'Government Strings'

BUCKLEY: Simply this: they realize that there are government strings on government money. Yale and most other private institutions still cherish their freedom.

SLATER: So the university's alternative, as you see it, so to go to the alumni? Now tell me this, Bill, what have you observed is the attitude of the graduates in regard to a university's failure to guide students towards what the alumni consider proper goals? Is this reflected in their contributions to Yale?

BUCKLEY: It certainly is, to some degree. If a Yale professor writes a radical book, or makes a radical speech, the Administration is besieged with letters from alumni demanding to know if this is the sort of stuff their children are being taught. Not infrequently, an alumnus will state that he is through giving until such and such and so and so are fired.

SLATER: That means that the "old grads" are speaking up. Does this make a university administration stop and think?

BUCKLEY: It does. I would say their most serious moments are spent trying to raise money. Of course, when complaints come in, they tell the alumnus that what this particular professor said was misinterpreted, or not typical of what is being taught; that the university is presenting every point of view; that of course Mr. X knows that his Alma Mater is, by and large, a congregating place for conservative Intellectuals, and that the best way he can strengthen the conservative position is by continuing and in fact increasing his contributions!

SLATER: Well, this works, I take it?

BUCKLEY: Yes, it works--because one alumnus complains about this teacher, another about this other teacher, and the University can't fire a teacher every time it gets a telephone call from an angry graduate.

SLATER: What, then should be done?

BUCKLEY: The alumni should get together and persuade the trustees that the university must have a mission--definite goals which the trustees shall specify, and toward which the institution must guide her students; that to teach them to think is not enough. The student must be encouraged to think and to act along the lines and towards the goals which their educational leaders believe in--and that they believe will best fortify them as Christians and as intelligent and educated men to guard over the destiny of the United States.

SLATER: After the trustees have established such a teaching policy, what then?

'Definite Purpose'

BUCKLEY: The administrators of the University can be given the task of carrying it out. Then there will be some definite purpose in education. And in return, the University should tell the alumni that if they are sincerely interested in the mission of the University, the staggering coast of such a mission must be met, and theirs is the duty to provide for this cost. Alumni have given evidence of their generously time and time again. And, in my opinion, contributions would be increased tenfold if parents believed that students were being encouraged to align themselves against the forces of socialism and atheism in our country.

SLATER: Thank you, Bill Buckley, Friends, whether you are a student, a teacher, a parent, or a university trustee, you will want to read and think about what you've just heard, so please stay tuned in. . . Friends, our guest, William Frank Buckley, Jr., member of the Yale University debating team that bowled over Oxford on Socialism, has certainly given the rest of us something to think about--about the responsibilities of university and college trustees for purposeless policies in education. For free printed copies of this interview just drop a postcard to AMERICA'S FUTURE in care of the station to which you are now listening. . . Ask for "Buckley of Yale." . . . Now this is Bill Slater, saying goodbye--and reminding you, wherever you are, whatever you do, SPEAK UP AMERICANS . . . for America.