Carnegie Foundation Names Pusey, Riesman to Ed Study Commission

President Pusey and David Riesman '31, Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences, will serve with six college presidents and a former governor on a commission to study the future structure and function of American higher education.

Clark Kerr, former president of the University of California, will head the commission. Riesman said yesterday that he has known Kerr for about ten years. "Kerr is a man whom I share a good deal in trying to understand the operations of large institutions of higher education," he noted.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which is financing the study, announced the appointments Wednesday. An earlier Carnegie study of secondary education, which was headed by former Harvard president, James B. Conant '14, spurred several improvements in high schools throughout the country. This new study entitled "The Carnegie Study of Higher Education," is expected to be similar in its scope and eventual effect.

Kerr said that the commission will study such questions as what percentage of high school students go to college, how many higher education institutions of all types will be needed in the future, and how the needed schools will be financed.

Barrier Busting

One proposal Riesman hopes the commission will consider is the elimination of barriers to students who want to attend college outside their home states.

"There are two types of these barriers: state universities' high tuition for out-of-state students, and their selectivity with regard to college board scores of those prospective students," he said. "We are a national society, and I don't think these barriers should exist," he added.

Riesman's suggestion is for a new federal law which would allow a student to attend college in any state. "That's just a personal view, though," he said. "I don't know what is politically, educationally, and financially feasible. I hope to be learning from this study, too," Riesman added.

"Matchmaking" of students and schools is another topic he wants the commission to discuss. "We will probably consider the problems of students who are unable to attend college at all. But what is also important is that many people who are in college are deprived," he said.

"Either they go to poor quality schools or they go to schools which are supposed to be good but which are the wrong kinds of colleges for them," he explained.

Riesman expects the study to be completed in about five years.