forced to teach summer school, give public lectures, and take in roomers in their homes. "Each year faculty members become more overworked and more neurotic, and their research, productive writing, and teaching suffer correspondingly."
A number of steps towards casing the country's educational crisis" were posed by Professor Harris in last Sunday's New York Time Magazine. Harris, a backer of Federal aid to education, wants government and state help in the form of scholarships, fellowships, and capital outlays, and he doesn't fear any resulting threats to academic freedom. "British experience shows us that aid is possible without control of college educational policies," he explains.
The Times figures show that the majority of colleges would just as soon get along without any Federal aid. 19 per cent of the private colleges say they need aid to continue in operation, but most of the others admit that they fear Federal aid would mean Federal interference in their policies.
Other Possible Solutions
Among his supplement recommendations, Harris includes "scaled" tuition increases which would not prevent financially handicapped students from attending college. "Tuition charged wealthy undergraduates can well be raised enormously," Harris says, "and our schools should seriously consider furnishing a free education to deserving but impoverished students."
Harris' final suggestion is consolidation. "No great injury would be done the country if a substantial proportion of its institutions of higher education were closed. By reducing the number of schools, we will be able to increase the size of the remainder and thus lower unit costs in the end."