Struggle to Serve
This speech describes ECC's "struggle to serve" and gain university status.It was delivered by Leo Jenkins before American Association of University Professors, 8:00 Thursday evening, March 16, 1967, at Howell Hall, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This and other speeches may be found in the Chancellor's Records, Record Group CH1050, Series 2, Speech File in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: Jenkins, Leo W. Struggle to Serve, March 16, 1967.
When the invitation came to speak to the University of North Carolina Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, I was happy to accept. The reputation which Chapel Hill has so long and deservedly enjoyed of being willing to give a fair hearing to both sides of a question is being once again affirmed here this evening. I believe first of all that invitation represents an awareness of importance of the issues raised by East Carolina's request for separate university status and, secondly, a desire to hear East Carolina's case clearly stated.
I, of course, make no pretense of being disinterested. I am frankly proud of the service East Carolina College has rendered to this state and quite honestly hopeful that we will be allowed to play a greater role. I am also proud of our long and pleasant association with this university. Strong ties exist. Many of department chairman and professors are UNC graduates and I hope that you resent, as much as we do, the slanders against the competence of our faculty and the general and unwarranted indictments made by a irresponsible but powerful segment of the press. We have never doubted the competence of our faculty, including your graduates.
It is not our faculty alone, of course, which has suffered indictment. Every aspect of East Carolina College's academic life has been subjected to what can only be termed a vicious and sustained attack since November, 1965, when I spoke at North Carolina State University and first raised the issue of separate university status. Attempts -- both subtle and dramatic -- have been made tear down the public confidence in what has become one of the great educational institutions of this state. No college in North Carolina has been so thoroughly investigated, probed, discussed, visited, interviewed, and explored than has East Carolina. We have had commissions, boards, blue-ribbon committees, and subcommittees go through our records, visit our classes and library stacks, interview and question our staff, sound our morale, investigate our equipment, examine our morals, look over our buildings, audit our accounts, and probe our student body. Believe me, if East Carolina had something to hide, it has certainly been revealed by now. I am certain that many or you, having suffered from this type of attack yourselves, have recognized this viciousness on the part of some of our opposition.
I ask that you weigh carefully what I have to say this evening. Certainly, there is no group in North Carolina that we would rather have understand and appreciate our position more than the faculty of this great institution.
In May, 1966, the Board of Trustees of East Carolina College adopted a resolution which asked the North Carolina College Board of Higher Education to study the desirability of elevating East Carolina College to independent university status. The Board, after some delay, processed to appoint a "Blue Ribbon Committee" of outside experts to undertake the study. The objectives of that study were "to describe the college, to ascertain its effectiveness in discharging its presently defined mission, and to evaluate its readiness to undertake within the next few years the offering of doctoral work."
This report of the "Blue Ribbon" Committee is the one so long and eagerly awaited by both friends and foes of East Carolina's bid for independent university status. Many legislators have stated that their position on university status awaited the findings of this "Blue Ribbon" Committee. Finally, after much procrastination and much furor and excitement, the Board of Higher Education yesterday released the "Blue Ribbon" Committee's Report. That is to say, they released it after a fashion. More accurately, they buried it. For the report on which a legislature was depending, upon which and entire state waited with something akin to bated breath, and for which the taxpayers of North Carolina paid in direct and indirect costs in excess of $30,000 -- this report has now been buried as Appendix D in the last pages of Higher Education's "Report Desirability of Elevating East Carolina College to Independent Status." To get to the consultant's report, one must wade through 45 pages of statements by the Board of Higher Education, over 25 pages of tables, and 26 pages which make up Appendices A, B, and C. I can hardly help but wonder how prominently it would have been featured had it been damaging to our cause.
There can be little question that the "Blue Ribbon" Committee's Report has been buried. The only question is: Why? The answer is simple and quite plain. The "Blue Ribbon" Committee's Report is an affirmation of all that the partisans of East Carolina College have ever claimed for that school. It is in that sense overwhelmingly favorable for East Carolina. Those on the Board of Higher Education opposed to university status for East Carolina College must have recognized this at once, for in their report to the Govenor and General Assembly of North Carolina, they minimized and subordinated a report to opposite in its findings from that which they apparently expected to see.
The result has been that in their own arguments against granting East Carolina independent university status they have virtually ignored the "Blue Ribbon" Committee's Report. In only one area have they given emphasis to any part of this report and this is the statement that East Carolina is "not now prepared" to award the doctorate. Let me say now, and I may well repeat it several times during the evening -- and it is the same statement I have made several times since November, 1965 -- we were not ready to offer the doctorate now, tomorrow, next week, or next year. We have never claimed to be ready to offer the doctorate immediately. We have claimed that we have built educationally sound undergraduate and graduate programs upon which doctoral programs in one or two areas could be developed within a few years. The consultants were clearly aware of our position on this matter. They themselves stated ". . . it is an element of strength that both the administration and the faculty of the university (sic) recognize that many improvements and substantial augmentation of resources are clearly necessary if academically sound graduate education at the doctoral level is to e established at East Carolina College."
The case for East Carolina can be stated quite easily. The college feels that it has achieved success in developing its academic program and that is has reached the maximum level of service it can achieve as a college. If East Carolina is to achieve a greater degree of service and offer broader opportunities to the people of North Carolina, the General Assembly must broaden its scope by elevating it to university status.
I have just stated that "the college" feels it has been successful in developingits academic program and providing service. What does the "Blue Ribbon" Committee say? It says this in its final summary: "It is the committee's opinion that East Carolina College is discharging with effectiveness its undergraduate teaching mission . . . the committee believes the institution is serving its undergraduate students in a manner consistent with the tradition of quality in higher education to which the state has historically aspired."
This is a description of East Carolina College reached by a committee of eminently qualified outsiders without political axes of any type to grind. I hope that you as fellow educators can sense the pride with which we read this statement at East Carolina College. As I stated a moment ago, we have been subjectedin the past several months to unparalleled derision and abuse even from papers that have fed for years upon the region whose youth we have most diligently sought to serve. We now offer this report as Exhibit A in the case for East Carolina College.
The college believes that it has a number of schools and departments capable of developing doctoral programs over the next several years. What does the "Blue Ribbon" Committee have to say about a number of our larger and stronger departments? It has this to say:
"The Department of History . . . is now providing a quite adequate program at both the baccalaureate and master's level, the latter being better than average for such programs in American colleges and universities."
"With the possible exception of history, the Department of English probably has the soundest base laid for upward expansion to the doctorate."
And again the report has this to say: "In summary, the School of Education appears to be adequately staffed and equipped to discharge its present responsibilities and is doing so in an entirely adequate fashion. This provides a basis for further growth to the Specialist and Doctor of Education degrees."
In referring to the School of Business, the report goes to say: "There is no reason to believe that given additional maturity and resources the School could not aspire to still further development of graduate work with perhaps a Doctor of Business Administration degree or a Ph.D. in Economics as ultimate objectives."
In referring to the School of Music, the report stated: "It offers currently what has been historically regarded as a culmination degree in the field and appears to be doing its total function in a fashion which would be regarded by many universities as appropriate for a department of music in a university structure. The Department has plans for further development and aspires to expand its offerings both into other areas of music and upward to a sixth year and finally a Doctor of Musical Arts Program. With the kind of base which has been laid at the present time such aspirations are not entirely unrealistic provided the total development of the institution keeps pace with the rapid development in this particular discipline.
The report was no less specific when discussing the School of Art which it declared:"mounts one of the largest and one of the most vigorous programs of its kind in the Southeast. It clearly has attained a regional and even to some extent a national reputation and is rapidly moving to consolidate its position. It has relatively ambitious programs for future growth with hopes to offer the doctorate in Art Education at such time as additional space becomes available to it followed by a Doctor of Fine Arts and an ultimate development of the Ph.D. in Art History. It appears that an adequate foundation has been laid in this particular area."
I offer these statements as Exhibit B in the case for East Carolina College. I shall readily admit that these are from the reports on some of our larger departments and schools but these are naturally the ones we shall turn to first in developing our doctoral programs. Your own institution here did not begin with a doctoral program in each department or school. These were added as your schools and departments developed their facilities, curricula, and library holdings to the point that they were able to sustain a doctoral program. I can assure you that this the same approach we envision for East Carolina.
Let us leave the buried report of the "Blue Ribbon" Committee back there in Appendix D somewhere (though I assure you that I shall not leave it there long) and look for a moment at the Board of Higher Education's portion of the report to the Governor and Assembly. There is one sentence of that report which I wish to bring particularly to your attention. This is the sentence: "At the Charlotte campus a strong undergraduate base is being built preliminary to the introduction of master's and ultimately of doctoral level offerings." May I repeat that? A strong undergraduate base is being built. I need not remind you that they are talking about the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Compare this statement taken from the just released report of the Board of Higher Education with what you have just heard from the "Blue Ribbon" Committee about East Carolina College. We do not begrudge the University at Charlotte its aspirations, but I ask you to consider -- fairly and honestly -- if a double standard has or has not been applied in considering East Carolina College's aspirations. I offer this obvious unfairness as Exhibit C in the case of East Carolina College.
One of the points which the Board of Higher Education attempts to make in its portion of the report is that the creation of a university will require funds beyond what is presently expanded. This has never been doubted. In fact , when the subject of university status for East Carolina was first proposed, I said that I would be less than candid if I did not state that there would be additional costs. The Board of Higher Learning is attempting to drag the red herring of overwhelming costs across the trail. No institution has been able to provide more education for more people more economically than East Carolina. May I remind you that the "Blue Ribbon" Committee reported that East Carolina provides quality education. We make no apology for striving for quality with economy.
Before leaving this point of cost, it night be interesting to at least raise the question whether it would not be much cheaper to convert East Carolina College into a fully developed university than, say the institutions at Charlotte and Greensboro. We have a higher percentage of our faculty with earned doctorates, we have more books in our library, we have more students than those two campuses combined -- and the "Blue Ribbon" Committee says we already have laid a sound base on which doctoral programs can be built.
We think that every institution in the state should develop along its most natural lines, that no one institution or group of institutions should be developed at the expense of others, especially when these others can be developed more economically. We maintain that it is unwise to develop campuses to the university merely because they are already a part of the university and to ignore other institutions even when they can be developed at less cost to the taxpayer. We think that North Carolinians deserve the best utilization of their educational investments, and our proposal is motivated in large part by this belief.
Another obvious attempt to slant the report occurs when the Board discusses the trends in other states to create regional universities, and not even the Board denies that such a trend exists. Of course, as the Board with great fanfare points out, some states have made their state colleges into universities without significantly broadening their functions, but the report of the Board of Higher Education grows silent and ails entirely mention that in other states, such as institutions have with great success been given considerably expanded functions. The report fails even to mention Illinois, although the chairman of the "Blue Ribbon" Committee that the Board itself sent to East Carolina College is from that state and is vice president for academic affairs for Southern Illinois University, a school that was once a normal school and which has developed, as this audience is well aware, into a major university of strength. The report of the Board of Higher Education fails to mention that in such states as Florida, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Ohio states have been made into quality universities to the great advantage of the educational systems of states concerned. By failing to mention these states, one would almost assume that the Board of Higher Education has deliberately sought to mislead.
Educational programs are not the only matters of concern for institutions of higher learning in this or any other state. Service is another, and we at East Carolina have maintained all along that a university in Eastern North Carolina will be able to provide services to the area that no other kind of institution can. A university provides an atmosphere which enhances the capability of the region in which it is located to develop economically and culturally. It is the existence of a university that creates a climate attractive to business firms employing highly educated and therefore highly paid persons. Such persons refuse to live and work in areas which do not provide for them and for their families complete and rewarding educational opportunities, for such people want not merely to live by to live well, and they want opportunities for their children. Thus, in a way that no other institution can, East Carolina as a university will enhance the environment of Eastern North Carolina, making it more attractive to firms which can substantially contribute to the development of this region directly and the whole state indirectly.
Surprisingly, the report of the Board of Higher Education does not attach a great deal of importance to the service function of a university. In direct contrast, the consultants attached much importance to the service function of a university in the region and they were impressed with the work already being done by East Carolina. Let me quote only one of their comments:
"It is the distinct impression of this committee that the institution is most fortunate in its relationships to the people of the region that is aspire to serve. There seems to be little evidence of town-grown friction in the city of Greenville. On the contrary, the city has participated in several joint ventures with the college to make available facilities used jointly by the institution and by the citizens of the city. The committee has the distinct impression that to some degree at least the college has become the symbol for the people of the region in their efforts to improve their economic position. There seems little question but that its presence has contributed materially to them 'awakening' which appears to have occurred in the last fifteen years in the coastal plain area."
Eastern North Carolina has failed to share in the general prosperity which has come to the rest of the state. A dynamic university located in the heart of the region offers opportunity had leadership to the region. This is not idle fancy. Can you conceive of a Research Triangle without the splendid universities at Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham? Service then, is another vital issue which the Board of Higher Education seems to have ignored; yet it is a very important issue, for public educational institutions exist for the sale of the public. Quality education includes teaching, research, and service; and this is our goal.
May I turn now to speak frankly on an issue which is, I am certain, at the heart of much of the opposition to awarding separate university status to East Carolina College. This is the concern of the professors, alumni, and friends of the institution and those of the other campuses of the ConsolidatedUniversity that the granting of separate university status to East Carolina will in some way hurt the growth, development, or influence of their own institutions. This has been the single most frustrating problem East Carolina has faced in its fight for university status. This concern, or fear, or the welfare of the established universities has a number of sides to it. Unquestionably, the matter of money is involved. There is, I assure you, no real cause for alarm. We shall require, it is true, some additional funds for library expansion, research, and additional personnel through the years. But East Carolina is not a half-cleared field -- we have a faculty of 450 dedicated professors, a library of nearly a third of a million volumes, a physical plant of 48 buildings, and a student body which will reach nearly 10,000 this fall. We have no intention of burning our buildings, destroying or library, and driving our faculty away and stating over again. There will be some stepped up requests in the areas I have just noted, but that is all. This is at the heart of the point we have desperately tried to make again and again. We have reached that plateau where we can logically without great new expense to the state or without disturbing any of the board educational programs already underway in North Carolina move quietly, efficiently, and if you will, economically into a university program at East Carolina.
There is also an apparent fear or concern on the part of the friends of this great university that the creation of a separate university at Greenville will in some way damage the image of the University of North Carolina or lower its prestige in some way. I sincerely believe these fears are groundless. I do not think that it can be seriously maintained that the elevation of East Carolina College to regional university status will damage the already renowned University of North Carolina. Regional universities have not destroyed the University of Illinois, nor hindered its quality. Regional universities have not destroyed the University of Michigan, nor hindered its quality. We do not see why the elevation of East CarolinaCollege to regional university status should destroy or degrade the University of North Carolina. We are all acquainted with the story of the emergence of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from a rather small liberal arts college, which it was the turn of the century, into a dynamic modern university.We at East Carolina seek simply the opportunity to carry out a similar transformation. We may not be as successful, as was this University, but what we seek is the opportunity to try.
We cannot believe and we do not feel that you believe that the development of another strong university would hurt the cause of higher education in North Carolina. The period of Duke University's rise (and duke is only fifteen minutes from this campus) has corresponded to the period of the greatest development of this institution. Its development has not hurt your institution. Indeed its presence has if anything strengthened your university. We do not believe that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the truly major universities, need have any fear that East Carolina will hurt its interests.
I cannot close this evening without coming directly to grips with the major point the Board of Higher Education made yesterday -- the matter to which they give the greatest attention, the matter to which they devote page after wearisome page of charts and tables and explanations. These are designed to show and prove that North Carolina needs only a certain number of trained, professional people over the next ten years and that the university with private institutions of higher education will be able to meet these needs.
In a state where so distressingly few of its students go to college it constitutes a gall beyond all accounting for any individual, agency, board or commission to dare to say that North Carolina needs only this for that particular number of trained, educated young men and women. In a state desperately in need of every trained mind it can recruit, we are now told by the Board of Higher Education that our needs are limited. Perhaps it has forgotten the purpose for which it was created.
The Board of Higher Education chose the Committee to study our readiness for elevation to university status. Prior to receipt of this study, the spokesman of the Board went to great lengths to extol the quality of these distinguished great men. The people of North Carolina were told that these men would know a university when they saw one -- that they needed no set of criteria. The people of this State have been led to believe that the report by the consultants would, once and for all, confirm the slanderous newspaper editorials, the vicious public speeches, and the smokescreen efforts to discredit our cause. Many legislators, quite correctly, have avoided taking a stand until the report by the Board of Higher Education -- which is supposed to have been an accurate appraisal of the consultant's report -- was in hand.
The Board's report has been made; but the people of this state, and the members of the General Assembly, will have to read more than the report if they are to learn what the consultants really thought of East Carolina College. In fact, I would like to suggest that the legislators read the consultant's report -- way back in Appendix D -- before they read the report by the Board of Higher Education.
May I close with this statement by the consultants:
"It is the committee's opinion that any plan (for development . . . of the entire system of higher education in the State of North Carolina) would assign to East Carolina College a major role in higher education in the State and that the institution would discharge its new responsibilities whatever they might be with the same vigor and dedication that has marked its efforts in the recent past."
