Education: The Final Arrow

George Stoddard, president of the University of Illinois, recently described his job to a reporter. "Archery," he said, "with me as the target." A top psychologist, onetime head of the University of the State of New York, and New York's Commissioner of Education, Pennsylvania-born George Stoddard made an impressive record in his seven years at Illinois—at least on the surface. Since 1946, the enrollment has doubled to nearly 23,000. Stoddard set up a new department of preventive medicine and public health, institutes of public affairs and labor relations. But he stuck his neck...