Two years ago, TIME'S Education Department started a special program for U.S. college students. The plan was to assign a team of writer-editor lecturers to visit campuses across the country, speak to journalism classes and other students, and be available for discussion groups. The speakers were prepared to talk on the latest news issues, discuss the functions and responsibilities of reporting news today, and be targets in question-answer sessions. Last month the second lecture season was over, and TIME'S speaking team (Frank McNaughton, John Scott and Frank Shea) returned with a solid respect for this year's crop of undergraduates.

Speaker McNaughton, a veteran correspondent who covered Congress from TIME'S Washington office for ten years, spoke mainly about domestic politics on his tour, and was struck by one special concern among the students he met. That concern was academic freedom, congressional investigations and Communism. Wrote McNaughton: "I have spoken at some 50 colleges and universities. I have sat in bull sessions with hundreds of students, and answered thousands of questions in open forums. It is my belief that if the Communists are depending on the professors to achieve their revolution, they are betting a miserably weak hand. The students are reading widely and seriously, and asking pertinent questions: 'If we are going to defeat Communism, how will we ever do it without understanding what it is, how it operates and what makes it appeal to different groups? Wouldn't it be better if every college [like Duquesne] openly maintained an institute of Communism? On this last lecture tour, I found the students themselves more aroused over investigations than the professors who are the targets of investigations."

John Scott, former Moscow correspondent and TIME Bureau Chief in Stockholm and Berlin, found students particularly interested in European politics, changes in the Kremlin and the future of Germany. As did the other speakers, he also ran into tough criticism of as well as praise for TIME'S reporting on these critical areas. Particular criticism came from those journalism students who upheld the "cult of suspended judgment" -- trying to be objective without taking a stand on an issue. (Scott's answer: Merely reporting the facts is not enough. An understanding of the meaning behind the facts is necessary for an intelligent judgment of the news today.)

Speaker Frank Shea talked on South America and the Middle East. He was in the psychological warfare branch of OWI in the Middle East during the war, later went into the Balkans as a State Department coordinator for the U.S. Information Service ("As if anyone could coordinate the Balkans"). He was later TIME Bureau Chief in Buenos Aires, where he spent two days "in one of Juan Peron's jails for his stories on the confiscation of La Prensa (TIME, March 12, -L-951). In his talks the thing that impressed him most, said Shea, was how well informed his listeners were. Said he: "They are certainly more savvy than when I was in school. There is a healthy interest in, and curiosity about, foreign affairs. This is due, I suppose, to the tensions of our times and an awareness on the part of the men, at least, that most of them will soon be projected into this uncertain world -- in uniform. This was clearly reflected in the well-considered questions put to me after the sessions."

By the time the last speaking engagement of the year had been filled, the team of McNaughton, Scott & Shea had traveled through the 48 states and the District of Columbia. They had visited 256 colleges and universities, where they made a total of 700 talks, in addition to other speeches before various clubs, conventions and public forums.

The end of any experimental program always raises the question: Did it work? Enthusiastic response from both students and faculty proved that it did. For TIME, it was an opportunity to talk to old readers and meet new ones. And TIME'S speakers also returned with renewed appreciation of today's students -- tomorrow's newsmakers.

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