DOUG COX, Sears-Roebuck local authorized agent of Mur
freesboro, presents to President Whitaker a check from the
Sears-Roebuck Foundation.
Foundation provides grant
to support college work
A Boon to State
WILXJAM D. CAFFREY, the author of this article, is a
Greensboro attorney and chairman of the Board of Trustees at
Greensboro College. This article is adapted from recent
remarks before a meeting of the Guilford legislative delegation
at Guilford College.
Chowan has received an $800
unrestricted grant from the Sears-
Roebuck Foundation, and is one of
38 privately supported colleges and
universities in North Carolina to
receive such unrestricted grants.
The check was presented by
Sears-Roebuck authorized agent
Doug Cox of Murfreesboro.
The North Carolina colleges and
universities are among over 900
private accredited two and four
year institutions across the coun
try which are sharing in Sears
Foundation funds, which may be
used as the colleges and univer
sities deem necessary.
Other Programs
In addition to its unrestricted
grant program, The Sears-
Roebuck Foundation each year
conducts a variety of other pro
grams in elementary, secondary
and higher education. Altogether,
the Foundation is providing ap
proximately $2.3 million nationally
for its 1984-85 education activities.
President Bruce E. Whitaker
commented, “In behalf of the
Board of Trustees and all of us who
are privileged to live and work on
this campus, I express our genuine
appreciation and sincere gratitude
for this gift. We commend The
Sears-Roebuck Foundation for its
support of privately supported col
leges and universities in North
Caorlina and across the nation.
“The support of independent
higher education by one of our na
tion’s largest corporations not only
helps to meet a great need, it helps
to preserve our free enterprise
system.”
I do appreciate the opportunity
to speak with our legislative
leaders about an issue as vital as
the continued colleges. These
church-founded and church-
related liberal arts institutions are
in the finest historical tradition of
this country. Independent colleges,
in the liberal arts tradition, have
been not only the cradle of liberty
and justice in America, they have
been the nurturing ground for that
liberty and justice.
These schools and the liberal
arts ideal have given us educated
people who know how to leam.
Modem business and industrial
leaders now tell educators to give
them not a finished skill product,
but individuals who know how to
leam and who appreciate the value
of learning. Modem technology
and information grow too rapidly
for a finished educational product
to be of much value. The ability to
leam more and to recognize that
need is far the more valuable
education than skills that may be
outdated by the time mastered.
As most of you know, I cherish
the public schools. As a former
teacher and principal there, and
having been a product of a public
university, I cherish and lift up the
contributions of publicly supported
institutions of higher education.
My background and my learning
make me know the contribution of
state-supported colleges and
universities to our democracy and
this is especially true in North
Carolina.
Yet, I am also the product of a
private institution and serve as a
private college trustee and as a
result of those experiences, and as
a taxpayer (aren’t we all?), I want
to lift up and recognize the
substantial service rendered in the
past and to be rendered in the
future by our independent colleges
in North Carolina—all 38 of them—
and I submit they deserve the ac
tive and significant sup|X)rt of not
only alumni and students, but of
the whole broad spectrum of the
community, including you as our
political leadership.
Further, I submit that on any
reasonable evalution scale our in
dependent schools should be grad
ed “A.”
First, independent colleges and
universities are autonomous.
Selected as they are outside the
political arena, the trustees of
these schools are not usully swept
up by the political whim of the mo
ment and can be a stablizing in
fluence in the general and,
especially, the educational com
munity. Yet, at the same time,
their very autonomy avoids the
danger of standardization of policy
and practice sometimes present in
the public sector.
Srcond, independent colleges of
fer an educational alternative
(another “A”) to tax-supported in
stitutions. After World War II the
ratio of public to private students
was about 50/50. Since then, the
percentage d private or indepen
dent students has dropped about
one percent per year. The drop has
not been quite that dramatic in
North Carolina. We have 44,394
full-time equivalent students in
North Carolina in our 38 indepen
dent schools. In the last four years,
we have lost a net of 837 students.
Just about one small college.
A healthy dual system of higher
education strengthens both the
public and the independent sectors
and is enlightened public policy.
Support for North Carolina’s in
dependent colleges is the wisest
possible investment of our educa
tional funds. Educational diversity
is too valuable a legacy to lose by
slow starvation.
Third, independent colleges offer
another “A”-accessibility to
leadership development. Classes
are small and taught by the pro
fessor who is committed to
teaching. Students are also offered
the opportunity to develop leader
ship styles and skills. By being ac
cessible to those students who will
benefit from this individuality, our
independent colleges contribute
more to the leadership potential of
this state (and nation) than can be
measured in dollars and cents.
Fourth, these small independent
colleges are adaptive. They have
is mutually beneficial to the tax
payers, the state and the colleges.
Our common goal is to provide
educational opportunities for the
ed about that concept. Curricular
experiments have been adopted
subsequently by tax-supported
schools. The pilot programs of the
independent schools have provided
a pattern of success for the tax-
supported schools and enable them
to avoid costly large-scale errors.
With primary economic
dependence still upon the private
sector, the independent schools re
main the most free enterprise in
our free enterprise system.
Fifth, independent colleges are
an economic advantage to North
Carolina. Employing thousands of
people and adding millions of
dollars to North Carolina’s
economy, the independent colleges
are a major industry in North
Carolina. TTiey, collectively and in
dividually are, in addition, a tax- '
payer’s bargain. If all these
students and those to come were :
enrolled at tax-supported schools, |
the costs would soar many times
beyond the grants that you have
provided. Increases in facility and
support services might not equal
the even-greater capital expen
ditures for new dorms and food
facilities. To provide grants _ to
North Carolina students at North
Carolina’s independent colleges at
a lower level than students from
out of North Carolina are subsidiz
ed at tax-supported universities is
not an over-burdening concept.
I truly rate our independent col
leges “A”- they are autonomous,
an alternative, accessible, adap
tive and an economic advantage,
and they need to be maintained
and enhanced by an enlighted
policy.
Strengthening independent
higher education in North Carolina
is mutually beneficial to the tax- ■
payers, the state and the colleges, j
Our common goal is to provide
educational opportunities for the
people of North Carolina and to
strenghten our democracy and the
fabric of our society. We continue
to need your help.
Memorial ,
scholarship |
established
A science scholarship fund has
been established in memory of
John Wesley Raymond, Sr., and
Major John Wesley Raymond, Jr.,
who was a Chowan alumnus. Class
of 1970.
Those wishing to make a dona
tion to the Raymond Scholarship
are asked to send their gifts
(payable to Cliowan College) to
Dr. Bruce E. Whitaker, President,
P.O. Drawer 37, Murfreesboro,
N.C. 27855.
John Wesley Raymond, Jr., also
graduated from the College of
William and Mary and the Medical
College of Virginia School of
Denistry.
Batchelor discusses solar
flares at Forum Lyceum
David A. Batchelor (B.S., MIT; Ph.D., UNC), Postdoc
toral Research Associate at John Hopkins’ Space Physics
Group, was guest speaker for the Chowan Forum Lyceum
in April. He discussed movies of solar flares taken with
NASA’s Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft.
Dr. Batchelor’s academic interests include X-ray and
microwave radiations from solar flares, plasma physics
theory, and general astro-physics. He has published ar
ticles in the Astronomical Journal, the Astrophysical Jour
nal, the Bulletin of the i^merican Astronomical Society,
and Medical Physics.
While he has ethereal interests and stellar
achievements, Dr. Batchelor has roots in Murfreesboro.
He is the son of Professor Betty N. Batchelor,
"Support for North Carolina's
independent college is the wisest
possible investment of our
educational funds. Educational
diversity is too valuable a
legacy to lose by s/ow starvation."
PAGE 2—The Chowanian, May-June, 1985