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Address to National Association of State Universities & Land-Grant Colleges 11/21/89 [OA 3540] [1]
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Address to National Association of State Universities & Land-Grant Colleges 11/21/89 [OA 3540] [1]
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Address to National Association of State Universities & Land-Grant Colleges 11/21/89 [OA 3540] [1]
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25
6
6
4
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
November 21, 1989
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN ADDRESS TO
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE UNIVERSITIES
AND LAND-GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. Marriott Hotel
Washington, D.C.
11:20 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Dr. Peterson, for inviting me
here and for the introduction -- for those kind words. And it's
always a pleasure, of course, to be with my friend, Larry Cavazos,
Secretary Cavazos, who is doing such an outstanding job on behalf of
American education. I'm proud to have him at my side.
As to the former Big Red over here -- Ron Roskens --
(laughter) -- one of your own, now joining our administration to head
the Agency for International Development -- a terribly important
agency. And, of course, others at the head table -- I do want to
single out Bob O'Neil, who was my host at the Charlottesville summit.
And thank you, all of you, for your warm welcome, for the
important work you do in educating our nation's youth, the promise of
America and the promise of the future. I'm told this is the third
time that a President has addressed this group. Two other
charismatic speakers, Calvin Coolidge and Ike Eisenhower were here
before me. (Laughter and applause.) So it's tough. I hope they
were as happy to be here as I am. (Laughter.)
America is moving forward, and a lot of that is because
you're moving forward. And I am very pleased to have this
opportunity to come by in person to tell you just how important I
believe your work is.
I come during an auspicious week for presidential
speech-making because on yesterday's date in 1863, the
Republican-owned Chicago Times ran an editorial slamming the speaking
skills of their home-state President, Abramham Lincoln. And it read:
"The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the
silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances of the man who had to be
pointed out to the intelligent foreigners as the President of the
United States." of course, the speech they were so worked up about
was the Gettysburg Address. (Laughter.) And it was Abraham Lincoln
who, one year earlier, as Chase alluded to, signed the Morrill Act
into law, launching the great land-grant colleges and a uniquely
American philosophy towards higher education.
America's state universities and land grant colleges
opened the door of opportunity to millions of talented kids whose
backgrounds might otherwise have precluded their advancement and
education. And it marked the first time in American history, in
world history, that people of every background were given a chance to
prove their abilities through higher education. Your institutions
have continued to successfully evolve because you've always been
there to address the needs of each sector, maturing as universities
as America has matured as a nation. Step by step, side by side, the
strength of America depends on the strength of our youth, and the
strength of our youth depends on the strength of your schools.
Like America's bountiful harvests, America's sytem of
higher education is the envy of the world. And your institutions are
MORE
- 2 -
filled with powerful examples of what is right about education in
America. And many of those examples were cited by your governors in
Charlottesville earlier this fall as we worked together to address
the changing challenges in American education.
I noticed that William Fishback of the University of
Virginia had a talk here yesterday. And I quote -- this is the
title: "Coping With An Educational Summit: How To Survive President
Bush, 49 Governors, The News Media, And Other Strangers On Campus."
(Laughter.)
Now, I don't know how well-attended the good doctor's
lecture was, but that's not a -- it's a 20-word title. I know some
of you plain-speaking educators would want to edit it down.
(Laughter.) But with my luck, the condensed version would be: "How
To Survive President Bush." (Laughter.) And if Mr. Fishback thought
it was rough, he should talk to Bob O'Neil sitting over here. Bob's
Virginia hospitality was so gracious that it was two days before
Barbara and I realized we had kicked him out of his own house.
(Laughter.)
The summit marked only the third time in our nation's
history that America's governors were called together to address a
specific challenge. It was an important beginning; we all recognize
only a beginning. In the weeks since, my administration, your
governors, have been working hard on the commitments made at
Charlottesville to set national goals, seek greater flexibility and
enhanced accountability, and undertake a major state-by-state effort
to restructure our entire education system. Especially on this first
new objective: setting national goals. Your leadership is needed;
it is absolutely essential.
This organization, this very room, holds a vast body of
expertise and experience in tackling these issues. For those of you
who are already working with your governors, I thank you. And for
those who have not yet had that opportunity, I invite you -- I urge
you -- to lend your voices to this critical dialogue.
Later today, I will be meeting -- Dr. Cavazos and I will
be meeting with my newly-created President's Education Policy
Advisory Committee. And I look forward to hearing from three of your
members who are on the Committee -- Lamar Alexander, the President of
the University of Tennessee; Joe Nathan of Minnestota -- University
of Minnesota; and Dr. Frank Rhodes, the President of Cornell
University. Examples all of the kind of world-class reputations your
member schools have attained.
To meet our new national goals, the governors and I
agreed that me must seek greater flexibility and strength and
accountability -- all of this in the use of federal resources. That
doesn't mean that we need federal regulations controlling the way our
schools and colleges get the job done. Our colleges are the best in
the world in part because they epitomize choice, competition,
flexibility. And once we recognize that, then the way to close the
disturbing gap between the performance of our colleges and the
performance of our elementary and high schools is obvious What's
worked for you will work for them.
Our plan is called the Educational Excellence Act of 1989
and it's a critical first step in the effort to reverse the fortunes
of our struggling elementary and secondary schools. It calls for
choice, using magnet schools to promote the same kind of healthy
competition that flourishes among our college campuses. Like our top
colleges, magnet schools will attract top students and create a new
incentive for innovation. Magnet schools will bring new flexibility
and promote quality education. But along with new flexibility, we
need new blood. And alternative certification is an innovation that
will expand the pool of talented teachers.
One thing -- our plan also aims to seek out excellence
and reward it, and by doing so, to promote competition and
accountability. As with federal grants to our best universities, we
MORE
- 3 -
will provide cash awards to our best schools -- to merit schools.
These merit awards will not only boost the programs of schools with
proven formulas for success, but also boost the incentives for other
schools to follow their lead.
But accountability means more than merely rewarding those
schools that turn resources into results. Schools at every level
must allocate their resources wisely and prudently. Your colleague,
Harold Shapiro, who has been President at both Michigan and
Princeton, recently spelled out the bottom line. He said, "We all
have to be much more selective about what we do, and what we purport
to do if we have any hope of keeping the costs of education within
the bounds that can reasonably be afforded by society."
One thing we can't afford is to fall behind the
competition when it comes to training the educated work force that
future challenges will require. And that's why another of our
initiatives seeks to bolster an effort that many of you right here
have led -- the effort to revitalize campus interest in the study of
math and science. We have proposed a new nationwide program of math
and science scholarships for our best high school seniors. Five
hundred and seventy national science scholars would receive up to
choice. $10,000 a year for four years to be used at the college of their
Many of those colleges are likely to be your colleges.
And many of you have already launched programs that will complement
this new effort. Another part of our proposal calls for urban
emergency grants to help our hardest hit school districts become
drug-free.
But as with the new science scholarships, the success of
this effort depends upon all our schools -- it depends upon all of
them doing their part. We cannot give our students one message while
they're in elementary and high school and another when they start to
college. No school can afford to remain diffident when it comes to
drugs because in the war on drugs there are no noncombatants.
Yesterday -- to interrupt with a personal note -- I went
out to a school in inner Chicago, 97 percent Hispanic -- maybe 60, 70
percent of them first generation Americans. And Congresswoman Lynn
Martin asked them to hold up their hands about how many had been
exposed to drugs in one way or another. These kids were ten years
old. I think there was only two or three hands in the entire class
that didn't go up. Two or three in the entire class. And yet this
school, in its own way, its own level, under a dedicated principal, a
roomful of dedicated teachers, going the extra mile to teach these
kids that they must not use drugs. It cannot stop simply at the
secondary and the elementary school level.
Land-grant colleges, like all colleges and state
universities, like all universities, must take a stand. Your
students, like all students, must be told that society will not
tolerate the use of drugs.
There is one final part of our education package that has
special importance to me, and a special place with this group as we
approach the centennial of the second Morrill Land-Grand Act. The
1890 law inspired the creation of 17 historically black land-grant
colleges in southern and border states -- schools that changed the
lives of millions of young men and women by replacing traditional
roadblocks with avenues of opportunity.
But not all the roadblocks are gone. Endowments at these
vital institutions lag far behind many other schools. And so we've
proposed expanded federal help in the form of matching endowment
grants for these special colleges and universities. Each of these
proposals will make a difference, improving your students, or your
schools, or both. This package went to the Hill in April. It's time
for the Congress to act. And let's make this coming year one of
change and progress in education. Let's strike a blow for
excellence. Let's make passing this bill a top priority in Congress.
MORE
- 4 -
None of these efforts will be a panacea; I don't present
them as such. None will be a panacea for every ill that confronts
our educators. And they don't stand alone. Other initiatives
include our $300 million increase for Head Start, the new tax-free
college savings bond program to help our low- and middle-income
families send their children to your colleges, and continued progress
to our goal of doubling the budget of the National Science
Foundation, supporting thousands of individual researchers at
colleges and universities by 1993.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to
everything we are and can become. At the dawn of the Industrial
Revolution, the schools you represent stepped forward and fueled the
education and research that rocketed America from a frontier nation
to the frontiers of space, the hands-down winner of the industrial
age. And so now, we stand at the dawn of a new age, an age in which
the triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine, but rather those who master the potential of the mind.
We have the schools. We have the teachers. We have
dedicated educators like those in this room. We have the students,
and we have the will. And working together, we will prevail and we
must prevail.
Thank you all very much for letting me come over. God
bless you, and God bless the United States. And have a wonderful
Thanksgiving. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
11:38 A.M. EST
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
DATE:
11 19
FROM THE PRESIDENT
hand
To:
grant
Dave Chriss Ed
Nov 21
Fine but I 'd prefer to tell them
new
a little less about what they have
done/are doing; and a little more asbout
what we want to do.
suggest:
expand on very bottom of 3 and top of 4,
expand in other owrds on our goals. e.g.
Flexibility- one hting made clear
by the governors is that they do not want
more regulations from congress controlling
the way their schools and collegese get
the job done
a little more subsatnce on what we
want to accomplish, but cutting
back then on all they have done are
doing.
do we want to hit costo control- they
must get control of costs that have exceded
infaltion by far
(not sure
on this)
gb
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 17, 1989
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
1969 NOV 17 Pil 8 45
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON CW
FROM:
EDWARD MCNALLY slud
SUBJECT:
REMARKS FOR THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE
UNIVERSITIES AND LAND-GRANT COLLEGES
I. SUMMARY
Attached for your consideration and review are draft
remarks for Tuesday morning's address to the National Association
of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
II. DISCUSSION
At 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, November 21, 1989, you are
scheduled to arrive at the J.W. Marriott Hotel to address an
audience of approximately 1,200 university presidents, vice-
presidents, and deans. Your speech will be on TelePrompter.
The attached remarks emphasize your commitment to
education, and salute the extraordinary accomplishments of
America's state universities and land-grant colleges.
The remarks note that while our system of higher
education is second to none, our elementary and secondary schools
are struggling, and need help in order to ensure that colleges
can continue to rely on a talented and educated pool of new
students. The remarks also note your personal commitment to
historically black colleges and universities, to drug-free
schools, and to bolstering our science programs -- and include a
call on Congress to pass your education package, so that progress
can be made on all these fronts.
McNally/Simon
November 17, 1989
Draft Three (B:LAND)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOC. OF ST. UNIV. & LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989, 11:15 A.M.
Thank you, Dr. Chase Peterson [[UNIV. OF UTAH PRESIDENT, AND
CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOC. 11, for those kind words. It's always a
pleasure to see Secretary Cavazos whose doing such outstanding
work on behalf of American education. And thank you, all of you,
for your warm welcome and for the important work you do in
educating our nation's youth -- the promise of America, and the
promise of the future.
I am very pleased and honored to have this opportunity to
come by in person to tell you just how important I believe your
work is.
I come during an auspicious week for Presidential speech-
making. On yesterday's date in 1863, the Republican-owned
Chicago Times ran an editorial, slamming the speaking skills of
their home-state President, Abraham Lincoln.
It read: "The cheek of every American must tingle with
shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of
the man who had to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as
the President of the United States." of course, the speech they
were so worked up about was the Gettysburg Address.
It was Abraham Lincoln who, one year earlier, signed the
Morrill Act into law, launching the great land-grant colleges,
and a uniquely American philosophy towards higher education.
2
America's state universities and land-grant colleges opened
the door of opportunity to millions of talented kids whose
backgrounds might otherwise have precluded their advancement and
education. It marked the first time in American history -- in
world history -- that people of every background were given a
chance to prove their abilities through higher education.
Your institutions have continued to successfully evolve,
because you have always been there to address the needs of each
sector, maturing as universities as America has matured as a
nation. step by step, side by side, the strength of America
depends on the strength of our youth -- and the strength of our
youth depends on the strength of your schools.
And the "pay-back" has been terrific. Today, America's
state universities and land-grant colleges furnish much of the
modern skills needed to operate the world's richest economy -- as
well as the traditional research that has boosted American
agriculture for more than one hundred years.
More than a century ago, Iowa State University became the
first agricultural college to "go to the farmers." And the
legacy of its innovative program is the modern Cooperative
Extension Service, one of the most practical and cost-efficient
federal programs ever devised. Another high-yield benefit for
America.
Like America's bountiful harvests, America's system of
higher education is the envy of the world. Your institutions
gave birth to the world's first atom smasher, digital computer,
3
and America's first orbiting satellite. Your researchers
developed many of today's "wonder drugs" and the first artificial
heart. America is moving forward because you are moving forward.
Your institutions are filled with powerful examples of what
is right about education in America. And many of those examples
were cited by your Governors at the Charlottesville Summit
earlier this fall, as we worked together to address the changing
challenges in American education.
I noticed that William Fishback of the University of
Virginia had a talk here yesterday on -- and I quote -- "Coping
with an Educational Summit: How to Survive President Bush, 49
Governors, the News Media and other Strangers on Campus."
\\\
Now that's a 20-word title, and I know some of you plain-
speaking educators would want to edit it down. But with my luck,
the condensed version would be "How To Survive President Bush."
And if Mr. Fishback thought it was rough -- he should talk
to U.V.A.'s president, your colleague Bob O'Neil. Bob's Virginia
hospitality was so gracious that it was two days before Barbara
and I realized we had evicted him from his house.
The Summit marked only the third time in our nation's
history that America's Governors were called together to address
a specific challenge. It was an important beginning -- but only
a beginning. In the weeks since, my Administration, and your
Governors, have been working hard on the commitments made at
Charlottesville to set national goals, achieve greater
4
flexibility, enhance accountability, and restructuring toward a
results-oriented system.
This organization -- this very room -- holds a vast body of
expertise and experience in tackling these issues. For those of
you who are already working with your Governors, I thank you.
And for those who have not yet had that opportunity, I invite
you, I urge you, to lend your voices to this critical dialogue.
Later today, I will be meeting with my newly created
President's Education Policy Advisory Committee. And I will look
forward to hearing from three of your members who are on the
committee -- Lamar Alexander, President of the University of
Tennessee, Joe Nathan of the University of Minnesota, and Frank
Rhodes, President of Cornell University -- examples all of the
kind of world-class reputations your member schools have
attained.
America's colleges and universities are the best in the
world. But many doubt whether the same can still be said of our
elementary and secondary schools.
Earlier this month, a survey of more than 5,000 professors
only served to confirm what each of you already knows -- that
many of today's freshman are simply not prepared in the basics,
forcing a lowering of standards in higher education, and forcing
you to spend too much time and money teaching students what they
should have learned in high school. We need a renewed emphasis
on the basics because when students arrive at your doors, they
should be prepared.
5
Last April, we sent Congress our Educational Excellence Act,
a critical first step in the effort to reverse the fortunes of
our struggling elementary and secondary schools. It calls for
merit schools, to recognize and reward improved performance.
Magnet schools, an important instrument of choice. And
alternative certification, a way to expand the pool of talented
teachers.
One of its most significant initiatives seeks to bolster an
led
effort that many of you have been in the forefront
the
effort to revitalize campus interest in the study of math and
science. We've proposed a new, nationwide program of math and
science scholarships for our best high school seniors. 570
national science scholars would receive up to $10,000 a year for
four years, to be used at the college of their choice.
Many of those colleges are likely to be your colleges, and
many of you have already launched programs that will complement
this new effort.
Another part of our proposal calls for urban emergency
grants to help our hardest hit school districts become drug-free.
But as with the new science scholarships, the success of this
effort depends upon our colleges and universities doing their
part.
We can't give our students one message while they are in
elementary and high school and another when they start college.
No school can afford to remain diffident when it comes to drugs.
Because in the war on drugs, there are no non-combatants.
6
Land-grant colleges -- like all colleges -- and state
universities -- like all universities -- must take a stand. Your
students -- like all students -- must be told that society will
not tolerate the use of drugs.
There is one, final part of our education package that has
special importance to me, and a special place with this group as
we approach the centennial of the second Morrill land-grant Act.
The 1890 law inspired the creation of 17 historically black
land-grant colleges in Southern and border states -- schools that
changed the lives of millions of young men and women by replacing
traditional roadblocks with avenues of opportunity.
But not all the roadblocks are gone. Endowments at these
vital institutions lag far behind many other schools. And so
we've proposed expanded federal help in the form of matching
endowment grants for historically black colleges and
universities. Each of these proposals will make a difference,
improving your students, or your schools, or both.
This package went to the Hill in April. It's time for the
Congress to act. Let's make this coming year one of change and
progress in education. Let's strike a blow for excellence.
Let's make passing this bill a top priority in Congress.
None of these efforts will be a panacea for every ill that
confronts our educators. And they don't stand alone. Other
initiatives include this year's $300 million increase for Head
Start, the new tax-free college savings bond program to help our
low- and middle-income families send their children to your
7
colleges, and continued progress towards our goal of doubling the
budget of the National Science Foundation -- supporting thousands
of individual researchers at colleges and universities -- by
1993.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become.
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the schools you
represent stepped forward and fueled the education and research
that rocketed America from a frontier nation to the frontiers of
space, the hands-on winner of the industrial age.
Now we stand at the dawn of a new age, an age in which the
triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine -- but rather -- those who master the potential of the
mind.
We have the schools. We have the teachers. We have
the students. And we have the will. And, working together, we
will prevail.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
#
#
#
File
ASSOC. OF ST. UNIV. & LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989, 11:15 A.M.
THANK YOU, DR. CHASE PETERSON [[UNIV. OF UTAH
PRESIDENT, AND CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOC.11, FOR THOSE KIND
WORDS. IT'S ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO SEE SECRETARY
CAVAZOS, WHO IS DOING SUCH OUTSTANDING WORK ON BEHALF
OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. RONALD ROSKENS, ONE OF YOUR
OWN, JOINING OUR ADMINISTRATION TO HEAD THE AGENCY FOR
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. AND BOB O'NEIL, WHO WAS MY
HOST AT THE CHARLOTTESVILLE SUMMIT.
AND THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU, FOR YOUR WARM WELCOME
AND FOR THE IMPORTANT WORK YOU DO IN EDUCATING OUR
NATION'S YOUTH -- THE PROMISE OF AMERICA, AND THE
PROMISE OF THE FUTURE. AMERICA IS MOVING FORWARD,
BECAUSE YOU ARE MOVING FORWARD.
I AM VERY PLEASED TO HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO COME
BY IN PERSON TO TELL YOU JUST HOW IMPORTANT I BELIEVE
YOUR WORK IS.
- 2 -
I COME DURING AN AUSPICIOUS WEEK FOR PRESIDENTIAL
SPEECH-MAKING. ON YESTERDAY'S DATE IN 1863, THE
REPUBLICAN-OWNED CHICAGO TIMES RAN AN EDITORIAL,
SLAMMING THE SPEAKING SKILLS OF THEIR HOME-STATE
PRESIDENT, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
IT READ: "THE CHEEK OF EVERY AMERICAN MUST TINGLE
WITH SHAME AS HE READS THE SILLY, FLAT AND DISHWATERY
UTTERANCES OF THE MAN WHO HAD TO BE POINTED OUT TO
INTELLIGENT FOREIGNERS AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES." OF COURSE, THE SPEECH THEY WERE SO WORKED UP
ABOUT WAS THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. IIII
IT WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN WHO, ONE YEAR EARLIER,
SIGNED THE MORRILL ACT INTO LAW, LAUNCHING THE GREAT
LAND-GRANT COLLEGES, AND A UNIQUELY AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
TOWARDS HIGHER EDUCATION.
- 3 -
AMERICA'S STATE UNIVERSITIES AND LAND-GRANT
COLLEGES OPENED THE DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY TO MILLIONS OF
TALENTED KIDS WHOSE BACKGROUNDS MIGHT OTHERWISE HAVE
PRECLUDED THEIR ADVANCEMENT AND EDUCATION. IT MARKED
THE FIRST TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY -- IN WORLD HISTORY
-- THAT PEOPLE OF EVERY BACKGROUND WERE GIVEN A CHANCE
TO PROVE THEIR ABILITIES THROUGH HIGHER EDUCATION.
YOUR INSTITUTIONS HAVE CONTINUED TO SUCCESSFULLY
EVOLVE, BECAUSE YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE TO ADDRESS
THE NEEDS OF EACH SECTOR, MATURING AS UNIVERSITIES AS
AMERICA HAS MATURED AS A NATION. STEP BY STEP, SIDE BY
SIDE, THE STRENGTH OF AMERICA DEPENDS ON THE STRENGTH
OF OUR YOUTH -- AND THE STRENGTH OF OUR YOUTH DEPENDS
ON THE STRENGTH OF YOUR SCHOOLS.
LIKE AMERICA'S BOUNTIFUL HARVESTS, AMERICA'S
SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IS THE ENVY OF THE WORLD.
YOUR INSTITUTIONS ARE FILLED WITH POWERFUL EXAMPLES OF
WHAT IS RIGHT ABOUT EDUCATION IN AMERICA. AND MANY OF
THOSE EXAMPLES WERE CITED BY YOUR GOVERNORS IN
CHARLOTTESVILLE EARLIER THIS FALL, AS WE WORKED
TOGETHER TO ADDRESS THE CHANGING CHALLENGES IN AMERICAN
EDUCATION.
- 4 -
I NOTICED THAT WILLIAM FISHBACK OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF VIRGINIA HAD A TALK HERE YESTERDAY ON -- AND I QUOTE
-- "COPING WITH AN EDUCATIONAL SUMMIT: HOW TO SURVIVE
PRESIDENT BUSH, 49 GOVERNORS, THE NEWS MEDIA AND OTHER
STRANGERS ON CAMPUS." III NOW THAT'S A 20-WORD TITLE,
AND I KNOW SOME OF YOU PLAIN-SPEAKING EDUCATORS WOULD
WANT TO EDIT IT DOWN. BUT WITH MY LUCK, THE CONDENSED
VERSION WOULD BE "HOW TO SURVIVE PRESIDENT BUSH." III
AND IF MR. FISHBACK THOUGHT IT WAS ROUGH -- HE
SHOULD TALK TO BOB O'NEIL UP HERE. BOB'S VIRGINIA
HOSPITALITY WAS so GRACIOUS THAT IT WAS TWO DAYS BEFORE
BARBARA AND I REALIZED WE HAD EVICTED HIM FROM HIS
HOUSE. III
- 5 -
THE SUMMIT MARKED ONLY THE THIRD TIME IN OUR
NATION'S HISTORY THAT AMERICA'S GOVERNORS WERE CALLED
TOGETHER TO ADDRESS A SPECIFIC CHALLENGE. IT WAS AN
IMPORTANT BEGINNING -- BUT ONLY A BEGINNING. IN THE
WEEKS SINCE, MY ADMINISTRATION, AND YOUR GOVERNORS,
HAVE BEEN WORKING HARD ON THE COMMITMENTS MADE AT
CHARLOTTESVILLE TO SET NATIONAL GOALS, SEEK GREATER
FLEXIBILITY AND ENHANCED ACCOUNTABILITY, AND UNDERTAKE
A MAJOR STATE-BY-STATE EFFORT TO RESTRUCTURE OUR
EDUCATION SYSTEM.
ESPECIALLY ON THIS FIRST NEW OBJECTIVE -- SETTING
NATIONAL GOALS -- YOUR LEADERSHIP IS NEEDED. THIS
ORGANIZATION -- THIS VERY ROOM -- HOLDS A VAST BODY OF
EXPERTISE AND EXPERIENCE IN TACKLING THESE ISSUES. FOR
THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE ALREADY WORKING WITH YOUR
GOVERNORS, I THANK YOU. AND FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET
HAD THAT OPPORTUNITY, I INVITE YOU, I URGE YOU, TO LEND
YOUR VOICES TO THIS CRITICAL DIALOGUE.
- 6 -
LATER TODAY, I WILL BE MEETING WITH MY NEWLY
CREATED PRESIDENT'S EDUCATION POLICY ADVISORY
COMMITTEE. I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM THREE OF
YOUR MEMBERS WHO ARE ON THE COMMITTEE --LAMAR
ALEXANDER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE,
JOE NATHAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, AND FRANK
RHODES, PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY -- EXAMPLES ALL
OF THE KIND OF WORLD-CLASS REPUTATIONS YOUR MEMBER
SCHOOLS HAVE ATTAINED.
TO MEET OUR NEW NATIONAL GOALS, THE GOVERNORS AND
I AGREED THAT WE MUST SEEK GREATER FLEXIBILITY, AND
STRENGTHEN ACCOUNTABILITY, IN THE USE OF FEDERAL
RESOURCES.
THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE NEED FEDERAL REGULATIONS
CONTROLLING THE WAY OUR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES GET THE
JOB DONE. OUR COLLEGES ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD
IN PART BECAUSE THEY EPITOMIZE CHOICE, COMPETITION AND
FLEXIBILITY.
- 7 -
AND ONCE WE RECOGNIZE THAT -- THEN THE WAY TO
CLOSE THE DISTURBING GAP BETWEEN THE PERFORMANCE OF OUR
COLLEGES AND THE PERFORMANCE OF OUR ELEMENTARY AND HIGH
SCHOOLS IS OBVIOUS. WHAT'S WORKED FOR YOU WILL WORK
FOR THEM.
OUR PLAN IS CALLED THE EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE ACT
OF 1989. AND IT'S A CRITICAL FIRST STEP IN THE EFFORT
TO REVERSE THE FORTUNES OF OUR STRUGGLING ELEMENTARY
AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS.
IT CALLS FOR CHOICE -- USING MAGNET SCHOOLS TO
PROMOTE THE SAME KIND OF HEALTHY COMPETITION THAT
FLOURISHES AMONG OUR COLLEGE CAMPUSES. LIKE OUR TOP
COLLEGES, MAGNET SCHOOLS WILL ATTRACT TOP STUDENTS, AND
CREATE A NEW INCENTIVE FOR INNOVATION.
MAGNET SCHOOLS WILL BRING NEW FLEXIBILITY, AND
PROMOTE QUALITY EDUCATION. BUT ALONG WITH NEW
FLEXIBILITY WE NEED NEW BLOOD -- AND ALTERNATIVE
CERTIFICATION IS AN INNOVATION THAT WILL EXPAND THE
POOL OF TALENTED TEACHERS.
- 8 -
OUR PLAN ALSO AIMS TO SEEK OUT EXCELLENCE AND
REWARD IT, AND BY DOING so TO PROMOTE COMPETITION AND
ACCOUNTABILITY. AS WITH FEDERAL GRANTS TO OUR BEST
UNIVERSITIES, WE WILL PROVIDE CASH AWARDS TO OUR BEST
SCHOOLS -- TO MERIT SCHOOLS. THESE MERIT AWARDS WILL
NOT ONLY BOOST THE PROGRAMS OF SCHOOLS WITH PROVEN
FORMULAS FOR SUCCESS -- BUT ALSO BOOST THE INCENTIVE
FOR OTHER SCHOOLS TO FOLLOW THEIR LEAD.
BUT "ACCOUNTABILITY" MEANS MORE THAN MERELY
REWARDING THOSE SCHOOLS THAT TURN RESOURCES INTO
RESULTS. SCHOOLS AT EVERY LEVEL MUST ALLOCATE THEIR
RESOURCES WISELY AND PRUDENTLY.
YOUR COLLEAGUE HAROLD SHAPIRO, WHO HAS BEEN
PRESIDENT AT BOTH MICHIGAN AND PRINCETON, RECENTLY
SPELLED OUT THE BOTTOM LINE. HE SAID: "WE ALL HAVE TO
BE MUCH MORE SELECTIVE ABOUT WHAT WE DO, AND WHAT WE
PURPORT TO DO, IF WE HAVE ANY HOPE OF KEEPING THE COSTS
OF EDUCATION WITHIN THE BOUNDS THAT CAN REASONABLY BE
AFFORDED BY SOCIETY."
- 9 -
ONE THING WE CAN'T AFFORD IS TO FALL BEHIND THE
COMPETITION WHEN IT COMES TO TRAINING THE EDUCATED WORK
FORCE THAT FUTURE CHALLENGES WILL REQUIRE. THAT'S WHY
ANOTHER OF OUR INITIATIVES SEEKS TO BOLSTER AN EFFORT
THAT MANY OF YOU HAVE LED -- THE EFFORT TO REVITALIZE
CAMPUS INTEREST IN THE STUDY OF MATH AND SCIENCE.
WE'VE PROPOSED A NEW, NATIONWIDE PROGRAM OF MATH AND
SCIENCE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR OUR BEST HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS.
570 NATIONAL SCIENCE SCHOLARS WOULD RECEIVE UP TO
$10,000 A YEAR FOR FOUR YEARS, TO BE USED AT THE
COLLEGE OF THEIR CHOICE.
MANY OF THOSE COLLEGES ARE LIKELY TO BE YOUR
COLLEGES, AND MANY OF YOU HAVE ALREADY LAUNCHED
PROGRAMS THAT WILL COMPLEMENT THIS NEW EFFORT.
ANOTHER PART OF OUR PROPOSAL CALLS FOR URBAN
EMERGENCY GRANTS TO HELP OUR HARDEST HIT SCHOOL
DISTRICTS BECOME DRUG-FREE. BUT AS WITH THE NEW
SCIENCE SCHOLARSHIPS, THE SUCCESS OF THIS EFFORT
DEPENDS UPON ALL OUR SCHOOLS DOING THEIR PART.
- 10 -
WE CAN'T GIVE OUR STUDENTS ONE MESSAGE WHILE THEY
ARE IN ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL AND ANOTHER WHEN THEY
START COLLEGE. NO SCHOOL CAN AFFORD TO REMAIN
DIFFIDENT WHEN IT COMES TO DRUGS. BECAUSE IN THE WAR
ON DRUGS, THERE ARE NO NON-COMBATANTS. III
LAND-GRANT COLLEGES -- LIKE ALL COLLEGES -- AND
STATE UNIVERSITIES -- LIKE ALL UNIVERSITIES -- MUST
TAKE A STAND. YOUR STUDENTS -- LIKE ALL STUDENTS --
MUST BE TOLD THAT SOCIETY WILL NOT TOLERATE THE USE OF
DRUGS. III
THERE IS ONE, FINAL PART OF OUR EDUCATION PACKAGE
THAT HAS SPECIAL IMPORTANCE TO ME, AND A SPECIAL PLACE
WITH THIS GROUP AS WE APPROACH THE CENTENNIAL OF THE
SECOND MORRILL LAND-GRANT ACT.
THE 1890 LAW
INSPIRED THE CREATION OF 17 HISTORICALLY BLACK LAND-
GRANT COLLEGES IN SOUTHERN AND BORDER STATES -- SCHOOLS
THAT CHANGED THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF YOUNG MEN AND
WOMEN BY REPLACING TRADITIONAL ROADBLOCKS WITH AVENUES
OF OPPORTUNITY.
- 11 -
BUT NOT ALL THE ROADBLOCKS ARE GONE. ENDOWMENTS
AT THESE VITAL INSTITUTIONS LAG FAR BEHIND MANY OTHER
SCHOOLS. AND SO WE'VE PROPOSED EXPANDED FEDERAL HELP
IN THE FORM OF MATCHING ENDOWMENT GRANTS FOR THESE
SPECIAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.
EACH OF THESE PROPOSALS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE,
IMPROVING YOUR STUDENTS, OR YOUR SCHOOLS, OR BOTH.
THIS PACKAGE WENT TO THE HILL IN APRIL. IT'S TIME FOR
THE CONGRESS TO ACT. LET'S MAKE THIS COMING YEAR ONE
OF CHANGE AND PROGRESS IN EDUCATION. LET'S STRIKE A
BLOW FOR EXCELLENCE. LET'S MAKE PASSING THIS BILL A
TOP PRIORITY IN CONGRESS. IIII
NONE OF THESE EFFORTS WILL BE A PANACEA FOR EVERY
ILL THAT CONFRONTS OUR EDUCATORS. AND THEY DON'T STAND
ALONE. OTHER INITIATIVES INCLUDE OUR $300 MILLION
INCREASE FOR HEAD START, THE NEW TAX-FREE COLLEGE
SAVINGS BOND PROGRAM TO HELP OUR LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME
FAMILIES SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO YOUR COLLEGES, AND
CONTINUED PROGRESS TOWARDS OUR GOAL OF DOUBLING THE
BUDGET OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION -- SUPPORTING
THOUSANDS OF INDIVIDUAL RESEARCHERS AT COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES -- BY 1993. 11
- 12 -
EDUCATION IS OUR MOST ENDURING LEGACY, VITAL TO
EVERYTHING WE ARE AND CAN BECOME. 11
AT THE DAWN OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, THE
SCHOOLS YOU REPRESENT STEPPED FORWARD AND FUELED THE
EDUCATION AND RESEARCH THAT ROCKETED AMERICA FROM A
FRONTIER NATION TO THE FRONTIERS OF SPACE, THE HANDS-
DOWN WINNER OF THE INDUSTRIAL AGE.
NOW WE STAND AT THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE, AN AGE IN
WHICH THE TRIUMPHANT WILL BE NOT THOSE WHO MASTER THE
POTENTIAL OF THE MACHINE -- BUT RATHER -- THOSE WHO
MASTER THE POTENTIAL OF THE MIND. 11
WE HAVE THE SCHOOLS. WE HAVE THE TEACHERS.
WE HAVE THE STUDENTS. AND WE HAVE THE WILL. AND,
WORKING TOGETHER, WE WILL PREVAIL.
THANK YOU. GOD BLESS YOU. AND GOD BLESS AMERICA.
#
#
#
090919SS
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
11/18/89
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOCIATION OF STATE UNIVERSITIES AND LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J. W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, DC
SUBJECT:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989
11:15 AM
(11/17 - draft three)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
The attached has been forwarded to the President.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 17, 1989
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
1989 NOV 17 PM 8: 45
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON CW
FROM:
EDWARD McNALLY EMI
SUBJECT:
REMARKS FOR THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE
UNIVERSITIES AND LAND-GRANT COLLEGES
I. SUMMARY
Attached for your consideration and review are draft
remarks for Tuesday morning's address to the National Association
of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
II. DISCUSSION
At 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, November 21, 1989, you are
scheduled to arrive at the J.W. Marriott Hotel to address an
audience of approximately 1,200 university presidents, vice-
presidents, and deans. Your speech will be on TelePrompter.
The attached remarks emphasize your commitment to
education, and salute the extraordinary accomplishments of
America's state universities and land-grant colleges.
The remarks note that while our system of higher
education is second to none, our elementary and secondary schools
are struggling, and need help in order to ensure that colleges
can continue to rely on a talented and educated pool of new
students. The remarks also note your personal commitment to
historically black colleges and universities, to drug-free
schools, and to bolstering our science programs -- and include a
call on Congress to pass your education package, so that progress
can be made on all these fronts.
McNally/Simon
November 17, 1989
Draft Three (B:LAND)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOC. OF ST. UNIV. & LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989, 11:15 A.M.
Thank you, Dr. Chase Peterson [[UNIV. OF UTAH PRESIDENT, AND
CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOC. 11, for those kind words. It's always a
pleasure to see Secretary Cavazos whose doing such outstanding
work on behalf of American education. And thank you, all of you,
for your warm welcome and for the important work you do in
educating our nation's youth -- the promise of America, and the
promise of the future.
I am very pleased and honored to have this opportunity to
come by in person to tell you just how important I believe your
work is.
I come during an auspicious week for Presidential speech-
making. On yesterday's date in 1863, the Republican-owned
Chicago Times ran an editorial, slamming the speaking skills of
their home-state President, Abraham Lincoln.
It read: "The cheek of every American must tingle with
shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of
the man who had to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as
the President of the United States." Of course, the speech they
were so worked up about was the Gettysburg Address.
It was Abraham Lincoln who, one year earlier, signed the
Morrill Act into law, launching the great land-grant colleges,
and a uniquely American philosophy towards higher education.
2
America's state universities and land-grant colleges opened
the door of opportunity to millions of talented kids whose
backgrounds might otherwise have precluded their advancement and
education. It marked the first time in American history -- in
world history -- that people of every background were given a
chance to prove their abilities through higher education.
Your institutions have continued to successfully evolve,
because you have always been there to address the needs of each
sector, maturing as universities as America has matured as a
nation. Step by step, side by side, the strength of America
depends on the strength of our youth -- and the strength of our
youth depends on the strength of your schools.
And the "pay-back" has been terrific. Today, America's
state universities and land-grant colleges furnish much of the
modern skills needed to operate the world's richest economy -- as
well as the traditional research that has boosted American
agriculture for more than one hundred years.
More than a century ago, Iowa State University became the
first agricultural college to "go to the farmers." And the
legacy of its innovative program is the modern Cooperative
Extension Service, one of the most practical and cost-efficient
federal programs ever devised. Another high-yield benefit for
America.
Like America's bountiful harvests, America's system of
higher education is the envy of the world. Your institutions
gave birth to the world's first atom smasher, digital computer,
3
and America's first orbiting satellite. Your researchers
developed many of today's "wonder drugs" and the first artificial
heart. America is moving forward because you are moving forward.
Your institutions are filled with powerful examples of what
is right about education in America. And many of those examples
were cited by your Governors at the Charlottesville Summit
earlier this fall, as we worked together to address the changing
challenges in American education.
I noticed that William Fishback of the University of
Virginia had a talk here yesterday on -- and I quote -- "Coping
with an Educational Summit: How to Survive President Bush, 49
Governors, the News Media and Other Strangers on Campus. "
Now that's a 20-word title, and I know some of you plain-
speaking educators would want to edit it down. But with my luck,
the condensed version would be "How To Survive President Bush.' "
And if Mr. Fishback thought it was rough -- he should talk
to U.V.A.'s president, your colleague Bob O'Neil. Bob's Virginia
hospitality was so gracious that it was two days before Barbara
and I realized we had evicted him from his house.
The Summit marked only the third time in our nation's
history that America's Governors were called together to address
a specific challenge. It was an important beginning -- but only
a beginning. In the weeks since, my Administration, and your
Governors, have been working hard on the commitments made at
Charlottesville to set national goals, achieve greater
4
flexibility, enhance accountability, and restructuring toward a
results-oriented system.
This organization -- this very room -- holds a vast body of
expertise and experience in tackling these issues. For those of
you who are already working with your Governors, I thank you.
And for those who have not yet had that opportunity, I invite
you, I urge you, to lend your voices to this critical dialogue.
Later today, I will be meeting with my newly created
President's Education Policy Advisory Committee. And I will look
forward to hearing from three of your members who are on the
committee -- Lamar Alexander, President of the University of
Tennessee, Joe Nathan of the University of Minnesota, and Frank
Rhodes, President of Cornell University -- examples all of the
kind of world-class reputations your member schools have
attained.
America's colleges and universities are the best in the
world. But many doubt whether the same can still be said of our
elementary and secondary schools.
Earlier this month, a survey of more than 5,000 professors
only served to confirm what each of you already knows -- that
many of today's freshman are simply not prepared in the basics,
forcing a lowering of standards in higher education, and forcing
you to spend too much time and money teaching students what they
should have learned in high school. We need a renewed emphasis
on the basics because when students arrive at your doors, they
should be prepared.
5
Last April, we sent Congress our Educational Excellence Act,
a critical first step in the effort to reverse the fortunes of
our struggling elementary and secondary schools. It calls for
merit schools, to recognize and reward improved performance.
Magnet schools, an important instrument of choice. And
alternative certification, a way to expand the pool of talented
teachers.
One of its most significant initiatives seeks to bolster an
effort that many of you have been in the forefront of -- the
effort to revitalize campus interest in the study of math and
science. We've proposed a new, nationwide program of math and
science scholarships for our best high school seniors. 570
national science scholars would receive up to $10,000 a year for
four years, to be used at the college of their choice.
Many of those colleges are likely to be your colleges, and
many of you have already launched programs that will complement
this new effort.
Another part of our proposal calls for urban emergency
grants to help our hardest hit school districts become drug-free.
But as with the new science scholarships, the success of this
effort depends upon our colleges and universities doing their
part.
We can't give our students one message while they are in
elementary and high school and another when they start college.
No school can afford to remain diffident when it comes to drugs.
Because in the war on drugs, there are no non-combatants.
6
Land-grant colleges -- like all colleges -- and state
universities -- like all universities -- must take a stand. Your
students -- like all students -- must be told that society will
not tolerate the use of drugs.
There is one, final part of our education package that has
special importance to me, and a special place with this group as
we approach the centennial of the second Morrill land-grant Act.
The 1890 law inspired the creation of 17 historically black
land-grant colleges in Southern and border states -- schools that
changed the lives of millions of young men and women by replacing
traditional roadblocks with avenues of opportunity.
But not all the roadblocks are gone. Endowments at these
vital institutions lag far behind many other schools. And so
we've proposed expanded federal help in the form of matching
endowment grants for historically black colleges and
universities. Each of these proposals will make a difference,
improving your students, or your schools, or both.
This package went to the Hill in April. It's time for the
Congress to act. Let's make this coming year one of change and
progress in education. Let's strike a blow for excellence.
Let's make passing this bill a top priority in Congress.
None of these efforts will be a panacea for every ill that
confronts our educators. And they don't stand alone. Other
initiatives include this year's $300 million increase for Head
Start, the new tax-free college savings bond program to help our
low- and middle-income families send their children to your
7
colleges, and continued progress towards our goal of doubling the
budget of the National Science Foundation -- supporting thousands
of individual researchers at colleges and universities -- by
1993.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become.
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the schools you
represent stepped forward and fueled the education and research
that rocketed America from a frontier nation to the frontiers of
space, the hands-on winner of the industrial age.
Now we stand at the dawn of a new age, an age in which the
triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine -- but rather -- those who master the potential of the
mind.
We have the schools. We have the teachers. We have
the students. And we have the will. And, working together, we
will prevail.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 20, 1989
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON
FROM:
EDWARD MCNALLY your
SUBJECT:
REVISED TEXT: REMARKS FOR THE NATIONAL ASSOC.
of STATE UNIVERSITIES AND LAND-GRANT COLLEGES
I. SUMMARY
Attached for your consideration and review are draft
remarks -- revised according to your instructions -- for tomorrow
morning's address to the National Association of State
Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
II. DISCUSSION
At 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, November 21, 1989, you are
scheduled to arrive at the J.W. Marriott Hotel to address an
audience of approximately 1,200 university presidents, vice-
presidents, and deans. Your speech will be on TelePrompter.
The revised remarks emphasize your call for
flexibility, choice, competition, and accountability -- and note
the Governors' consensus that they do not want more regulations
from Congress controlling their schools and colleges. Also
included is a paragraph on getting control of educational costs.
[[These inserts begin near the top of page 4, and continue
through the middle of page 5.]]
[[Please note that while Bob O'Neil, the President of
the University of Virginia, is now included up front in the
acknowledgements -- the joke about you and Mrs. Bush "evicting"
O'Neil from his house during the Charlottesville Summit remains
in sequence, at the top of page 3.]]
McNally/Simon
November 20, 1989
Draft Five (B:LAND)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOC. OF ST. UNIV. & LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989, 11:15 A.M.
Thank you, Dr. Chase Peterson [[UNIV. OF UTAH PRESIDENT, AND
CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOC. 11, for those kind words. It's always a
pleasure to see Secretary Cavazos, who is doing such outstanding
work on behalf of American education. Ronald Roskens, one of
your own, joining our Administration to head the Agency for
International Development. And Bob O'Neil, who was my host at
the Charlottesville Summit.
And thank you, all of you, for your warm welcome and for the
important work you do in educating our nation's youth -- the
promise of America, and the promise of the future. America is
moving forward, because you are moving forward.
I am very pleased to have this opportunity to come by in
person to tell you just how important I believe your work is.
I come during an auspicious week for Presidential speech-
making. On yesterday's date in 1863, the Republican-owned
Chicago Times ran an editorial, slamming the speaking skills of
their home-state President, Abraham Lincoln.
It read: "The cheek of every American must tingle with
shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of
the man who had to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as
the President of the United States." of course, the speech they
were so worked up about was the Gettysburg Address.
2
It was Abraham Lincoln who, one year earlier, signed the
Morrill Act into law, launching the great land-grant colleges,
and a uniquely American philosophy towards higher education.
America's state universities and land-grant colleges opened
the door of opportunity to millions of talented kids whose
backgrounds might otherwise have precluded their advancement and
education. It marked the first time in American history -- in
world history -- that people of every background were given a
chance to prove their abilities through higher education.
Your institutions have continued to successfully evolve,
because you have always been there to address the needs of each
sector, maturing as universities as America has matured as a
nation. Step by step, side by side, the strength of America
depends on the strength of our youth -- and the strength of our
youth depends on the strength of your schools.
Like America's bountiful harvests, America's system of
higher education is the envy of the world. Your institutions are
filled with powerful examples of what is right about education in
America. And many of those examples were cited by your Governors
in Charlottesville earlier this fall, as we worked together to
address the changing challenges in American education.
I noticed that William Fishback of the University of
Virginia had a talk here yesterday on -- and I quote -- "Coping
with an Educational Summit: How to Survive President Bush, 49
Governors, the News Media and Other Strangers on Campus.'
Now that's a 20-word title, and I know some of you plain-speaking
3
educators would want to edit it down. But with my luck, the
condensed version would be "How To Survive President Bush. "
And if Mr. Fishback thought it was rough -- he should talk
to Bob O'Neil up here. Bob's Virginia hospitality was so
gracious that it was two days before Barbara and I realized we
had evicted him from his house.
The Summit marked only the third time in our nation's
history that America's Governors were called together to address
a specific challenge. It was an important beginning -- but only
a beginning. In the weeks since, my Administration, and your
Governors, have been working hard on the commitments made at
Charlottesville to set national goals, seek greater flexibility
and enhanced accountability, and undertake a major state-by-state
effort to restructure our education system.
Especially on this first new objective -- setting national
goals -- your leadership is needed. This organization -- this
very room -- holds a vast body of expertise and experience in
tackling these issues. For those of you who are already working
with your Governors, I thank you. And for those who have not yet
had that opportunity, I invite you, I urge you, to lend your
voices to this critical dialogue.
Later today, I will be meeting with my newly created
President's Education Policy Advisory Committee. I look forward
to hearing from three of your members who are on the committee --
Lamar Alexander, President of the University of Tennessee, Joe
Nathan of the University of Minnesota, and Frank Rhodes,
4
President of Cornell University -- examples all of the kind of
world-class reputations your member schools have attained.
To meet our new national goals, the Governors and I agreed
that we must seek greater flexibility, and strengthen
accountability, in the use of federal resources.
That doesn't mean we need more federal regulations
controlling the way our schools and colleges get the job done.
Our colleges are the best in the world in part because they
epitomize choice, competition and flexibility.
And once we recognize that -- then the way to close the
disturbing gap between the performance of our colleges and the
performance of our elementary and high schools is obvious.
What's worked for you will work for them.
Our plan is called the Educational Excellence Act of 1989.
And it's a critical first step in the effort to reverse the
fortunes of our struggling elementary and secondary schools.
It calls for choice -- using magnet schools to promote the
same kind of healthy competition that flourishes among our
college campuses. Like our top colleges, magnet schools will
attract top students, and create a new incentive for innovation.
Magnet schools will bring new flexibility, and promote
quality education. But along with new flexibility we need new
blood -- and alternative certification is an innovation that will
expand the pool of talented teachers.
Our plan also aims to seek out excellence and reward it, and
by doing so to promote competition and accountability. As with
5
federal grants to our best universities, we will provide cash
awards to our best schools -- to merit schools. These merit
awards will not only boost the programs of schools with proven
formulas for success -- but also boost the incentive for other
schools to follow their lead.
But "accountability" means more than merely rewarding those
schools that turn resources into results. Schools at every level
must allocate their resources wisely and prudently.
Your colleague Harold Shapiro, who has been president at
both Michigan and Princeton, recently spelled out the bottom
line. He said: "We all have to be much more selective about
what we do, and what we purport to do, if we have any hope of
keeping the costs of education within the bounds that can
reasonably be afforded by society."
One thing we can't afford is to fall behind the competition
when it comes to training the educated work force that future
challenges will require. That's why another of our initiatives
seeks to bolster an effort that many of you have led -- the
effort to revitalize campus interest in the study of math and
science. We've proposed a new, nationwide program of math and
science scholarships for our best high school seniors. 570
national science scholars would receive up to $10,000 a year for
four years, to be used at the college of their choice.
Many of those colleges are likely to be your colleges, and
many of you have already launched programs that will complement
this new effort.
6
Another part of our proposal calls for urban emergency
grants to help our hardest hit school districts become drug-free.
But as with the new science scholarships, the success of this
effort depends upon all our schools doing their part.
We can't give our students one message while they are in
elementary and high school and another when they start college.
No school can afford to remain diffident when it comes to drugs.
Because in the war on drugs, there are no non-combatants.
Land-grant colleges -- like all colleges -- and state
universities -- like all universities -- must take a stand. Your
students -- like all students -- must be told that society will
not tolerate the use of drugs.
There is one, final part of our education package that has
special importance to me, and a special place with this group as
we approach the centennial of the second Morrill land-grant Act.
The 1890 law inspired the creation of 17 historically black
land-grant colleges in Southern and border states -- schools that
changed the lives of millions of young men and women by replacing
traditional roadblocks with avenues of opportunity.
But not all the roadblocks are gone. Endowments at these
vital institutions lag far behind many other schools. And so
we've proposed expanded federal help in the form of matching
endowment grants for these special colleges and universities.
Each of these proposals will make a difference, improving
your students, or your schools, or both. This package went to
the Hill in April. It's time for the Congress to act. Let's
7
make this coming year one of change and progress in education.
Let's strike a blow for excellence. Let's make passing this bill
a top priority in Congress.
None of these efforts will be a panacea for every ill that
confronts our educators. And they don't stand alone. Other
initiatives include our $300 million increase for Head Start, the
new tax-free college savings bond program to help our low- and
middle-income families send their children to your colleges, and
continued progress towards our goal of doubling the budget of the
National Science Foundation -- supporting thousands of individual
researchers at colleges and universities -- by 1993.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become.
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the schools you
represent stepped forward and fueled the education and research
that rocketed America from a frontier nation to the frontiers of
space, the hands-down winner of the industrial age.
Now we stand at the dawn of a new age, an age in which the
triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine -- but rather -- those who master the potential of the
mind.
We have the schools. We have the teachers. We have
the students. And we have the will. And, working together, we
will prevail.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
#
#
#
O'Neil,
McNally/Simon
November 20, 1989
Draft Three (B:LAND)
Four
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOC. OF ST. UNIV. & LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Ronald roskens, one of your our,
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989, 11:15 A.M.
joining our administration to head the
who agency International Development. and Bof
was my at the Charlottesville summit.
Thank you, Dr. Chase Peterson [[UNIV. OF UTAH PRESIDENT, AND
CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOC. 11, for those kind words. It's always a
is
pleasure to see Secretary Cavazos, whose doing such outstanding
work on behalf of American education And thank you, all of you,
host
for your warm welcome and for the important work you do in
educating our nation's youth -- the promise of America, and the
promise of the future. America is moving forward, because you are
moving found
I am very pleased and honored to have this opportunity to
(Mond here
the top the
come by in person to tell you just how important I believe your
work is.
I come during an auspicious week for Presidential speech-
making. On yesterday's date in 1863, the Republican-owned
Chicago Times ran an editorial, slamming the speaking skills of
their home-state President, Abraham Lincoln.
It read: "The cheek of every American must tingle with
shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of
the man who had to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as
the President of the United States." Of course, the speech they
were so worked up about was the Gettysburg Address. 3333
It was Abraham Lincoln who, one year earlier, signed the
Morrill Act into law, launching the great land-grant colleges,
and a uniquely American philosophy towards higher education.
2
America's state universities and land-grant colleges opened
the door of opportunity to millions of talented kids whose
backgrounds might otherwise have precluded their advancement and
education. It marked the first time in American history -- in
world history -- that people of every background were given a
chance to prove their abilities through higher education.
Your institutions have continued to successfully evolve,
because you have always been there to address the needs of each
sector, maturing as universities as America has matured as a
nation. Step by step, side by side, the strength of America
depends on the strength of our youth ----- and the strength of our
youth depends on the strength of your schools.
And the "pay-back" has been terrific. Today, America's
state universities and land-grant colleges furnish much of the
modern skills needed to operate the world's richest economy -- as
well as the traditional research that has boosted American
agriculture for more than one hundred years.
More than a century ago, Iowa State University became the
first agricultural college to "go to the farmers." And the
legacy of its innovative program is the modern Cooperative
Extension Service, one of the most practical and cost-efficient
federal programs ever devised. Another high-yield benefit for
America.
Like America's bountiful harvests, America's system of
higher education is the envy of the world. Your institutions
gave birth to the world's first atom smasher, digital computer
3
and America's first orbiting satellite. Your researchers
developed many of today's "wonder drugs" and the first artificial
(mon) p.1)(2) to
heart. America is moving forward because you are moving forward.
Your institutions are filled with powerful examples of what
is right about education in America. And many of those examples
in
(summit
were cited by your Governors, A at the Charlottesville Summit
alreadshed.
earlier this fall, as we worked together to address the changing
challenges in American education.
inp.
I noticed that William Fishback of the University of
Virginia had a talk here yesterday on -- and I quote - - "Coping
with an Educational Summit: How to Survive President Bush, 49
Governors, the News Media and Other Strangers on Campus. "
333
Now that's a 20-word title, and I know some of you plain-
speaking educators would want to edit it down. But with my luck,
the condensed version would be "How To Survive President Bush. =
And if Mr. Fishback thought it was rough -- he should talk
up here.
to U U.V.A.'s president, your colleague Bob O'Neil. Bob's Virginia
hospitality was so gracious that it was two days before Barbara
and I realized we had evicted him from his house. 333
The Summit marked only the third time in our nation's
history that America's Governors were called together to address
a specific challenge. It was an important beginning -- but only
a beginning. In the weeks since, my Administration, and your
Governors, have been working hard on the commitments made at
seek
Charlottesville to set national goals, achieve ^ greater
in the as the per "forer compact.) (and)
changes bullets
4
undertake to a major state-by-state)
flexibility, enhanced accountability, and restructuring toward a.
our eduation
results oriented system.
This organization - this very room --- holds a vast body of
expertise and experience in tackling these issues. For those of
you who are already working with your Governors, I thank you.
Especially on this first new objective
And for those who have not yet had that opportunity, I invite
setting national goals your
you, I urge you, to lend your voices to this critical dialogue.
Later today, I will be meeting with my newly created
leadership is needed.
President's Education Policy Advisory Committee. And I will look
forward to hearing from three of your members who are on the
committee --- Lamar Alexander, President of the University of
Tennessee, Joe Nathan of the University of Minnesota, and Frank
Rhodes, President of Cornell University --- examples all of the
kind of world-class reputations your member schools have
attained.
INSERT "A"
America's colleges and universities are the best in the
world. But many doubt whether the same can still be said of our
elementary and secondary schools.
Earlier this month, a survey of more than 5,000 professors
only served to confirm what each of you already knows -- that
many of today's freshman are simply not prepared in the basics,
forcing a lowering of standards in higher education, and forcing
you to spend too much time and money teaching students what they
should have learned in high school. We need a renewed emphasis
on the basics because when students arrive at your doors, they
should be prepared.
5
Last April, we sent Congress our Educational Excellence Act,
a critical first step in the effort to reverse the fortunes of
our struggling elementary and secondary schools. It calls for
merit schools, to recognize and reward improved performance.
Magnet schools, an important instrument of choice. And
alternative certification, a way to expand the pool of talented
teachers
another
our
^
One of its ^ most significant initiatives seeks to bolster an
led
effort that many of you have been in the forefront of -- the
(potus's change)
effort to revitalize campus interest in the study of math and
science. We've proposed a new, nationwide program of math and
science scholarships for our best high school seniors. 570
national science scholars would receive up to $10,000 a year for
four years, to be used at the college of their choice.
Many of those colleges are likely to be your colleges, and
many of you have already launched programs that will complement
this new effort.
Another part of our proposal calls for urban emergency
grants to help our hardest hit school districts become drug-free.
But as with the new science scholarships, the success of this
effort depends upon our colleges and universities doing their
part.
We can't give our students one message while they are in
elementary and high school and another when they start college.
No school can afford to remain diffident when it comes to drugs.
Because in the war on drugs, there are no non-combatants. 333
6
Land-grant colleges -- like all colleges -- and state
universities -- like all universities -- must take a stand. Your
students -- like all students -- must be told that society will
not tolerate the use of drugs. 333
There is one, final part of our education package that has
special importance to me, and a special place with this group as
we approach the centennial of the second Morrill land-grant Act.
The 1890 law inspired the creation of 17 historically black
land-grant colleges in Southern and border states -- schools that
changed the lives of millions of young men and women by replacing
traditional roadblocks with avenues of opportunity.
But not all the roadblocks are gone. Endowments at these
vital institutions lag far behind many other schools. And so
we've proposed expanded federal help in the form of matching
endowment grants for historically black colleges and
universities. PP Each of these proposals will make a difference,
improving your students, or your schools, or both.
This package went to the Hill in April. It's time for the
Congress to act. Let's make this coming year one of change and
progress in education. Let's strike a blow for excellence.
Let's make passing this bill a top priority in Congress. 3333
None of these efforts will be a panacea for every ill that
confronts our educators. And they don't stand alone. Other
initiatives include this year's $300 million increase for Head
Start, the new tax-free college savings bond program to help our
low- and middle-income families send their children to your
7
colleges, and continued progress towards our goal of doubling the
budget of the National Science Foundation -- supporting thousands
of individual researchers at colleges and universities -- by
1993. 33
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become. 33
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the schools you
represent stepped forward and fueled the education and research
that rocketed America from a frontier nation to the frontiers of
space, the hands-on winner of the industrial age.
Now we stand at the dawn of a new age, an age in which the
triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine -- but rather -- those who master the potential of the
mind. 33
We have the schools. We have the teachers. We have
the students. And we have the will. And, working together, we
will prevail.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
#
#
#
INSERT "A"
To meet our new national goals, the Governors and I agreed
that we must seek greater flexibility, and strengthen
accountability, in the use of federal resources.
That doesn't mean we need a new bureaucracy, or more
regulations from Congress controlling the way our schools and
colleges get the job done. Our colleges are the best in the
world because they epitomize what we mean by choice, competition
and flexibility.
And once you recognize that --- then the way to close the
disturbing gap between the performance of our colleges and the
performance of our elementary and high schools is obvious.
What's worked for you will work for them.
Our plan is called the Educational Excellence Act of 1989.
And it's a critical first step in the effort to reverse the
fortunes of our struggling elementary and secondary schools.
It calls for choice -- using magnet schools to promote the
same kind of healthy competition that flourishes among our
college campuses. And like our top colleges, magnet schools will
attract top students, and create a new incentive for educational
innovation.
Magnet schools will bring new flexibility into our
educational system, and promote quality education. But along
with new flexibility we need new blood -- and alternative
certification is an innovation that will expand the pool of
talented teachers.
Our plan also aims to seek out excellence and reward it, and
by doing so to promote competition and accountability. As with
federal grants to our best universities, we will provide cash
awards to our best schools -- to merit schools. These merit
awards will not only boost the programs of schools with proven
formulas for success but also boost the incentive for other
schools to follow their lead.
Of course, "accountability" means more than merely rewarding
those schools that turn resources into results. Schools at every
level elementary, secondary, and higher education have to
get control of costs that have exceeded inflation by far.
Your colleague Harold Shapiro, who has been president at
both Michigan and Princeton, recently spelled out the bottom
line: "We all have to be much more selective about what we do,
and what we purport to do, if we have any hope of keeping the
costs of education within the bounds that can reasonably be
afforded by society."
when't
comesto in the training of the educated work force future challenges will
One thing we can't afford is to fall behind the competition
require.
that
SENT BY:RUTGERS UNIV.
11-20-89 ; 11:47 ;
PUBLIC AFFAIRS-
2023955730:# 2
THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
RUTGERS
Office of the Vice President for Public Affairs and Development
New Brunswick
New Jersey 08903
201/932-7741
FAX: 201/932-8480
November 20, 1989
cc: Chriss
Mr. Robert E. Grady
Winston
Associate Director
Office of Management and Budget
Old Executive Office Building
FYI
17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20503
Tob G.
Dear Bob:
In case I don't reach you this morning by phone, I am asking
my office to send you the enclosed material by fax.
When I arrived last night for the annual meeting of the
National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges
(NASULGC), I learned that President Bush will be addressing the meeting
tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. That speech may be all locked up, but in case
it's not, I thought the staff might find it useful to have the enclosed
background on the Community Service program that Dr. Bloustein has been
developing with the help and support of our alumnus and Trustee, Ray
Chambers. Ray invited Ed to join him at the luncheon in New York last
spring when the President announced his "Points of Light Foundation."
I think the Rutgers proposal is a good example of how state
universities can participate in the President's program. You may
recall that Ed Bloustein served several years ago as Chairman of
NASULGC.
I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow for lunch. I
still expect to be able to get to your office by noon, but President
Bush's appearance obviously may delay me a little bit.
Sincerely,
Dones
Donald B. Edwards
Vice President for Public Affairs
and Development
Enclosures
SENT BY:RUTGERS UNIV.
:11-20-89 ; 11:47 ;
PUBLIC AFFAIRS-
2023955730;# 3
COMMUNITY
SERVICE
A New Requirement
for the
Educated Person
EDWARDJBLOUSTEIN
President
Rutgers, The State University
of New Jersey
Office of University Publications
New Brunswick, New Jersey
SENT BY:RUTGERS UNIV.
;11-20-89 ; 11:47
;
PUBLIC AFFAIRS-
2023955730:# 4.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
A New Requirement
for the Educated Person
EDWARD J. BLOUSTEIN
I hope this 222d commencement of Rutgers, The
State University of New Jersey, is as happy an oc-
casion for you as it is for me. It should signify a
provocative new beginning for you, another pivotal
point in your life. You will now begin to employ the
many gifts and talents you developed here toward the
goals you choose to pursue. On behalf of all of us at
Rutgers, let me congratulate you and your families
on your many accomplishments and let me wish you
well in your chosen pursuit.
Besides marking a new beginning for graduates,
commencement provides us all with the occasion for
rededication to some of the principles that enlarge
and magnify what is best in each of us and in the
human spirit generally. Today I want to talk about
Address delivered on May 26, 1988, at the 222d Commencement Ex-
ercises, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick,
New Jersey.
2023955730:# 5
two personal and political shibboleths of the 1980s,
also impair the attainment of our public purposes.
and ask you whether they make sense for any of us or
Think about them with me.
for our nation.
I must confess to begin with, however, that, of
There is a distinct sense afoot in the nation that the
recent years, I and many other college and university
presidents have hesitated to express moral convictions
battle against bigotry we began to wage so intensively
because we felt we would be violating the principle of
in the 1960s has now been won. This is partly fed by
the general reaction against some of the excesses of
the moral neutrality of the university. This is, in-
PUBLIC AFFAIRS-
the '60s. It expresses as well, however, some dis-
deed, a most important principle and I would not
couragement after years of effort that our exertions
risk abridging it.
have not been as fruitful as we would have liked. It
But some of us have mistaken teaching for preach-
also reflects a return to the simplistic notion that the
ing. We certainly should not expound a moral creed;
strains associated with the clash of cultures we find
we should not ask that what we say be believed be-
ourselves experiencing would be dissolved, and a new
cause of the authority of our offices. We abandon our
strength of common purpose achieved, if only
calling, however, if we neglect, as too many of us do,
everyone would adopt the ways of the dominant
moral teaching. What I mean is that, as university
11-20-89 11:48
white, male, anglo-Christian society. Finally, I sug-
presidents, WC must invite thoughtful discussion of
gest that attention to bigotry has waned because
moral issues as we invite it of any other substantive
many of our nation's leaders have, in effect, declared
issue. We should not exact moral conformity of our
that the war against it has been won, and have dis-
students any more than we should of our faculty, but
placed its position in the national consciousness with
we should express our moral concerns, and ask our
other priorities.
students, no less than our faculty, to consider them.
That is what I intend to do now.
The bitter fact is, however, that racism, sexism,
homophobia, religious intolerance, fear of and
I put before you two tendencies of our time that I
animosity toward "foreigners," and such other forms
believe to be fundamentally wrong. They inhibit the
of provincialism are still very much with us. They
SENT BY:RUTGERS UNIV.
satisfaction to be found in our private lives, and they
still eat at our nation's vitals. The differences among
us will not simply go away, and our failure to accom-
2
3
2023955730;# 6
modate judiciously to them mars this nation's ability
tually every life experience on the globe, linking us
to achieve the greatness its political philosophy
as no political ambassador ever could to all parts and
promises; it also impairs this university's capacity to
all peoples of the world, from Africa to Europe, and
achieve true distinction.
now, ever more so, to Asia and South and Central
Declaring the war won when it has not been has
America. This is surely a capability comparable in its
had grave and unfortunate consequences. Among
significance for world leadership to productive fac-
other things, it has emboldened the bigots among us,
tories and fertile fields, armed battalions, or nuclear
and this and other campuses, as well as other com-
warheads. Unfortunately, it has recently been gravely
PUBLIC AFFAIRS->
munities throughout the nation, have paid a painful
neglected.
price as a result.
In terms of the life of this university, our faculty
The most compelling reason to accelerate the task
and staff, and the men and women we enroll, come
of rooting out bigotry is that it unjustly and cruelly
from an uncommonly broad range of backgrounds.
encumbers the lives of people and causes them pain.
They offer us as a university a unique strength in ad-
We must act aggressively and affirmatively, not to
vancing the cause of liberal education.
give those subject to victimization some special ad-
Among other things, liberal education promises to
vantage, but simply to assure surcease from neglect
overcome what the philosopher Francis Bacon called
:11-20-89 11:48
and deprivation.
the Idols of the Den, the mistaken attachment to
There is another reason to do so as well, however,
beliefs and values for no other reason than that they
a reason that is frequently neglected. Our failure to
are our own. The very wide range of differences
redress forms of oppression is not only unjust to
among us enables us to appreciate a breadth of
those who suffer it, but it also impedes the advantage
knowledge, culture, and experience which takes us
we might otherwise derive from the richness and
beyond the narrow confines of our individual begin-
strength that the differences among us offer.
nings. What could be more central to our education-
Our nation is comprised of a more imposing as-
al mission!
semblage of races, cultures, religions, and
SENT BY:RUTGERS UNIV.
nationalities than the world has ever known. As a
Let me turn next to another contemporary shib-
result, we have people-to-people connections with vir-
boleth, a distortion of a concept central to the nature
4
5
2023955730;# 7
of our democratic heritage: individualism. Of recent
ly cut ourselves off from the poor, the dispossessed,
years it has become disturbingly fashionable for
and the downtrodden. It is that same form of self-ab-
people to live as if the human condition were largely
sorption that allows us as a people to confuse those
the product of personal choice and effort in the free
nations which recoil before our power from those
marketplace of life, and as if greed and private
which respect and admire our purposes.
wealth were sovereign virtues. The attitude is
All too often, as individuals and as a people, we
epitomized in two slang slogans. "I've got mine,
PUBLIC AFFAIRS-
act out the role of the Lone Ranger, riding the moral
Jack," and "I'm doing my own thing' have, unfor-
prairie alone in our righteousness, aloof from com-
tunately, found their way into our mores and gained
munity and allies, at a remove from those who think
currency as latter-day political articles of faith.
and live differently than we do. We segregate our-
To be sure, human choice and effort are important
selves in cocoons of homogeneity. Sometimes it takes
and they do shape, to a significant degree, the
the form of sequestered housing, sometimes that of
human condition. And, of course, material goods con-
seeking out schooling arrangements which isolate our
tribute greatly to both the private and the public
children from the very communities they should come
good.
to understand and care for. Sometimes it takes the
11-20-89 11:49
But the naked pursuit of individual interest and
form of failing to consult valued allies. In some of
material gain is a hopelessly inadequate source of per-
our colleges and universities, it takes the form of
sonal satisfaction. It is also a thorough distortion of
neglect of the systematic study of foreign languages
the ideal of civic virtue in the democratic state.
and culture. For individuals, colleges and univer-
Moreover, it is a dangerously obtuse response to the
sities, and for our nation, while there may be smug
global condition in which we find ourselves.
comfort in such isolation, it portends personal and
This anemic ethic has flourished on ignorance and
political failure.
isolation. Born of a poverty of cultural imagination,
it explains why so many among us are without
I believe that, as individuals and as a nation, we
SENT BY:RUTGERS UNIV.
material want, but are wasted and unfulfilled emo-
must substantially increase our effort to learn from
tionally and spiritually. Proceeding from a
and accommodate to those among us with different
xenophobic sense of self, it causes many of us to simp-
cultures and life styles. We who are educated must
6
7
2023955730:# 8
reach out to the uneducated; those of us who have a
terms, student commitment to community service
full measure of the world's wealth must hold out our
would constitute a partial return to the commonweal
hands and our hearts to those who lack even a bare
of what they received from it.
portion of it. Giving is no less part of the good life
Such service as part of an undergraduate education
than receiving. This truism is as sound a principle of
would have a much broader significance, however. It
foreign policy as it is of personal gratification.
would constitute a valued ingredient of liberal educa-
Higher education already makes important con-
tion. It would help educate our students to the world
tributions to teaching the virtues of sharing and
of the sick and the aged, the world of the deprived
PUBLIC AFFAIRS-
caring, but I propose that we do more. I propose that
and dispossessed, a world which looms before us and
we look at community service as a necessary com-
which we can no longer continue to neglect except at
ponent of the learning experiences which constitute a
our moral and political peril.
liberal education.
This and other American universities must now ex-
I am extremely proud of the several hundred Rut-
plore ways to enlarge the liberal component of educa-
gers students who now work in the Rutgers Com-
tion by instituting a requirement of civic service.
munity Outreach program-tutoring students in the
Even if we were to suppose that some portion of the
inner city schools, assisting in hospitals, serving
student body might undertake it unwillingly, without
11-20-89 11:50
meals to those who cannot serve themselves, acting as
compassion, or with disdain for its ethical quality, it
tour guides at local museums, and engaging in many
would find justification in the expansion of the
other forms of community service. I congratulate the
horizons of feeling and experience it would afford.
students at Rutgers College who have proposed com-
Would it be very different from requiring our stu-
munity service courses that are now being adopted by
dents to read and write in terms some of them will
our faculty. I urge that we consider going one step
never thereafter have need or appreciation for? Why
further by making service to others a requirement of
not an introduction into social and cultural literacy,
the undergraduate liberal arts degree.
reflecting our time and place, as well as an introduc-
tion into mathematical, aesthetic, or historical
SENT BY:RUTGERS UNIV.
Everyone would agree, I am sure, that such service
analysis?
would contribute greatly to the communities in which
our universities live and are nourished. In these
0
9
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11-20-89 ; 11:50
;
PUBLIC AFFAIRS-
2023955730;# 9
I
I hope I have given you some reason to believe that
the campaign against bigotry deserves once again to
be put at the very center of our national agenda, and
at the very center of this university's agenda as well.
Let our diversity be seen for what it is, a source of
our strength, not of our weakness.
But nurturing it requires that we abandon the shal-
low image of individualism that has recently been in
the ascendent, in favor of a more robust one. We
must rediscover, as a nation and within this univer-
sity, the satisfactions of caring for others as we would
have them care for us; we must rediscover and teach
civic responsibility as a liberalizing art. I believe that,
in finding ways to modulate our individualism with
altruism, we will thereby foster greater individual
gratification, and bring ourselves into greater har-
mony with an increasingly heterogeneous and turnul-
tuous world.
10
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 17, 1989
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON
cw
FROM:
EDWARD MCNALLY EMW
SUBJECT:
REMARKS FOR THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE
UNIVERSITIES AND LAND-GRANT COLLEGES
I. SUMMARY
Attached for your consideration and review are draft
remarks for Tuesday morning's address to the National Association
of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
II. DISCUSSION
At 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, November 21, 1989, you are
scheduled to arrive at the J.W. Marriott Hotel to address an
audience of approximately 1,200 university presidents, vice-
presidents, and deans. Your speech will be on TelePrompter.
The attached remarks emphasize your commitment to
education, and salute the extraordinary accomplishments of
America's state universities and land-grant colleges.
The remarks note that while our system of higher
education is second to none, our elementary and secondary schools
are struggling, and need help in order to ensure that colleges
can continue to rely on a talented and educated pool of new
students. The remarks also note your personal commitment to
historically black colleges and universities, to drug-free
schools, and to bolstering our science programs -- and include a
call on Congress to pass your education package, so that progress
can be made on all these fronts.
McNally/Simon
November 17, 1989
Draft Three (B:LAND)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOC. OF ST. UNIV. & LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989, 11:15 A.M.
Thank you, Dr. Chase Peterson [[UNIV. OF UTAH PRESIDENT, AND
CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOC. 11, for those kind words. It's always a
pleasure to see Secretary Cavazos whose doing such outstanding
work on behalf of American education. And thank you, all of you,
for your warm welcome and for the important work you do in
educating our nation's youth -- the promise of America, and the
promise of the future.
I am very pleased and honored to have this opportunity to
come by in person to tell you just how important I believe your
work is.
I come during an auspicious week for Presidential speech-
making. On yesterday's date in 1863, the Republican-owned
Chicago Times ran an editorial, slamming the speaking skills of
their home-state President, Abraham Lincoln.
It read: "The cheek of every American must tingle with
shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of
the man who had to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as
the President of the United States." of course, the speech they
were so worked up about was the Gettysburg Address.
It was Abraham Lincoln who, one year earlier, signed the
Morrill Act into law, launching the great land-grant colleges,
and a uniquely American philosophy towards higher education.
2
America's state universities and land-grant colleges opened
the door of opportunity to millions of talented kids whose
backgrounds might otherwise have precluded their advancement and
education. It marked the first time in American history -- in
world history -- that people of every background were given a
chance to prove their abilities through higher education.
Your institutions have continued to successfully evolve,
because you have always been there to address the needs of each
sector, maturing as universities as America has matured as a
nation. Step by step, side by side, the strength of America
depends on the strength of our youth -- and the strength of our
youth depends on the strength of your schools.
And the "pay-back" has been terrific. Today, America's
state universities and land-grant colleges furnish much of the
modern skills needed to operate the world's richest economy -- as
well as the traditional research that has boosted American
agriculture for more than one hundred years.
More than a century ago, Iowa State University became the
first agricultural college to "go to the farmers." And the
legacy of its innovative program is the modern Cooperative
Extension Service, one of the most practical and cost-efficient
federal programs ever devised. Another high-yield benefit for
America.
Like America's bountiful harvests, America's system of
higher education is the envy of the world. Your institutions
gave birth to the world's first atom smasher, digital computer,
3
and America's first orbiting satellite. Your researchers
developed many of today's "wonder drugs" and the first artificial
heart. America is moving forward because you are moving forward.
Your institutions are filled with powerful examples of what
is right about education in America. And many of those examples
were cited by your Governors at the Charlottesville Summit
earlier this fall, as we worked together to address the changing
challenges in American education.
I noticed that William Fishback of the University of
Virginia had a talk here yesterday on -- and I quote -- "Coping
with an Educational Summit: How to Survive President Bush, 49
Governors, the News Media and Other Strangers on Campus."
Now that's a 20-word title, and I know some of you plain-
speaking educators would want to edit it down. But with my luck,
the condensed version would be "How To Survive President Bush. "
And if Mr. Fishback thought it was rough -- he should talk
to U.V.A.'s president, your colleague Bob O'Neil. Bob's Virginia
hospitality was so gracious that it was two days before Barbara
and I realized we had evicted him from his house.
The Summit marked only the third time in our nation's
history that America's Governors were called together to address
a specific challenge. It was an important beginning -- but only
a beginning. In the weeks since, my Administration, and your
Governors, have been working hard on the commitments made at
Charlottesville to set national goals, achieve greater
4
flexibility, enhance accountability, and restructuring toward a
results-oriented system.
This organization -- this very room -- holds a vast body of
expertise and experience in tackling these issues. For those of
you who are already working with your Governors, I thank you.
And for those who have not yet had that opportunity, I invite
you, I urge you, to lend your voices to this critical dialogue.
Later today, I will be meeting with my newly created
President's Education Policy Advisory Committee. And I will look
forward to hearing from three of your members who are on the
committee -- Lamar Alexander, President of the University of
Tennessee, Joe Nathan of the University of Minnesota, and Frank
Rhodes, President of Cornell University -- examples all of the
kind of world-class reputations your member schools have
attained.
America's colleges and universities are the best in the
world. But many doubt whether the same can still be said of our
elementary and secondary schools.
Earlier this month, a survey of more than 5,000 professors
only served to confirm what each of you already knows -- that
many of today's freshman are simply not prepared in the basics,
forcing a lowering of standards in higher education, and forcing
you to spend too much time and money teaching students what they
should have learned in high school. We need a renewed emphasis
on the basics because when students arrive at your doors, they
should be prepared.
5
Last April, we sent Congress our Educational Excellence Act,
a critical first step in the effort to reverse the fortunes of
our struggling elementary and secondary schools. It calls for
merit schools, to recognize and reward improved performance.
Magnet schools, an important instrument of choice. And
alternative certification, a way to expand the pool of talented
teachers.
One of its most significant initiatives seeks to bolster an
effort that many of you have been in the forefront of -- the
effort to revitalize campus interest in the study of math and
science. We've proposed a new, nationwide program of math and
science scholarships for our best high school seniors. 570
national science scholars would receive up to $10,000 a year for
four years, to be used at the college of their choice.
Many of those colleges are likely to be your colleges, and
many of you have already launched programs that will complement
this new effort.
Another part of our proposal calls for urban emergency
grants to help our hardest hit school districts become drug-free.
But as with the new science scholarships, the success of this
effort depends upon our colleges and universities doing their
part.
We can't give our students one message while they are in
elementary and high school and another when they start college.
No school can afford to remain diffident when it comes to drugs.
Because in the war on drugs, there are no non-combatants.
6
Land-grant colleges -- like all colleges -- and state
universities -- like all universities -- must take a stand. Your
students -- like all students -- must be told that society will
not tolerate the use of drugs.
There is one, final part of our education package that has
special importance to me, and a special place with this group as
we approach the centennial of the second Morrill land-grant Act.
The 1890 law inspired the creation of 17 historically black
land-grant colleges in Southern and border states -- schools that
changed the lives of millions of young men and women by replacing
traditional roadblocks with avenues of opportunity.
But not all the roadblocks are gone. Endowments at these
vital institutions lag far behind many other schools. And so
we've proposed expanded federal help in the form of matching
endowment grants for historically black colleges and
universities. Each of these proposals will make a difference,
improving your students, or your schools, or both.
This package went to the Hill in April. It's time for the
Congress to act. Let's make this coming year one of change and
progress in education. Let's strike a blow for excellence.
Let's make passing this bill a top priority in Congress.
None of these efforts will be a panacea for every ill that
confronts our educators. And they don't stand alone. Other
initiatives include this year's $300 million increase for Head
Start, the new tax-free college savings bond program to help our
low- and middle-income families send their children to your
7
colleges, and continued progress towards our goal of doubling the
budget of the National Science Foundation -- supporting thousands
of individual researchers at colleges and universities -- by
1993.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become.
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the schools you
represent stepped forward and fueled the education and research
that rocketed America from a frontier nation to the frontiers of
space, the hands-on winner of the industrial age.
Now we stand at the dawn of a new age, an age in which the
triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine -- but rather -- those who master the potential of the
mind.
We have the schools. We have the teachers. We have
the students. And we have the will. And, working together, we
will prevail.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
#
#
#
Document No. 09091955
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE: 11/16/89
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 11/17/89 2:00 PM
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOCIATION OF STATE UNIVERSITIES AND LAND
GRANT COLLEGES
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES coming
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Friday, November 17, with a copy
to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
It's always a pleasure to see suroubstonding sccretary
of efforts Education on whose Custom secre tous Courzos whose outstonding
work behalf of education
McNally/Simon
November 16, 1989
1989 NOV 16 PM 3.59
Draft Two (B:LAND)
Courtos reference
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOC. OF ST. UNIV. & LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989, 11:15 A.M.
Thank you, Dr. Chase Peterson [[UNIV. OF UTAH PRESIDENT, AND
CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOC. 11, for those kind words. And thank you,
all of you, for your warm welcome and for the important work you
do in educating our nation's youth -- the promise of America, and
the promise of the future.
I am very pleased and honored to have this opportunity to
come by in person to tell you just how important I believe your
work is.
I come during an auspicious week for Presidential speech-
making. On yesterday's date in 1863, the Republican-owned
Chicago Times ran an editorial, slamming the speaking skills of
their home-state President, Abraham Lincoln.
It read: "The cheek of every American must tingle with
shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of
the man who had to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as
the President of the United States." of course, the speech they
were so worked up about was the Gettysburg Address.
It was Abraham Lincoln who, one year earlier, signed the
Morrill Act into law, launching the great land-grant colleges,
and a uniquely American philosophy towards higher education.
America's state universities and land-grant colleges opened
the door of opportunity to millions of talented kids whose
2
backgrounds might otherwise have precluded their advancement and
education. It marked the first time in American history -- in
world history -- that people of every background were given a
chance to prove their abilities through higher education.
Your institutions have continued to successfully evolve,
when
oftentimes more than any of your counterparts because you have
always been there to address the needs of each sector, maturing
as universities as America has matured as a nation.
And the "pay-back" has been terrific. Today, America's
state universities and land-grant colleges furnish much of the
modern skills needed to operate the world's richest economy -- as
well as the traditional research that has boosted American
agriculture for more than one hundred years.
More than a century ago, Iowa State University became the
first agricultural college to "go to the farmers." " And the
legacy of its innovative program is the modern Cooperative
Extension Service, one of the most practical and cost-efficient
federal programs ever devised. another high-yield benefit for
america.
Like America's bountiful harvests, America's system of
higher education is the envy of the world. Your institutions
gave birth to the world's first atom smasher, digital computer,
and America's first orbiting satellite. Your researchers
developed many of today's "wonder drugs" and the first artificial
heart. america is moving farward because you are mading
forward.
Your institutions are filled with powerful examples of what
is right about education in America. And many of those examples
3
were cited by your Governors at the Charlottesville Summit
earlier this fall, as we worked together to address the changing
challenges in American education.
I noticed that William Fishback of the University of
Virginia had a talk here yesterday on -- and I quote -- "Coping
with an Educational Summit: How to Survive President Bush, 49
Governors, the News Media and Other Strangers on Campus." III
Now that's a 20-word title, and I know some of you plain-
speaking educators would want to edit it down. But with my luck,
the condensed version would be "How To Survive President Bush. "
And if Mr. Fishback thought it was rough -- he should talk
A.
Bob
Bob'
to U. Va president, your colleague Robert O'Neil. Robert's
Rd
Virginia hospitality was so gracious that it was two days before
Barbara and I realized we had evicted him from his house. \\\
The Summit marked only the third time in our nation's
history that America's Governors were called together to address
a
one specific challenge. It was an important beginning -- but
only a beginning. In the weeks since, my Administration, and
ON THE COMMITMENTS MADE AT
your Governors, have been working hard to establish national
CHARLOTTESVILLE to set national gools, achieve greater flex,bility, enhance
priorities on many issues -- choice and competitiveness, teaching
and restructuring toward a
quality, accountability, flexibility, tougher standards, and
results-oriented systems.
This organization -- this very room -- holds a vast body of
expertise and experience in tackling these issues. For those of
you who are already working with your Governors, I thank you.
4
And for those who have not yet had that opportunity, I invite
you, I urge you, to lend your voices to this critical dialogue.
Later today, I will be meeting with my newly created
President's Education Policy Advisory Committee. And I will look
forward to hearing from three of your members who are on the
committee -- Lamar Alexander, President of the University of
Tennessee, Joe Nathan of the University of Minnesota, and Frank
President of of
Rhodes, whose Cornell University was recently ranked with Cal
Berkeley, U.C.L.A., Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia as one
stet
of the best in the nation -- examples all of the kind of world-
Here in america
class reputations your member schools have attained.
vertui
America's colleges and universities are the best in the
world. But many doubt whether the same can still be said of our
secondary
elementary and high schools.
Today, millions of young Americans never make it to your
doorways. They drop out of school -- and the American mainstream
-- long before it's time to take the SAT's. And in the long
tradition of federal support for state colleges, more and more
educators are saying that one of the best ways the federal
government can ensure the continued excellence of higher
education, is to go back to basics -- and aid the effort to make
sure more of our kids make it to your colleges -- and to make
sure that when they come -- they come prepared.
Earlier this month, a survey of more than 5,000 professors
only served to confirm what each of you already knows -- that
many of today's freshman are simply not prepared in the basics,
5
forcing a lowering of standards in higher education, and forcing
you to spend too much time and money teaching students what they
We need a renewed emphasis on the basico
should have learned in high school. because when students arrive at your
cloors, they should be prepared.
Last April, we sent Congress our Educational Excellence Act,
a critical first step in the effort to reverse the fortunes of
our struggling elementary and secondary schools. It calls for
recognize and reward improved performance.
merit schools, to single out excellence and reward it. Magnet
schools, an important instrument of choice. And alternative
certification, a way to expand the pool of talented teachers.
One of its most significant initiatives seeks to bolster an
effort that many of you have been in the forefront of -- the
math and
effort to revitalize campus interest in the study of science, and
technology, We've proposed a new, nationwide program of science
mathand
scholarships for our best high school seniors. 570 national
would
science scholars will receive up to $10,000 a year for four
years, to be used at the college of their choice.
Many of those colleges are likely to be your colleges, and
many of you have already launched programs that will complement
this new effort.
Another part of our proposal calls for emergency urban
grants to help our hardest hit school districts become drug-free.
But as with the new science scholarships, the success of this
effort depends upon our colleges and universities doing their
part.
We can't give our students one message while they are in
elementary and high school and another when they start college.
6
No school can afford to remain diffident when it comes to drugs.
Because in the war on drugs, there are no non-combatants.
Land-grant colleges -- like all colleges -- and state
universities -- like all universities -- must take a stand. Your
students -- like all students -- must be told that society will
not tolerate the use of drugs.
There is one, final part of our education package that has
special importance to me, and a special place with this group as
we approach the centennial of the second Morrill land-grant Act.
The 1890 law inspired the creation of 17 historically black
land-grant colleges in Southern and border states -- schools that
changed the lives of millions of young men and women by replacing
traditional roadblocks with avenues of opportunity.
But not all the roadblocks are gone. Endowments at these
vital institutions lag far behind many other schools. And so
we've proposed expanded federal help in the form of matching
endowment grants for historically black colleges and
universities. Each of these proposals will make a difference,
improving your students, or your schools, or both.
This package went to the Hill in April. It's time for the
Coming Lone
Congress to act. Let's make this year of change and progress
?
in education. Let's strike a blow for excellence. Let's mare pass passing
this bill now. a top priority in Congress.
None of these efforts will be a panacea for every ill that
confronts our educators. And they don't stand alone. Other
300
initiatives include this year's $250 million increase for Head
7
Start, the new tax-free college savings bond program to help our
low- and middle-income families send their children to your
colleges, and continued progress towards our goal of doubling the
budget of the National Science Foundation -- supporting thousands
of individual researchers at colleges and universities -- by
1993.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become.
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the schools you
represent stepped forward and fueled the education and research
that rocketed America from a frontier nation to the frontiers of
space, the hands-on winner of the industrial age.
Now we stand at the dawn of a new age, an age in which the
triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine -- but rather -- those who master the potential of the
mind. \\
Thanks to your hard work, and those who came before you, we
are well-equipped to meet these challenges.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
#
#
#
We have the schools. We have the teachers.
we have the students. and we have the
will and, working together, we will prevail.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 17, 1989
Memorandum to Chriss Winston
From:
Jim Pinkert Day on
Subject:
Association of State Universities
pg. 7, para. 4, lines 1-4
"
a new age, an age in which the
triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine -- but rather ---- those who master the potential of the
mind. "
We particularly liked this conclusion of the draft. The
notion of a new age -- a new paradigm -- and the invocation of
the knowledge-based economy, has the virtues of optimism,
forward-looking vision, and, not least, truth. It casts the
President in a light that the public would be pleased to see more
of.
###
33 : 5d LI 100 68
McNally's comments:
proposed new "applause lines."
McNally/Simon
November 16, 1989
Draft Two (B:LAND)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ASSOC. OF ST. UNIV. & LAND GRANT COLLEGES
J.W. MARRIOTT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1989, 11:15 A.M.
Thank you, Dr. Chase Peterson [[UNIV. OF UTAH PRESIDENT, AND
CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOC. 11, for those kind words. And thank you,
all of you, for your warm welcome and for the important work you
do in educating our nation's youth -- the promise of America, and
the promise of the future.
I am very pleased and honored to have this opportunity to
come by in person to tell you just how important I believe your
work is.
I come during an auspicious week for Presidential speech-
making. On yesterday's date in 1863, the Republican-owned
Chicago Times ran an editorial, slamming the speaking skills of
their home-state President, Abraham Lincoln.
It read: "The cheek of every American must tingle with
shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of
the man who had to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as
the President of the United States." Of course, the speech they
were so worked up about was the Gettysburg Address.
It was Abraham Lincoln who, one year earlier, signed the
Morrill Act into law, launching the great land-grant colleges,
and a uniquely American philosophy towards higher education.
America's state universities and land-grant colleges opened
the door of opportunity to millions of talented kids whose
Kcomes from) Step by step, side by side, the strength of america
comes
from
youth $ the strength 2 of your schools.
in the strength of our youth - and the strength of our
backgrounds might otherwise have precluded their advancement and
education. It marked the first time in American history -- in
world history -- that people of every background were given a
chance to prove their abilities through higher education.
Your institutions have continued to successfully evolve,
oftentimes more than any of your counterparts, because you have
always been there to address the needs of each sector, maturing
as universities as America has matured as a nation.
And the "pay-back" has been terrific. Today, America's
state universities and land-grant colleges furnish much of the
modern skills needed to operate the world's richest economy -- as
well as the traditional research that has boosted American
agriculture for more than one hundred years.
More than a century ago, Iowa State University became the
first agricultural college to "go to the farmers." And the
legacy of its innovative program is the modern Cooperative
Extension Service, one of the most practical and cost-efficient
federal programs ever devised. another high-yield benefit for america.
Like America's bountiful harvests, America's system of
higher education is the envy of the world. Your institutions
gave birth to the world's first atom smasher, digital computer,
and America's first orbiting satellite. Your researchers
developed many of today's "wonder drugs" and the first artificial
heart. america is moving forward because you are moving forward.
11
Your institutions are filled with powerful examples of what
is right about education in America. And many of those examples
3
were cited by your Governors at the Charlottesville Summit
earlier this fall, as we worked together to address the changing
challenges in American education.
I noticed that William Fishback of the University of
Virginia had a talk here yesterday on -- and I quote -- "Coping
with an Educational Summit: How to Survive President Bush, 49
Governors, the News Media and Other Strangers on Campus. "
Now that's a 20-word title, and I know some of you plain-
speaking educators would want to edit it down. But with my luck,
the condensed version would be "How To Survive President Bush. "
And if Mr. Fishback thought it was rough -- he should talk
Bob
Bob's
to U.Va.'s president, your colleague Robert O'Neil. Robert's
Virginia hospitality was so gracious that it was two days before
Barbara and I realized we had evicted him from his house.
The Summit marked only the third time in our nation's
history that America's Governors were called together to address
one specific challenge. It was an important beginning -- but
only a beginning. In the weeks since, my Administration, and
your Governors, have been working hard to establish national
priorities on many issues -- choice and competitiveness, teaching
quality, accountability, flexibility, tougher standards, and
results-oriented systems.
This organization -- this very room -- holds a vast body of
expertise and experience in tackling these issues. For those of
you who are already working with your Governors, I thank you.
4
and fest in the in
here in america,
And for those who have not yet had that opportunity, I invite
you, I urge you, to lend your voices to this critical dialogue.
Later today, I will be meeting with my newly created
President's Education Policy Advisory Committee. And I will look
forward to hearing from three of your members who are on the
committee -- Lamar Alexander, President of the University of
Tennessee, Joe Nathan of the University of Minnesota, and Frank
Rhodes, whose Cornell University was recently ranked with Cal
Berkeley, U.C.L.A., Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia as one
of the best in the nation, examples all of the kind of world-
class reputations your member schools have attained.
America's colleges and universities are the best in the
world. But many doubt whether the same can still be said of our
elementary and high schools.
Today, millions of young Americans never make it to your
doorways. They drop out of school -- and the American mainstream
-- long before it's time to take the SAT's. And in the long
tradition of federal support for state colleges, more and more
educators are saying that one of the best ways the federal
government can ensure the continued excellence of higher
education, is to go back to basics -- and aid the effort to make
sure more of our kids make it to your colleges -- and to make
sure that when they come -- they come prepared.
Earlier this month, a survey of more than 5,000 professors
only served to confirm what each of you already knows -- that
many of today's freshman are simply not prepared in the basics,
5
forcing a lowering of standards in higher education, and forcing
you to spend too much time and money teaching students what they
should have learned in high school.
Last April, we sent Congress our Educational Excellence Act,
a critical first step in the effort to reverse the fortunes of
our struggling elementary and secondary schools. It calls for
merit schools, to single out excellence and reward it. Magnet
schools, an important instrument of choice. And alternative
certification, a way to expand the pool of talented teachers.
One of its most significant initiatives seeks to bolster an
effort that many of you have been in the forefront of -- the
effort to revitalize campus interest in the study of science and
technology. We've proposed a new, nationwide program of science
scholarships for our best high school seniors. 570 national
science scholars will receive up to $10,000 a year for four
years, to be used at the college of their choice.
Many of those colleges are likely to be your colleges, and
many of you have already launched programs that will complement
this new effort.
WHAT
Another part of our proposal calls for emergency urban
grants to help our hardest hit school districts become drug-free.
But as with the new science scholarships, the success of this
effort depends upon our colleges and universities doing their
part.
We can't give our students one message while they are in
elementary and high school and another when they start college.
6
No school can afford to remain diffident when it comes to drugs.
Because in the war on drugs, there are no non-combatants.
Land-grant colleges -- like all colleges -- and state
universities -- like all universities -- must take a stand. Your
students -- like all students -- must be told that society will
not tolerate the use of drugs.
There is one, final part of our education package that has
special importance to me, and a special place with this group as
we approach the centennial of the second Morrill land-grant Act.
The 1890 law inspired the creation of 17 historically black
land-grant colleges in Southern and border states -- schools that
changed the lives of millions of young men and women by replacing
traditional roadblocks with avenues of opportunity.
But not all the roadblocks are gone. Endowments at these
vital institutions lag far behind many other schools. And so
we've proposed expanded federal help in the form of matching
endowment grants for historically black colleges and
universities.
Each of these proposals will make a difference, improving
your students, or your schools, or both. [[And I am proud to say
that just last week -- miraculously and essentially intact -- our
Educational Excellence Act was passed by the United States
Senate. ]]
This package went to the Hill in April. It's time for the
House to act. Let's make this a year of change and progress in
7
education. Let's strike a blow for excellence. Let's pass this
bill now.
None of these efforts will be a panacea for every ill that
confronts our educators. And they don't stand alone. Other
initiatives include this year's $250 million increase for Head
Start, the new tax-free college savings bond program to help our
low- and middle-income families send their children to your
colleges, and continued progress towards our goal of doubling the
budget of the National Science Foundation -- supporting thousands
of individual researchers at colleges and universities -- by
1993.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become.
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the schools you
represent stepped forward and fueled the education and research
that rocketed America from a frontier nation to the frontiers of
space, the hands-on winner of the industrial age.
Now we stand at the dawn of a new age, an age in which the
triumphant will be not those who master the potential of the
machine -- but rather -- those who master the potential of the
mind.
Thanks to your hard work, and those who came before you, we
are well equipped to meet these challenges.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
We have the schools. # We have # # the teachers. We have
the students. and me have the will. and, working
together, me will prevail.