Colleges: The Growing Importance of Ike U.

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"They Want to Learn." As it happened, McGrath had been thinking for a long time about settling down at a small, undergraduate liberal arts college. He was interested, too, in the college kids of today who, he contends, are justifiably in revolt against the "facelessness and anonymity" of undergraduate life in the sprawling, ever-growing universities. "No generation has been more dedicated, more intellectually stimulated," he says. "They want to learn—and they will learn if you pay attention to them. Eisenhower College is the place for this."

With McGrath's help, the college committee members raised another $73,000, contributed $27,000 of their own. They took that news to Johns Hopkins University President Milton Eisenhower. He told them: "I'm calling my brother tonight and telling him to give you the green light." By this time, Ike was ready to encourage the project. Skinner and Rosenkrans got the Presbyterian Synod of New York to approve a loose affiliation with the school, largely for the sake of fund raising. A 265-acre alfalfa field along Lake Cayuga was selected as the site, architects were hired to plan two classroom buildings and three dormitories. Tuition and board were pegged at $1,000 for each 14-week trimester, $600 for commuting students, and the officials set a goal of 1,000 students overall by 1971. Dr. W. Robert Bokelman, head of the business section of the U.S. Office of Education, was lured away to become the new college's Vice President for Planning and Development.

The Top Third. To get a charter from the New York State Department of Education, the committee had to raise at least $500,000. By last January, 2,200 contributors—mainly from the sparsely populated Seneca Falls area—had donated more than $1,000,000.

McGrath meanwhile formulated his plans. He hopes to draw students from roughly the top third of high school classes rather than from the top 10% as many select schools do. His own high school grades were below average, yet he made Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Buffalo. "This country," he says emphatically, "was not built by the upper 10%." Full professors will be paid an average $15,000 a year, get 20 paid weeks off every third year. The curriculum will be pared to a relatively small number of liberal-arts courses to enable students to get a comprehensive view of their subject matter. "We will not be doctrinaire," adds McGrath, "but we are going to teach moral and spiritual values."

These and other plans should be in shape by the fall of 1967, when Eisenhower College will get its first freshman class. Said Ike at last week's ceremonies: "I can't tell you how proud I feel."