University of Virginia Library

Clinch Valley Address

Shannon Blasts Tuition Increases

By Neill Alford

At the University's Clinch Valley
College in Wise, Va., President Shannon
expressed alarm at the rise in tuition costs
to students at state colleges and
universities.

Speaking last Sunday at the dedication
of a new women's dormitory, Mr.
Shannon remarked with favor on the
expanding academic program at Clinch
Valley College and pointed out the stride
made there in the field of coeducation by
being the first fully coeducational
undergraduate college of the University.

He sees this advance as being
"significant of our emerging society in
Virginia," which he feels strives to develop the
"talents of all of our people, without regard to
sex, or race, or color, or religion."

University Pride

He mentioned his pride in the University's
role in pioneering the use of revenue bonds for
the financing of dormitories and eating
facilities, by means of which the initial cost to
the taxpayers is repaid gradually over the years
by the proceeds from rent of the facilities.

Mr. Shannon attributed to this method of
fund raising a "healthy division of cost whereby
taxpayers in general, and the tax-paying parents
of college students who live at home, do not
contribute to the housing or food of dormitory
students."

He then expressed his belief that the tax
resources of the state can be applied now to the
cost of education itself, rather than the cost of
a student's residence.

Commenting on the cost of education to
students and the benefit of higher education to
the society in general, Mr. Shannon mentioned
the increase in earning power of the
individual as an argument for investment in
education.

But he added that "in today's complex
society, we must add the incontrovertible
argument that all society gains from an
educated population and loses from an ignorant
one."

"The taxpayer who has no children in
college, or in teacher training, or in Medical, or
in Law School, still benefits from the education
of those who build the buildings, or cure illness,
or teach the neighborhood children, or dispense
justice in the courts."

Alarming View

Mr. Shannon said he viewed "with alarm"
the "increasing tendency toward higher tuition
costs" to students at state educational
institutions. He asserted that "the effect can be
to bar from higher education" hundreds or
thousands of students with "undeveloped
capacities to serve their fellowmen."

"Today, nationally, there is constant
pressure, on state colleges and universities, to
make students pay more. Yet, today, American
college students pay higher tuition and a greater
share of the cost of their education than
students in any other country in the world," he
said.

Increased Tuition

He cited a rise in tuition in state and
land-grant institutions of over 30 per cent in
the last five years, and commented on the
"great American tradition of public education"
exemplified by these schools.

Commenting on the need for taxpayers to
remember the historic purpose of state and
land-grant institutions, Mr. Shannon reaffirmed
that "it is to our nation's advantage to keep
these institutions open to all who can qualify
and benefit from a higher education."

"We simply must not break faith with the
awakening realizations of these young people
that the future belongs to the knowledgeable,
the trained, the skilled, and the motivated."