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In Memoriam: Herbert Wiley Vaughan

I share your commitment to academic freedom and excellence in education. I wish to help you support high academic standards, ensuring that serious scholarship remains a top priority at our nation's colleges and universities. Through alumni involvement, we can work together to see that future generations are able to engage in free academic debate and the pursuit of truth.

With that pledge, in 1995, Herbert Wiley Vaughan, "Wiley" to his friends, became one of ACTA's first supporters. From that point, there was no looking back. Wiley and ACTA became a team - in a campaign that has grown stronger, thanks to Wiley's extraordinary counsel and support. Wiley was a supporter - yes. But he was so much more. He and his wife - a talented artist - brought energy, creativity, and thoughtfulness to their work and their avocations.

First, as an ACTA charter member, then as a founding member of our distinguished donor societies, and a leader of ACTA's Donors Working Group, Wiley set the example for ACTA's abiding philosophy: identify a problem and take action to solve it. That's why, after Yale refused to establish a Western Civilization program funded by Lee Bass, Wiley believed it essential to show donors how they could exert a beneficial influence on some of the disturbing trends in higher education. Thanks to Wiley and others, ACTA created the Fund for Academic Renewal to provide "micro" advice for donors, and followed up with a publication to help donors target their gifts, The Intelligent Donor's Guide to College Giving.

How appropriate, then, that in our second edition, published more than a decade after our first meeting, we showcased Wiley - whose intelligent giving and visionary plans have incomparably contributed to the restoration of academic excellence on our campuses.

Herbert Wiley Vaughan supports higher education in a variety of ways, and his gifts offer an example of intelligent giving. Before making his first gift, Vaughan consulted a "faculty friend" - a former associate who was on the Princeton faculty. The professor pointed out that many senior scholars, who were steeped in traditional learning and were remarkable for their intellectual integrity and commitment to students, are retiring. This unfortunate fact is coupled with the reality that most new support often goes to professors who are caught up in the intellectual fashions of the moment. As a result of this understanding, Vaughan established a trust to support younger scholars who take more traditional approaches. This trust will ensure that the best academic traditions continue in the next generation.

In 2007, Vaughan noticed another need in higher education - a deeper understanding of the founding principles and core doctrines of our system of government. He gave his alma mater, Harvard Law School, another gift. This time, his donation instituted a new program, called the Herbert W. Vaughan Lecture Series, which invites intellectuals and public figures every other year to discuss the U.S. Constitution and its doctrines. United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the inaugural lecture in this series, addressing a packed house on the topic of originalism in constitutional law.

Two aspects of Vaughan's latest gift make it especially noteworthy. First, it is a two-pronged program. In the years when the lectures are not held, Vaughan's gift funds an academic activity sponsored by the Federalist Society chapter. Because both Harvard Law School and the Federalist Society are regularly called upon to oversee the designated programs, they must stay focused on the continuing applications of the restricted gift. Second, Vaughan stipulated in his gift agreement that a statement outlining his reasons for funding the lectures must be read before each lecture. Requiring this statement each year will help both the school and the audience focus on Vaughn's intent. Vaughan used these two mechanisms to ensure that his intent would be followed when he gave this gift. Because of Vaughan's dedication to intelligent giving, students at Harvard Law School now hear and engage perspectives outside the classroom that enhance what they learn inside it. ACTA has lost a great friend - Herbert Wiley Vaughan - an inspiration and supporter from the very start. A charter member of the Society of Fellows and the Donors Working Group, Wiley shared ACTA's interest in quality education and adherence to donor intent.

Time and time again, Wiley came to the front lines in ACTA's fight for academic freedom and excellence. And in all cases, he modeled seriousness of purpose, professionalism, good judgment, and gentlemanliness. ACTA benefited from Wiley's friendship and wise counsel. Wiley, in every way, embodied fine character, great achievement and high public purpose. All of us who believe in quality education and the robust exchange of ideas are in Wiley's debt. We have lost a great champion of quality higher education and a good friend.

Anne D. Neal

Posted by Anne D. Neal on January 17, 2012 at 10:05 AM | TrackBack

Wishful Thinking (At Best) on Civic Engagement

The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is working hard to promote civic engagement in college. But AAC&U seems to undervalue the great prerequisite of informed citizenship, namely civic knowledge. AAC&U avoids the self-evident necessity of a required course that focuses on understanding American civic institutions.

"Knowledge is important, but it is equally important to work on public problems that help democracy," said Carol Schneider, the AAC&U president, thus undercutting a crucial part of her agenda. AAC&U makes a "clarion call," and gets organizations to "pledg[e] to take civic learning to another level," and encourages colleges to make it "an integral component" in college study.

But the rhetoric runs the danger of ultimately signifying nothing. In contrast to AAC&U, some schools went right to the core to ensure knowledge of our nation and its institutions of government. Hunter College, for example, requires a course that "introduces portions of the history of the United States covering periods of time sufficiently long to reveal the historical dynamic and bring understanding of the historical contexts that have created our social and political institutions."

Indeed a few states, such as Texas, Georgia, and Nevada established such requirements in statute. Sadly, however, ACTA's study of core requirements at over 1000 colleges and universities reveals that only 20% now require a foundational course in American history or American institutions of government. The rest either have no requirement that specifically address American history or have a distributional requirement so broad as to be meaningless, something like "America on Film: Performance and Culture" or "Country Music" or "Jazz."

Instead of holding national conferences on civic engagement, AAC&U could do immensely more good for civic literacy by encouraging the AAC&U membership, in the clearest of terms, to walk the walk of civic literacy. Make it a required course. Simply require it.

Posted by dburnett on January 10, 2012 at 03:25 PM | TrackBack

Students don't need to rethink their major -- colleges need to rethink their curriculum requirements

A new report from the Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce reminds us that some college majors have better employment prospects than others. This is a useful admonition for those struggling to meet ever-rising tuition costs and cold comfort for those with high student loan debts and no job.

The choice of major is important and college trustees should make sound choices about which academic programs deserve funding and which ones should be discontinued. But the Georgetown Center's advice is incomplete: core collegiate requirements are also crucial for employment, to say nothing of citizenship. Employers have long been complaining that many graduates of both two and four year institutions have poor writing skills and lack many other characteristics of excellence that they want to see. They note the growing need for other core skills, including foreign language.

For the rest of the explanation of why college graduates, even in a recession, are having a harder time finding jobs than they should, turn to Academically Adrift by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. When 36% of the graduates of the class of 2009 show - at most - minimal growth in such core collegiate skills as critical reasoning and expository writing, are we surprised that they don't find jobs?

ACTA's core curriculum project, www.whatwilltheylearn.com gives the rest of the explanation for why our costly higher education system serves the interests of students and the economy so poorly. Of seven key subjects that every student needs, regardless of major - mathematics, natural science, expository writing, foreign language, literature, American history or government, and basic economics - 61% of our colleges and universities require three or less, and 29% require between zero and two. Whether the student majored in engineering, architecture, or comparative literature, an education without a solid core, even from a prestigious institution, runs the danger of being a very expensive junk bond.

-Michael Poliakoff
Vice President of Policy

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What are your thoughts? Email your comments to info@goacta.org.

Posted by dburnett on January 04, 2012 at 05:18 PM | TrackBack

In Memoriam - Rynn Berry, Yale Class of 1937

Today ACTA fondly remembers Rynn Berry, one of our first advisors and supporters. Mr. Berry passed away on Dec. 20.

A 1937 graduate of Yale College and 1941 graduate of Yale Law School, Mr. Berry epitomized the engaged and thoughtful alumnus, serving as the secretary of the Yale Class of 1937 for more than three decades. But Rynn's affection for his alma mater was not unquestioning. Indeed, he subscribed to the notion articulated by philosopher and professor Charles Anderson that: "The graduates of the university are members of the guild ... [T]hey are competent to participate, as citizens, in its affairs." And participate, Rynn did.

Over the years, Rynn worked to enhance and expand Yale's exemplary Directed Studies program. He sought adherence to donor intent - a matter close to his heart after Yale's return of $20 million to Lee Bass, the son of a beloved classmate. He was also profoundly interested in the return of ROTC to Yale and pleased to gather support from former president George H.W. Bush and the late Sargent Shriver - who were also Yale alumni.

Rynn was a dedicated supporter of excellence - in academics as well as sports. But more than that, he was a gentleman and a dear friend. His enthusiasm for education and support for ACTA's mission will continue to motivate us. Cheers!

Anne D. Neal

Posted by Anne D. Neal on January 03, 2012 at 02:36 PM | TrackBack