KALAMAZOO ~~~~9uJn:J COLLEGE GI61 ALUMNUS SUMMER QUARTER 1963 The Ford Foundation Grant EXCERPTS FROM COLLEGE REPORT TO FOUNDATION KALAMAZOO DODD DODD DODD DODD COLLEGE G6 ALUMNUS SUMMER QUARTER 1963 Vol XXV August, 1963 No.3 CONTENTS The Ford Foundation Grant 2 The Story of the Ford Grant as told by President Weimer K. Hicks 3 Data and Assumptions 6 Plant Development of the 1952-62 Decade 7 Plant Priorities and Plans for the 1963-73 Decade 8 Academic Goals and Priorities for the Next Decade 9 Products of a New Program 10 The Commencement Weekend 12 Washington in Spring- the Career Quarter of Michael Boyle '65 14 Armchair Adventures and Foreign Travel 17 Alumni Seminars on New Ideas 18 Quarterly Review 18 THE NEW COVER The Kalamazoo College Alumnus will continue to carry the symbol designed by Stephen Monroe of Sequoia Press, representing the new educational program at Kalamazoo College. The elements in the design include suggestions of the four-quarter plan, the on-campus program, and the off­ campus quarters of career and service and of foreign study. PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS President Hicks, the Tennis Field House- Douglas Lyttle; Upton Hall, Commencement photos - CPI; seniors, Mrs. Johnson- Schiavone; Washington photos- Harris and Ewing, and courtesy of Kalamazoo Gazette; 1913 class - Gazette; trophy - WKZO. MARILYN HINKLE, '44, Editor ALUMNI OFFICERS: Charles E. Garrett '42, President; Richard A. Lemmer '41, Vice President; Ruth Schlobohm Anderson '36, Secretary. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Robert Aldrich '33; Lucille Hallock Brenner '29; Maynard M. Conrad '36; Ward McCartney '45; Marshall H. Rutz '34; Marion Hall Starbuck '45; Marilyn Sharp Wetherbee'46. OTHER EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS: Richard A. Walker '42, Alumni-Trustee; Morlan J. Grandbois '33, Alumni-Trustee; Lois Stutz­ man Harvey '29, Alumni-Trustee; Glen C. Smith '41, K-Club President; W. Harry Rapley '38, Kalamazoo President; Kenneth H. Krum '45, Vice President. A quarterly publication of Kalamazoo Coilege, Kalamazoo, Michigan, issued in February, May, August, and November. Member, American Alumni Council. Subscription rate: One doilar per year. Second class postage paid at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Return postage guaranteed. The Ford Foundation Grant "DEAR PRESIDENT HICKS, "I am pleased to advise you that the Ford Foundation has approved a grant of $2,200,000 to Kalamazoo Col­ lege for general support. This grant is being made ..." These opening words of a letter, dated June 21, 1963, and signed by Joseph M. McDaniel, Jr., treasurer of the Ford Foundation, signaled a landmark in the history of Kalamazoo College. The grant, to be matched by $5,500,000 raised through its own effort, is the larg­ est single gift the College has ever received. When the matching funds have been accumulated, within a speci­ fied three-year period, the $7,700,000 will represent half the $15,000,000 total of the ten-year Fund for Aca­ demic Enrichment announced in 1961. (After two years, this program is approaching two-fifths of its goal.) A sum of $500,000 will come to the College at this time as a part of the $2,200,000 grant. Of this amount, $100,000 will be used for scholarships; $100,000 will be e No gifts coming to the College before October 1, used to strengthen the full-year program and the off­ 1963, will count as matching funds toward the Ford campus opportunities; and $300,000 will go into the Foundation challenge. After October 1, all gifts com­ construction of the new library. ing to the College within a three-year period, until Sep­ The $2,200,000 grant signifies recognition by this tember 30, 1966- in the form of Annual Fund, scholar­ great philanthropic organization of the high regard in ships, capital gifts, bequests, legacies, life income con­ which Kalamazoo College is held. It becomes one of tracts, trusts, etc.- will count toward the $5,500,000. forty-two independent liberal arts institutions carefully selected from all parts of the country to participate in what the Foundation calls its Special Program in Edu­ cation. James W. Armsey, the program's director, point­ ing out that the funds may be used for any purpose, says, "Universities and colleges are selected for the grants on the basis of their tradition of scholarship, their plans and ability to make pace-setting improvem~nts, the quality of their leadership, and the strength of sup­ port from alumni and other sources. The grants are in­ tended to strengthen ability to achieve and sustain new standards, both in scholarship and administrative effec­ tiveness." How did the Foundation determine whether Kala­ mazoo measured up to these standards? How was it able to measure the College against other colleges of similar character? What follows is the Kalamazoo story, including quotes from the presentation made to the Ford Foun- 2 dation. The Story of the Ford Foundation Grant as told by President Weimer K. Hicks • THE LARGEST SINGLE GIFT IN OUR HISTORY - such is vinced that the best way of aiding all private colleges the Ford Foundation grant announced in my letter was to strengthen those whose past performance and mailed to you late in June. That brief communication, future planning would mark them as bellwethers of a however, could not possibly have conveyed to you the small college resurgence. Its Special Program in Educa­ critical thought given by College personnel to the prep­ tion, announced that year, in the words of Director aration of our report. Nor could it have conveyed the James W. Armsey, "aims to build on excellence in a meaning of the grant in terms of prestige and stature group of institutions with varying backgrounds, geo­ for your alma mater. Nor could it have indicated the graphic locations, and plans for the future." dedicated effort which will be required to meet the The Foundation's first move was to invite twenty­ challenge which Ford has presented to us. In this Pres­ five colleges from coast to coast prove that their cur­ idential Report and in the pages which follow we shall rent educational program and their plans for the future try to give you the complete story of a two-and-a-half placed them among the country's quality small colleges. year effort which can open the door to an educational Kalamazoo College was honored by being named one program which exceeds our brightest dreams. of the twenty-five which were asked to submit their For many years the Ford Foundation has been inti­ credentials. mately involved with problems of higher education. Each college was then given one month to collect all Today it is concerned with the ability of the small, in­ facts regarding its last ten years and to present com­ dependent liberal arts college to survive under the twin plete programs about the subsequent decade. The re­ pressures of expanding enrollments and skyrocketing port was far more than a statistical analysis. Each in­ operating costs. A second trend complicates the role of stitution was required to prove its abiding faith in the the small institution. In recent years tax-supported uni­ liberal arts. It was expected to spell out the educational versities have grown in size and strength until they philosophy undergirding the college and to reveal the• threaten to dominate the educational scene. As these sense of purpose to which the institution was com­ institutions have mushroomed, all thinking people have mitted. We found ourselves evolving a thorough plan become worried about our dual system of education, for keeping our college abreast of the qualitative and in which the independent college works side by side quantitative demands of the next ten years. And above and hand in hand with the state university. The vitality all else, we had to present a workable financial program of the American system of higher education - private for attaining the future objectives through voluntary and public- depends on the maintenance of the small support while still keeping the cost of education within college as the champion of the liberal arts and as the the reach of all good students. We worked steadily for initiating force for constant refinement in educational a solid month during all waking hours until finally our patterns. 75-page portfolio, Kalamazoo College 1951-1971, had By 1960, Ford executives and trustees were con- been completed and placed in the mail. 3 At the time of this invitation, the College was im­ in higher education and so we built upon the old and mersed in its plans for the new four-quarter program. brought about a new approach to which the Ford rep­ In fact, we had just requested and received a $100,000 resentatives now give their vote of confidence. It is grant from the Fund for the Advancement of Educa­ likewise a tribute to the calibre of students who have tion (itself supported by the Ford Foundation) to in­ been drawn into the Plan that it produces results be­ augurate the plan. It was largely because of this and a yond those for which we had hoped. "wait-and-see" attitude on the part of some Foundation Third, it means that Kalamazoo graduates - and executives, that Kalamazoo was not among the first long before the four-quarter plan was conceived - have eight in the original group of twenty-five to receive an made a mark in the world which has reflected to the award that year. credit of their college. One hundred years ago Kalama- Last September the College was again invited to -zoo bore the qualities of the intellectual institution. At apply for one of the special awards. Again there were the turn of the century it began to secure the tradition volumes of paper work, a reappraisal of future projec­ of the pre-professional college.