Dumb and Dumber

THE development officer of a reputable Western university recently took one of the school’s deans to meet a wealthy alumnus. In the alum’s office, the dean spied a bumper sticker that read: “Socialists reject history. Fair enough: History rejects Socialism.” Upon leaving, the dean condescendingly remarked that the sticker was annoying, to which the development officer replied: “You have to learn how to talk to these people. This is the future.” “These people” are concerned university alumni, and they represent the best hope for influencing colleges and universities back toward sanity. At schools such as Dartmouth, Princeton, Stanford, Wellesley, Duke, Mount Holyoke, and Yale, alumni groups are demanding the de-politicization of higher learning and better stewardship of donations. According to the Wellesley News, in 1994 fewer than 50 per cent of alumnae contributed to Wellesley, for the first time since 1978. Wellesley’s alumnae-association director attributes the decrease in part to a demand for accountability. A group of Dartmouth alumni sued the Board of Trustees after rule changes severely limited alumni involvement in decision-making. At South Carolina’s Converse College, trustees and alumni forced the president’s resignation after a string of multicultural excesses.

Until very recently, the well-documented politicization of colleges and universities went unchecked by alumni. The somnambulance of this core group of university benefactors has allowed college administrators to accede to the political demands of the academic Left without cost. This inattentiveness, however, is ending at a propitious historical moment, a time when universities are facing great financial pressure from reduced government subsidies, resistance to skyrocketing tuition hikes, and the hangover from years of improvident spending. Universities depend to a significant extent on private giving. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, university trustees, alumni, and private donors provide 49 per cent of the total revenue of American colleges and universities, or nearly $3.4 billion in 1994. With the increasing importance of the marginal dollar should come an opportunity for those seeking authentic university reform.

TC

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T. Kenneth Cribb Jr.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

THE development officer of a reputable Western university recently took one of the school’s deans to meet a wealthy alumnus. In the alum’s office, the dean spied a bumper sticker that read: “Socialists reject history. Fair enough: History rejects Socialism.” Upon leaving, the dean condescendingly remarked that the sticker was annoying, to which the development officer replied: “You have to learn how to talk to these people. This is the future.” “These people” are concerned university alumni, and they represent the best hope for influencing colleges and universities back toward sanity. At schools such as Dartmouth, Princeton, Stanford, Wellesley, Duke, Mount Holyoke, and Yale, alumni groups are demanding the de-politicization of higher learning and better stewardship of donations. According to the Wellesley News, in 1994 fewer than 50 per cent of alumnae contributed to Wellesley, for the first time since 1978. Wellesley’s alumnae-association director attributes the decrease in part to a demand for accountability. A group of Dartmouth alumni sued the Board of Trustees after rule changes severely limited alumni involvement in decision-making. At South Carolina’s Converse College, trustees and alumni forced the president’s resignation after a string of multicultural excesses.

Until very recently, the well-documented politicization of colleges and universities went unchecked by alumni. The somnambulance of this core group of university benefactors has allowed college administrators to accede to the political demands of the academic Left without cost. This inattentiveness, however, is ending at a propitious historical moment, a time when universities are facing great financial pressure from reduced government subsidies, resistance to skyrocketing tuition hikes, and the hangover from years of improvident spending. Universities depend to a significant extent on private giving. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, university trustees, alumni, and private donors provide 49 per cent of the total revenue of American colleges and universities, or nearly $3.4 billion in 1994. With the increasing importance of the marginal dollar should come an opportunity for those seeking authentic university reform.