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Remarks of the President at Summer Commencement, Ohio State University [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7335890
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Remarks of the President at Summer Commencement, Ohio State University [Ford Speech or Statement]
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Digitized from Box 1 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 30, 1974
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Columbus, Ohio)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT THE SUMMER COMMENCEMENT
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
ST. JOHN ARENA
10:11 A.M. EDT
President Enarson, President Flemming, Governor
Gilligan, Senator Metzenbaum, Congressman Sam Devine, Con-
gressman Chalmers Wylie, Mr. Mayor, honored graduates,
members of your family, and friends, and guests:
It is a very great privilege and exceedingly
high honor to participate in this wonderful graduation
ceremony. And at the outset, may I congratulate each
and every one of the graduates.
But if I might add, I think appropriate congratu-
lations to the members of your family -- husbands, wives,
mothers, fathers, and others who have done so much to
make it possible for you to be here on this wonderful
occasion.
And I think it is appropriate also that we add
a special tribute to the members of the faculty who have
likewise contributed to this very wonderful occasion.
So much has happened in the few months since you
were so very kind to ask me to participate on this occasion.
I was then America's first instant Vice President -- and
now, America's first instant President. The United States
Marine Band is so confused they don't know whether to play
"Hail to the Chief" or "You've Come a Long Way, Baby." (Applause)
Obviously, it is a very great honor for me to be
at Ohio State University, sometimes known as the Land of
the Free and the Home of Woody Hayes. I met Woody at the
airport. We just had our picture taken together and when
the picture appears in today's Dispatch, I am pretty sure
what the caption will say: "Woody Hayes, and Friend."
As many of you know, I have had a great interest
in football for a good many years. I played center for the
University of Michigan and I still remember my senior year
back in 1934. The Wolverines played Ohio in Columbus,
and we lost 34 to nothing. And to make it even worse, we
lost seven out of our eight ball games, but what really
hurt was that my teammates, after the end of the season,
voted me the most valuable player. (Laughter) I didn't
know whether to smile or sue. (Laughter.) But I want you
to know that I have a great feeling of kinship with this
graduating class. I understand that you have all taken your
final examinations this week. As your new President, I feel
like I am just beginning mine. They are tough, both at home
and abroad, but we will make it. Instead of dwelling on
how my team lost here in Columbus in 1934, I would prefer to
advance the clock to 1974 and talk about winning against the
odds that confront today's graduates and all America.
MORE
(OVER)
Page 2
The first of these problems is summed up by
the editor of your campus newspaper. She reports that the
one dominant question in the minds of this year's graduates
is very simple: How can I get a job that makes sense as
well as money?
Your professors tell you that education unlocks
creative genius and imagination and that you must develop
your human potential. And students have accepted this.
But then Catch 22 enters the picture. You spend four years
in school, graduate, go into the job market, and are told
that the rules have changed. There is no longer a demand
for your specialty -- another educational discipline is
now required.
And so one or two more years of study inevitably
follows and you again return to the job market. Yes, what
you now offer is saleable except that competition is very
tough. To succeed you must acquire further credentials so
you go back to the university and ultimately emerge with a
Masters or even a Ph.D.
And you know what happens next? You go out and
look for a job and now they say you are over-qualified.
In one form or another, this is a Three Shell
Game. Our society has been playing tricks with our greatest
natural energy source. That is you. And this has got to
be stopped.
Although this Administration will not make
promises it cannot keep, I do want to pledge one thing
to you here and now. I will do everything in my power to
bring education and employers together in a new climate
of credibility -- an atmosphere in which universities turn
out scholars and employers turn them on.
Ever since President Abraham Lincoln initiated
the concept of Land Grant colleges, set up to bring people
and students closer to the land, the Federal Government
has been interested in the practical application of
education.
Take the example of Project Independence. Frankly,
I am not satisfied with the progress we are making toward
energy independence by 1980. However, this is a problem
that I can appropriately discuss at a Labor Day weekend
commencement. It concerns both the academic community
and our great labor organizations.
I am not speaking of gasoline for a Labor Day
trip to the lake or seashore. I am speaking of fuel and
raw materials for our factories which are threatened by
shortages and high costs. Skills and intellect must
harmonize so that the wheels of industry not only hum but
sing.
MORE
Page 3
I propose a great new partnership of labor and
educators. Why can't the Universities of America open their doors
wide to working men and women, not only as students,
but as teachers? Practical problem-solvers can contribute
much to education, whether or not they hold degrees. The
fact of the matter is that education is being strangled --
by degrees.
I want to see labor open its ranks to researchers
and problem-solvers of the campuses whose research can give
better tools and methods to the workman. I want to see a two-
way street speeding the traffic of scientific developments,
speeding the creation of new jobs, speeding the day of
self-sufficiency in energy and speeding an era of increased
production for America and the world.
What good is training if it is not applied to
jobs? What good are factories if they are shut down? What
good is business and industry without those who solve
their problems, perform their jobs and spend their paychecks?
Next year, I will ask Congress to extend two
laws which are expiring. One provides for higher education,
the other for vocational education. Both are essential
because we need new jobs and we need new skills, academically
as well as vocationally.
Your Government will help you create a vocational
environment responsive to our needs, but the Government
cannot achieve personal fulfillment for each of you. You,
in this case, are the essential ingredient. Your determina-
tion, your dedication, your will will make the significant
difference.
For you, the time has come to test the theories
of the academic world in the laboratory of life. As President,
I invite students and graduates and faculties to contribute
their energies and their genius in the solution of massive
problems facing America. I invite your ideas and your
initiatives in fighting inflation, in providing realistic
education, in making sure our free enterprise system con-
tinues to give freedom as well as enterprise.
Show us how to increase productivity. Show us
how to combine new lifestyles with old responsibilities.
Show us how universities can work with industry and labor
unions to devise a whole new community of learning across
this great land. Show us how work-study programs can become
a part of the ongoing educational process. Show us how
new skills can improve technology while humanizing its use.
MORE
Page 4
A French statesman once observed that war is
much too important to be left to Generals. Our Nation's
future is far too important to be left only to Presidents
or other officials of the Federal Government.
I like the phrase of a former great President,
Theodore Roosevelt: "The Government is us; we are the
Government, you and I." Oh yes, your vote and your voice are
essential, as essential as mine if each American is to
take individual responsibility for our collective future.
As you move into that job that makes sense and
money to you -- and you will find it -- you move from a
position of strength. With the war over and the draft
ended, your duty now to your country is to enlist in the
campaigns currently being waged against our urgent domestic
threats, especially inflation, which is Public Enemy No. 1.
Abroad, we are seeking new peaceful relationships,
not only with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic
of China, but with all peoples -- industrial, under-
developed nations, every nation, if we possibly can.
There will be continuity in our foreign policy
and continued realism in our self-defense.
At home, the Government must help people in doing
things they cannot achieve as individuals. Accordingly,
I have asked the Secretaries of Commerce, Labor and HEW
to report to me new ways to bring the world of work and the
institutions of education closer together. For your
Government as well as you, the time has come for a fusion
of the realities of a work-a-day life with the teaching
of academic institutions.
As a starter, the Department of Labor will
shortly announce a pilot program to improve occupational
information for graduates and others in making career
choices. There will be grants for State and local initia-
tives to provide data on occupations available and to help
channel the potential employees into positions which are
not only personally satisfying but financially rewarding.
The States have always assumed the primary
responsibility for public education. That tradition, in
my judgment, is very sound and Ohio State University and
my alma mater, the University of Michigan, are excellent
examples. But there is now too much confusion about
which level of Government is to play which role in post-
secondary education.
I am directing the responsible agencies of the
Federal Government to make a new evaluation of where we
are, where we want to go, and where we can reasonably
expect to be five years from now.
MORE
Page 5
Discussions will be held with Governors, State
legislators, academic leaders, Federal officials, and the
consumers of education.
Our goal of quality education is on a collision
course with the escalating demands for the public dollar.
Everyone must have a clearer understanding and a clear
agreement on who is responsible for the specific aspects
of direction and the financing of a college education.
Often times our Federal Government tries to do
too much and unfortunately achieves too little. There
are, for example, approximately 380 separate Federal
educational programs beyond the high school level, some
duplicating others, administered by some 50 separate
Executive agencies. The result inevitably is a bureaucracy
that often provides garbled guidelines instead of taut
lifelines to good and available jobs.
But let us look for a moment beyond the campus
and beyond Washington.
In 1972, I was fortunate to visit the People's
Republic of China. With four times the population of the
United States, a nation growing at the rate of two New
York Cities every 12 months, that vast nation is making
very significant technological progress. From a personal
observation as well as by records, you can see the Chinese
productivity is gaining momentum, and the majority of the
Chinese on the mainland today are young people, highly
motivated, extremely well disciplined.
As fellow human beings, we celebrate the rising
capacities of the Chinese nation, a people with a firm
belief in their own destiny.
However, as Americans, motivated by free
competition, we see a distant challenge. And I believe
all Americans welcome that challenge.
We must compete internationally not only to
maintain the balance of trade in our standard of living
but to offer to the world's impoverished examples and
opportunities for a better life. We should do that for
humane and for perhaps even self interest.
MORE
Page 6
Let this peaceful competition, however, animate
the last quarter of the twentieth century. And I am confi-
dent that America's youth will make the difference. You
are America's greatest untapped source of energy. But
energy unused is energy wasted.
It is my judgment that we must make extraordinary
efforts to apply our know-how, our capital, our technology,
and our human resources to increase productivity at a
faster rate. Unfortunately, inflation is creating a
national state of public anxiety. Productivity, yours
as well as mine, must improve if we are to have less of
an inflationary economy. In the long-run, it is the only
way that we can raise wages without inflationary price
increases. It is essential in creating new jobs and
increasing real wages. In a growing economy, every one,
labor, management and the consumer, wins when productivity
expands.
At this very moment of America's history, we have
the knowledge and the material resources to do almost
anything that any one of us, or all of us collectively,
can imagine. We can explore the depth of the ocean.
We can put a man on the moon. We can reach for the stars.
But great problems confront us here on earth.
To face these problems, we need even more than technology,
we need more than programs. We need a belief in ourselves.
We need the will, the dedication, the discipline to take
action.
Let us take a new look at ourselves as Americans.
Let us draw from every resource available. Let us seek
a real partnership between the academic community and
the rest of our society. Let us aspire to excellence in
every aspect of our national life.
Now, may I close with a word between friends?
Sometimes deep feelings can get lost in words. I don't
want that to happen here today. And so I would like to
share with you something that I feel very deeply: The
world is not a lonely place. There is light and life and love
enough for all of us. And I ask you, and all Americans, to
reach out to join hands with me -- and together we will
seek it out.
Thank you very much.
END
(AT 10:32 A.M. EDT)