Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "193911",
    "label": "Press copy of Address of the President, Charter Day, Memorial Stadium, University of California, Berkeley, 23 March 1962",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193911"
}

{
    "id": "193911",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193911",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Press copy of Address of the President, Charter Day, Memorial Stadium, University of California, Berkeley, 23 March 1962",
    "description": "Press copy of President John F. Kennedy's address at the University of California's 94th Charter Day held at Memorial Stadium at the school's Berkeley campus. In his speech, the President discusses the important role education plays in intellectual and political leadership, and addresses the recent decision between the United States and the Soviet Union to seek agreements on joint exploration of space.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193911",
    "creators": [
        "Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963"
    ],
    "collections": [
        "Papers of John F. Kennedy: Presidential Papers: President's Office Files",
        "Speech Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "University of California, Berkeley",
        "Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963",
        "Speeches, addresses, etc."
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/1939/193911/content/arcmedia/media/images/35/40/35-3961a.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/1939/193911/content/arcmedia/media/images/35/40/35-3961a.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/1939/193911/content/arcmedia/media/images/35/40/35-3961a.jpg",
    "imageCount": 4,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193911",
    "naId": 193911,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 23,
            "logicalDate": "1962-03-23",
            "month": 3,
            "year": 1962
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/1939/193911/content/arcmedia/media/images/35/40/35-3961a.jpg",
    "mediaId": "a75f464cd86a084d",
    "ocrText": "FOR RELEASE AT 2:00 P. M., (PST)\nFRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1962\nOffice of the White House Press Secretary\n(AS ACTUALLY DELIVERED)\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT\nCHARTER DAY, MEMORIAL STADIUM\nUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA\nMr. President, Governor Brown, Dr. Pauley, Chancellor, Members\nof the Board of Regents, Members of the Faculty and Fellow Students --\nLadies and Gentlemen:\nThe last time I came here to this Stadium was 22 years ago, and I\nvisited it in November of 1940 as a student at a nearby small school for\nthe game at Stanford, and we got a -- Imust say I had a much warmer\nreception today than I did from my Coast friends here on that occasion.\nIn those days we used to fill this university for football, and now we do\nit for academic events, and I'm not sure that doesn't represent a rather\ndangerous trend for the future of our country.\nI am delighted to be here on this occasion for though it is the 94th\nanniversary of the Charter, in a sense this is the hundredth for this\nuniversity and so many other universities across our country owe their\nbirth to the most extraordinary piece of legislation which this country has\never adopted, and that is the Morrill Act, signed by President Abraham\nLincoln in the darkest and most uncertain days of the Civil War, which\nset before the country the opportunity to build the great land-grant colleges,\nof which this is so distinguished a part. Six years later, this university\nobtained its Charter.\nIn its first graduating class it included a future Governor of California,\na\nfuture Congressman, a Judge, a distinguished State assemblyman, a\nclergyman, a lawyer, a doctor -- all in a graduating class of 12 graduates\nThis college, therefore, from its earliest beginnings, has recognized,\nand its graduates have recognized, that the purpose of education is not\nmerely to advance the economic self-interest of its graduates. The people\nof California, as much if not more than the people of any other State, have\nsupported their colleges and their universities and their schools, because\nthey recognize how important it is to the maintenance of a free society that\nits citizens be well educated.\n\"Every man, said Professor Woodrow Wilson, \"sent out from a\nuniversity should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time.\n\"\nAnd Prince Bismarck was even more specific. One third, he said,\nof the students of German universities broke down from overwork, another\nthird broke down from dissipation, and the other third ruled Germany.\nI do not know which third of students are here today, but I am confident\nthat I am talking to the future leaders of this State and country who\nrecognize their responsibilities to the public interest.\nToday you carry on that tradition. Our distinguished and courageous\nSecretary of Defense, our distinguished Secretary of State, the Chairman\nof the Atomic Energy Commission, the Director of the CIA and others,\nall are graduates of this University. It is a disturbing factor to me, and\nit may be to some of you: that the New Frontier owes as much to Berkeley\nas it does to Harvard University.\nmore"
}