Dear Candidates: Watch Out

In this open letter for TIME to Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, Wellesley College President Barbara W. Newell warns that they should not be complacent about the problems faced by college students:

Do not be deceived by the apparent "back to normal" campus atmosphere. This is not an apathetic college generation. Inflation, coupled with the shrinking portion of national income appropriated for education, is bound to have disastrous effects upon student morale. Students are worried about the rising cost of education and the scarcity of jobs after graduation. A basic uneasiness on campus today could easily be converted to activism if these very legitimate concerns are not addressed.

Students are now often reckoned as a part of the Establishment. They are not only asking to be "counted in," but they are even adopting the accouterments deemed to constitute the American formula for success. Competition is the key word. "Work hard, clean up, learn from your elders, and success will be yours," they have been told. Courses are unerringly chosen according to their reported marketability.

There is only one thing wrong with the current scene. Good behavior is not paying off. In the old days, the advantage of scarcity enhanced the value of the degree. Now one out of every two labor-market entrants has some post-secondary school training. By the end of this academic year, about 1.3 million people will receive bachelor's, master's and doctor's degrees--nearly double the annual level of ten years ago. During the same period, however, the number of professional, technical and managerial jobs in the U.S. has barely grown more than a third. How much longer graduating classes can trek into unemployment offices without a sense of outrage remains to be seen. It will surely take far less to radicalize our young today than at the time of the Great Depression.

All Together. We must look to the creation of jobs for the talent graduated from our educational institutions. It is time to review those Federal Government projects of the '30s that furnished employment to writers, artists, historians and other unemployed college graduates. Existing agencies and institutions, with the help of Government funds, should be used as employing agents to the greatest possible extent. Universities and colleges could also be available for broader community use and for research to solve social problems. The more that educational institutions become involved in programs that create employment, the more we spread the constant costs of educational institutions over a broad base and thereby reduce the necessary charges to the college generation.

We have the resources and talent. All we need to do is pull it all together. Colleges and universities in partnership with government could constitute a powerful force to raise the quality of life in America. If we do not get it together, the vigorous protests of the younger generation may again force us to listen.

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