The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-05
JUNIOR COLLEGE FOR ALASKA IS
 SUGGESTED NOW
Com m issioner Henderson Favors 1t to Supplement
 High School Work

The establishment of a junior college system in Alaska as a so- lution to the Territory's higher education problems was recom- mended by L. D. Henderson, Com missioner of Education. in talk made to the local Parent-Teacher Association last night. Speaking in the auditorium of the new High School Building he declared that this latest addition to Juneau's educational plants could be easily and inexpensively utilized for jun for college work.
 MT. Henderson quoted figures showing that heavy majority of Alaskan high school graduates who enter college following the com pletion of their high school courses, now leave the Territory for insti- tutions in the States, and that only so per cent of those graduated en- roll in colleges and universities.
 Need For Improvement
 Some means of keeping gradu- ates in the Territory during the continuation of their education in college and of increasing the num- Der of graduates who pursue their studies in such institutions must be found, he declared. He is confident that the junior college system will prove the most practi- cal and efficient method
 Out of the 2S5 graduates of Alas kan high schools who have entered colleges in the past seven years, all except IS have gone 10 insti- tutions located outside of the Ter ritory. In other words, 73 per cent have attended schools in the States and 23 per cent have en- rolled in the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines.
 One or two junior colleges To- cated at strategic points should result in keeping a majority of students, which the Territory is now losing, for at least a two-year period and ultimately turning them 10 the Alaska College, particularly if the courses of study and work offered are so arranged as to lead directly to those offered by the college.
 Urges Proper Location
 MT. Henderson emphasized the need for locating the junior colleg- es at points in the Territory where the greatest number of students would be served, regardless of any feeling of sectionalism. In the past history of education he point cd out, there have been too many instances where political consid- erations have determined the To- cation of higher institutions of learning to the detriment of those for whom they were established.
 The modern method now coming into vogue is to locate them where they will be available to the larg- est number of people for whom they are created. They are being brought to the students for req sons of both economy and eff. ciency.
 Factors Are Noted
 MT. Henderson noted seyera factors that should govern in ee leeting locations for junior col leges. First to be considered wal the trend in population growth He called attention to the fact thal for several years this trend hat been toward Southeastern Alaska Second was commercial develop ment as d possible indication O. future population trend. A study of commercial growth in the Tel ritory reveals that the mining fishing and numbering and alliet industries. forming the baekbon, of Alaska's industrial structure have developed more largely il Southeastern Alaska in reeen years than anywhere else
 WdS lnt II school population which almos always follows the population trend. A review of Alaska's sehoo enrolment figures, he added showed that such has been tn, case here. Of particular i'm portance is the high school en lollment since they are the prin cipal. feeders of the higher insti tutions. In the school year 1927 2S. high school in Southeaster Alaska had 62 per cent of the to tal enrolment, the Second Divisio had two per cent, the Third 2 and the Fourth 12 per cent.
 For the last seven-year perio inc First Division had 60 the Sec ond three, the Third 20, and tn Fourth IF per cent.
 In s. E. Alaska First
 Based on these factors, said NJ X Henderson, the conclusion is il eyitahle that junior colleges shoul be first established in Southeaster Alaska in towns of sufficient sig 10 insure enrolment of suffieien strength to insure economic opera
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