Duke Attacked on Education

The former president of the Massachusetts state university system has circulated a letter to leaders in higher education charging that Gov. Michael S. Dukakis never "provided more than lip-service support for education."

"In the field of education--as in that of economic development--Michael Dukakis claims credit for accomplishments that others have brought about," Robert C. Wood wrote in his letter, which was sent to educators in Massachusetts and Connecticut. "It is the Massachusetts legislature that has fought to preserve fiscal and institutional autonomy for higher education, not the Governor," he added.

Wood was president of the UMass system from 1970 to 1978, and he worked with Dukakis during the governor's first term in office.

Wood, who now teaches at Wesleyan University, said yesterday that he wrote the letter because other professors asked him about Dukakis's record in higher education.

"They had been under the impression that he had been in the forefront of higher education," said Wood. "That impression was factually wrong."

Robert B. Schwartz, education adviser to Governor Dukakis, called the letter "absolutely a personal vendetta." He said Wood and Dukakis were long-standing opponents, and "it was a Dukakis majority on the Board of Trustees that forced Wood to resign his position."

Supporters of the governor said his record shows that the letter was innaccurate. "My analysis since I've been here indicates that those things [in the letter] are not true," Franklin G. Jenifer, chancellor of the Board of Regents, told the Chronicle of Higher Education last week.

Massachusetts was ranked 40th in the country for per capita student spending in 1977. The state is now ranked 10th, Schwartz said.

Schwartz said the state's financial aid program has increased by $34 million, and that faculty salaries, once below the national average for the country, are now in the top fifth.

These changes in policy towards public institutions do not directly affect Harvard, said Schwartz. But he said John P. Shattuck, Harvard's vice president for government and political affairs, is one of several college leaders disagreeing with the letter. Shattuck could not be reached for comment.

In his letter, Wood referred to a 1986 interview in which Dukakis told The Boston Globe that Massachusetts' public colleges should not try to compete with the state's private institutions.

"We aren't California. We're not Texas and we're not Michigan. We're a different state," said the governor in that interview. "We do happen to have some of the finest institutions in the world. And I don't think it makes sense for us to duplicate that."

Jack Hoy, president of the New England Board of Higher Education, described Dukakis' record as "remarkable." He said that before 1978, the state had little revenue to devote to public institutions, and that Wood's letter was drawn from his experiences before 1978.

"I think that Wood is factually inaccurate," said Hoy, adding that Massachusetts ranks first in ten year improvement gain in higher education for the decade 1977 to 1987.

"It's clear that in Massachusetts the legislature, not the governor, has made improvements in public higher education," said Wood. He said part of the three-and-a-half-page letter included research he had done this year that showed the legislature had been far more supportive of higher education than the governor.

"The governor had to sign the bill," said Hoy. "If he had not supported all improvements, they would not have been instated."

But Oswald Tippo, former chancellor and provost of UMASS/Amherst, said he believed the letter to be accurate. "Dukakis has a wretched record as far as public institutions are concerned," he said. Tippo said he thought many of Dukakis' opponents would be reluctant to speak out because, "they have to go to the governor for their budgets."

Although Wood said he hoped his reputation would "make people take me seriously," opponents said his letter was unlikely to influence the Dukakis campaign. Hoy said Dukakis is "in an unassailable position vis-a-vis the record," and added that he did not think Wood's letter would influence the campaign.