Commencement Address By Commissioner Of Education Earl McGrath at the University of Buffalo, The Years Ahead

Extracted text

OCR Page 1 of 16
THE YEARS AHEAD * The class of 1949 is perhaps the most remarkable graduating olass in the history of our country. This sounds like old-fashioned commencement oratory. But the facts show that it is more than that. This is no ordinary class. The class of 1949 is the largest ever to graduate from American colleges and universities. And it is different from those which have gone before. It contains a larger proportion of men, of whom two thirds are veterans. They are from three to four years older than graduates of other years. A third of them is married, many of them to members of their own class. In contrast with earlier classes, they have been more eager to get the most from their education. They have achieved more. In still another respect they are dif- ferent: many of the veterans have been educated under grants from the federal government. Our best available information is that more than half of these men and women would not have had the advantages of higher education without this aid. But these important differences between the class of 1949 and its predecessors are superficial. Deeper levels of analysis show an even greater contrast. In reporting on a survey of this year's senior class in a representative group of colleges and universities, Fortune Magazine, in the issue published yesterday, reveals two significant * Commencement address by Dr. Earl J. McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, at University of Buffalo, Buffalo, N. Y., June 1, 1949 &