The Function of Higher Education in the Present War Crisis

The function of higher education in a war crisis already developed is one thing. Its function in American society in connection with the war problem in general is quite another. Although the two problems are clearly related, it will be more profitable to separate them in analysis than to blur an essential distinction. Now that war has developed there should be a clear priority for war needs in education as there is, or should be, in every branch of national life. There are forces and interests in education hostile to such conversion, however, just as there are similar forces in industry, in organized labor, in agriculture, or in bureaucracy of the civilian variety. Too frequently words are concerned with the national emergency and the preservation of democracy, while minds are busy with budgetary arithmetic and the preservation of educational vested interests. Colleges and universities are governed by inertia and tradition to a much larger extent than industrial and political life, and if we allow for these institutional peculiarities, the adjustment to war needs has been phenomenally rapid. There have been three principal areas of adjustment: First, in the variety of programs of civilian service related to the defense effort; second, in research and administration, to aid the armed forces and defense industry; and third, in the training of men about to be inducted into the various branches of military service. Civilian defense work has probably been more prominent in coast areas than in the interior. Brooklyn College, for instance, shows for the year 1941-42 a total of 68 civilian defense courses, attended by 1,800 residents in the community, in such subjects as Air Raid Precaution, First Aidstandard, advanced and instructors', Map Reading, Nutrition, and Home Nursing. The college also serves as a Rest Center for the Red Cross and as an emergency hospital in case of community disaster, and at present a broad program of cooperation with the Department of Hospitals of the City of New York in the training of regular nurses is in preparation. College instructors have participated on a large scale as instructors in the training courses for air raid wardens and auxiliary firemen, and we have even made provision for special training of faculty members with the purpose of making them available in turn to civilian defense authorities. Arrangements of this type have probably been improvised in accordance with community needs throughout the country. The staff and facilities have usually been made available without additional budgetary provisions and it is questionable whether such services can be rendered in the long run on a voluntary basis if normal services are not to suffer. In connection with research the war has abruptly terminated the traditional academic attitude which might

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• Selected References on the American Negro in World War I and World War II

  Dorothy B Porter•The Journal of Negro Education•1943

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