Thelin Chapter 7 Higher Educations Golden Age 1945
- Slides: 21
Thelin, Chapter 7 Higher Education’s “Golden Age” 1945 to 1970
Postwar Policies and Possibilities Following World War II ◦ “three P’s” – prosperity, prestige, and popularity During World War II, regular student enrollments dipped substantially as a result of the military draft. By 1949 -1950, total student enrollments had ballooned to almost 2. 7 million – an increase of about 80 percent in one decade. Higher education became the major focus of attention in the formulation of public policies at both the state and federal levels. Higher education gained state support combined with federal commitment to advance research and access to higher education.
The GI Bill (1944) Guaranteed military personnel “a year of education for 90 days service” Supporters of the GI Bill projected that only about 8 -10 percent of veterans would take advantage of the federal government’s program that allowed them to enroll in college. By 1950, of the fourteen million eligible veterans, more than two million enrolled in postsecondary education.
The GI Bill One reason the program gained so much momentum is that some colleges deliberately put into place materials and programs that encouraged veterans to consider college.
The GI Bill Admission requirements were flexible. Advanced standing was offered for those who could demonstrate achievement in a variety of forms. The brochure emphasized: ◦ This does not mean that intellectual brilliance is required for admission – or for success after admission. Character, experience, promise, allaround performance are vital. ◦ Harvard recognizes that the veteran of this war will expect something else from education than the ordinary peacetime students. Clearly the man who has been making life and death decisions at sea, in the air, and on the ground has other ideas than the man who comes direct from the high school. The University is bending every energy to meet the needs of these men.
The GI Bill All veterans who satisfied the published eligibility criteria were guaranteed the educational benefits No “first come, first served” constraint A GI could choose to apply not only to the undergraduate college at Harvard or to the University of Illinois, but also to junior colleges, trade schools, vocational programs, or graduate professional schools of law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, architecture, or engineering.
The GI Bill An institution has to be federally approved The first innovation took place in the ways in which colleges and universities went about evaluating student applicants. ◦ Colleges started to make increased use of standardized testing for both admissions and placement decisions. Need for massive construction of laboratories, classroom buildings, and dormitories. GI students were typically depicted as worldly and experienced, impatient with the juvenile features of college life.
The GI Bill The students on the GI Bill tended to reinforce the conservative nature of the American campus. Women, nonetheless, constituted a small percentage of total GI enrollments. Had limited impacts on race relations at colleges and universities
A Blueprint for Mass Higher Education On July 13, 1946, President Harry Truman established a Commission on Higher Education Rationale that higher education was integral to the national interest, including its international and social roles as well as national defense
“Big Science” as the “Best Science” Vannevar Bush’s 1945 report Science, the Endless Frontier – focused on prospects for elite, advanced research and development in the sciences Bush recommended creation of a permanent and well-funded federal agency ◦ A system of competitive grants awarded to university scientists who submitted proposals and were then selected by peer review to carry out government projects
Academic Freedom and Politics Various groups, ranging from Congress to university Presidents, agreed on the positive contributions that colleges and universities could make. However…. ◦ Numerous state university presidents took the initiative to subject their faculties to loyalty oaths and codes of conduct exceeding anything that vigilant congressional or state officials might have required ◦ Many campus presidents proved to be more
Expansion of Graduate Degree Programs In the late 1940’s, there was a Ph. D. shortage that put the vision of expanded higher education at risk. One solution was the increasing reliance on the teaching assistant ◦ University could accommodate huge increases in the size of its undergraduate student body while providing funding and apprenticeship work for an expanded number of doctoral students, especially in fields with little chance of obtaining research grants
Philanthropy and the Prospect of External Funding Ford Foundation began to assert a distinctive identity in higher education after 1947. ◦ Provided incentive grants for curricular innovation or for hiring new faculty, by funding laboratories, or by subsidizing an institute or center ◦ In the 1950’s and 1960’s, focused on major private universities and social and behavioral sciences.
Ford Foundation As Robert Bremner has noted, the Ford Foundation’s largest gift was widely praised. ◦ It was a “special appropriation of $560 million announced in December 1955 to assist privately supported colleges and universities to raise teachers’ salaries, to help privately supported medical schools strengthen instruction, and improve services. “
Ford Foundation Toward the end of the 1950’s, the foundation began to make grants to novelists, poets, artists, musicians, composers, and dramatists. Also contributed to the transformation of American higher education in another way: by using incentive programs and matching grants to prompt colleges and universities to develop a permanent, sophisticated fund-raising machinery
The Case of California, 19471970 California had been a major point of embarkation and return for military personnel The period between 1945 and 1970 represented the peak of investment in mass higher education in California. Undergraduates could not count on having small classes ◦ The rationale was that students would gain more from larger classes taught by the best scholars.
The “Plight” of Private Colleges and Universities By the late 1940 s, there was an increasingly generous state subsidy provided to public colleges and universities which allowed them to keep the price of tuition low. ◦ Strong, systematic fund-raising programs ◦ Need-based financial aid ◦ Need-blind admissions ◦ Honors programs, accelerated programs, independent study, study abroad, and small class size
Undergraduates & Campus Life (1950 s) Typical “college man”: ◦ Full-time student ◦ Entered college immediately after high school ◦ Planned to graduate in four years ◦ Chose a major field his junior year ◦ Looked forward to marrying his college sweetheart ◦ Sought a career in a large corporation
From Junior College to Community College Enrollment in public two-year colleges increased almost five-fold in the 1960’s. ◦ There was a relative decline of private two -year colleges ◦ Changing missions of the public institutions Community colleges became known as a transfer institution – however, only a small percentage of community college students
Testing and Tracking Emergence of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) ◦ Facilitated processing of large numbers of applications ◦ For students and their parents, it came to symbolize the high stakes of college admissions In the Midwest, the ACT was developed.
Discussion Questions Do you think that the typical “college man” has changed? If yes, how? What do you think has contributed to this change? As discussed, many professor’s lacked academic freedom in the past. Do you think professors/teachers today have academic freedom? Why or why not?
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