Evening star., 1933-03-26
BY ALVIN C. BUSSE.

TT is estimated that parents spent
1920 900 ,0C0 as tuition fees and
living expenses Of students enrolled
i this year In colleges and univer-
sites in the United States. There
were enrolled this year in institutions
of higher learning, according to a
careful survey, approximately $4,000
students.
In addition to the money spent
directly by parents for the education OF
their sons and daughters, there must
be added the income from the endow-
ments of these institutions large sum.
It is only reasonable to ask If the
investment of this sum of money IS
returning xsximum benefits. 1t Is
scarcely debatable anywhere that the
student himself Is directly benefited.
But is the family directly benefited?
I have been in very intimate contact
with students for IL years and have
been left with definite conviction that
the direct benefits to the family are
negligible. It may be unkind, though
honest, to say that son or daughter
in college brings to the family as its
chief direct benefit, the privilege Of
saying: "Meet John, our boy, who goes
family to attach to itself rather vague
Advocates New Philosophy.
If that s92o,0OO,00o is to return to
its investors the greatest good, 1t seems
obvious that the institutions Of higher
learning, the students enrolled in them
and the families Of the students must
unite to establish a new philosophy
regarding their relationship. The pres
eat gap between the educatio---al in
st,tutions and the family unit must be
le;sened.
That the student on leaving college
to return to his home closes the door
on one world and opens the door OF
another is especially true Of the met
ropolitan student who Lives at home. f"
1t seems likewise to be true of the STU
dent in other sections Of the country
the student who returns to his home
periodically. There exists no ingrained
custom of bringing the university into
the home; of extending the benefits CT
education to the family as a unit; Of
interpreting to the family at home
those new truths regarding our chang
ing world which would be most helpful
to them.
Consider the nature Of the univer-
sity. 1t is an institution dedicated to
the discovery and Interpretation OF
truth in all of its various aspects. In
theiI scope no other institutions crc>S
so many boundaries, leap so many bar
riers. override so much prejudice. offer
so much insight, yet remain so dill
gent in loyalty to truth. Universities
constitute the source books for human
kind. In their libraries are recorded
all the lessons of history. On their
faculties we find authoritative inter-
prefers and commentators on every
worthwhile endeavor of the human
our youth 60 for learning.
Extension Would Help Society.
1t would be helpful to society gen.
orally, and to the family specifically.
if the direct benefits of the university
could be extended to the family until
behind the university student. Our ed
ucational economy would be much in
creased.
But the average student today Is not
bringing the university into the home
The average family, it is true, Is max
ing no request Of him that he bring
it into the home. The family seems
generally satisfied with the label it re-
ceives through his enrolment in college
and, If greatly interested in his welfare
there, confines its interest largely to his
academic welfare as interpreted in the
grades he receives.
What does the student bring home
from college?
The dinner hour potentially the most
profitable family hour Of the day and
the one most woefully misused) is like
ly to reveal that SO far as Johns day
at the university was concerned he is
now a Pledge of the best" fraternity
a likely prospect for the glee club, the
debating team, the French club. and
so on in comparatively unimportant de-
tail. He may have learned the same
day that the Government was running
into debt and that a proposed tax bill