The Growing Importance of Ike U.

As physician for the high school football team in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1961, Dr. Scott W. Skinner fretted about the fact that many of the hard-working but unbookish kids he knew probably would have a tough time getting into a college. A mediocre student himself at Muhlenberg, Skinner was convinced that many local youngsters would do all right if a school would just give them a chance. Impulsively he dashed off a letter to a man he had never met but had always considered "a hero of mine and a unique person in history" -- Dwight Eisenhower. Skinner asked Ike's help in starting a college.

Last week Seneca Falls (pop. 7,500), nestling in central New York's bucolic Finger Lakes area, was abustle with a big celebration. Restaurant owner Toots Shor was there. So were Film Magnate Spyros Skouras, Nelson and Happy Rockefeller, Bob Hope, Harold Stassen. And Dwight Eisenhower. They were all present for the groundbreaking ceremonies for Eisenhower College.

"Out of Your Minds." That happy event would never have taken place, says Scott Skinner, "if we had really understood the problems and not just gone blundering ahead." Actually, Ike's reply to Skinner's letter back in 1961 was little more than a note of cautious interest written, in fact, by Eisenhower's secretary. But it was enough for Skinner, 41, who teamed up with Insurance Broker John Rosenkrans, 40, a fellow vestryman at Seneca Falls First Presbyterian Church. Together they sought support of state Presbyterian Church officials who, Skinner recalls, told them: "You two guys can't start a college--you're out of your minds."

Undaunted, they canvassed Presbyterian pastors, who in turn found about 1,300 prospective students. The Seneca Falls Presbyterian church pledged $100,000. An 18-man committee was formed, but not an educator was on it to provide professional advice, so Skinner and Rosenkrans went prospecting.

The New York State Department of Education recommended Earl J. McGrath. So did Presbyterian officials, who by now were warming to the idea. So did the Ford Foundation. Asked Rosenkrans: "Who is McGrath?" He and Skinner found out soon enough. Buffalo-born Earl McGrath had been U.S. Commissioner of Education under President Truman and president of the University of Kansas City. The prospectors located him in New York, where McGrath, 62, was teaching at Columbia and directing research in higher education. Skinner went to see him and opened the conversation with: "What are we doing to help the C+ high school student?" Two and one-half hours later, McGrath agreed to advise the group; eventually he became so enthusiastic that he agreed to become the college's first president. Recalls Skinner: "I could have hopped home--I didn't need to fly."

"They Want to Learn." As it happened, McGrath had been thinking for a long time about settling down at a small, undergraduate liberal arts college. He was interested, too, in the college kids of today who, he contends, are justifiably in revolt against the "facelessness and anonymity" of undergraduate life in the sprawling, ever-growing universities. "No generation has been more dedicated, more intellectually stimulated," he says. "They want to learn--and they will learn if you pay attention to them. Eisenhower College is the place for this."

With McGrath's help, the college committee members raised another $73,000, contributed $27,000 of their own. They took that news to Johns Hopkins University President Milton Eisenhower. He told them: "I'm calling my brother tonight and telling him to give you the green light." By this time, Ike was ready to encourage the project. Skinner and Rosenkrans got the Presbyterian Synod of New York to approve a loose affiliation with the school, largely for the sake of fund raising. A 265-acre alfalfa field along Lake Cayuga was selected as the site, architects were hired to plan two classroom buildings and three dormitories. Tuition and board were pegged at $1,000 for each 14-week trimester, $600 for commuting students, and the officials set a goal of 1,000 students overall by 1971. Dr. W. Robert Bokelman, head of the business section of the U.S. Office of Education, was lured away to become the new college's Vice President for Planning and Development.

The Top Third. To get a charter from the New York State Department of Education, the committee had to raise at least $500,000. By last January, 2,200 contributors--mainly from the sparsely populated Seneca Falls area--had donated more than $1,000,000.

McGrath meanwhile formulated his plans. He hopes to draw students from roughly the top third of high school classes rather than from the top 10% as many select schools do. His own high school grades were below average, yet he made Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Buffalo. "This country," he says emphatically, "was not built by the upper 10%." Full professors will be paid an average $15,000 a year, get 20 paid weeks off every third year. The curriculum will be pared to a relatively small number of liberal-arts courses to enable students to get a comprehensive view of their subject matter. "We will not be doctrinaire," adds McGrath, "but we are going to teach moral and spiritual values."

These and other plans should be in shape by the fall of 1967, when Eisenhower College will get its first freshman class. Said Ike at last week's ceremonies: "I can't tell you how proud I feel."

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