University of Virginia Library

Towards Higher Education

One of the few issues most Americans can
agree on is that of campus disorder. Nearly all
citizens are against it. They make these wishes
known to their elected officials who dream up
ways of transforming this sentiment into
legislation. The end result is that this
University, and many other state-supported
colleges and universities, are having a tough
time getting increased funding for needed
expansion or even operating costs.

President Edgar F. Shannon, speaking at
the dedication of a new women's dormitory
at Clinch Valley College of the University a
little more than a week ago noted that there is
constant pressure on state schools to make
students pay a larger portion of the actual
cost of their education.

Mr. Shannon noted that this trend will
allow only the sons and daughters of the
affluent to attend college. Those in the lower
income brackets, who are taxed to support
higher education, simply will not be able to
afford the high tuition, which is only a small
portion of the cost of a college or university
education.

At present there are very few students
attending the University who do not come
from middle-class backgrounds. With the
recent increase in tuition and the expanding
population of the University there is not
enough scholarship money available for all
who need it to enable their enrollment here.

"If we permit the temporary problems
involving the financing of higher education to
push tuition charges higher, the effect can be
to bar from higher education hundreds, and
even thousands, of fine Virginia students -
young men and women with undeveloped
capacities to serve their fellow-men and
improve the quality of their own lives and the
lives of others," President Shannon noted at
Clinch Valley. One of the underlying causes
of campus unrest throughout the country was
the existence of social injustice on such a
grand scale. The poor are seemingly locked
forever in a vicious cycle from which even the
escape via education is barred.

When the General Assembly meets in a
little more than a year from now they must
ignore the weak arguments against investing in
education. As President Shannon said in his
speech, 'all society gains from an educated
population and loses from an ignorant one.
The taxpayer who has no children in college,
or in engineering school, or in teacher
training, or in Medical School, or in Law
School still benefits from the education of
those who build the buildings, or fly the
planes, or cure illness, or teach the
neighborhood children, or dispense justice in
the courts. Furthermore, our great system of
public universities has insured that such
leaders and specialists no longer need by
drawn only from the children of the
wealthy."