Is College Leadership Bankrupt

A COLLEGE has just been sold at public auction. Its administration building, library, dormitories, halls of instruction, and campus of more than one hundred acres were bid in by a group of physicians who plan to operate a sanitarium for patients suffering from nervous and mental diseases. The comparatively new buildings of the defunct college were erected in boom times. No endowment had been accumulated. Since tuition collected from students never pays the full cost of operating a college, the college officials became enmeshed in futile attempts to collect funds to subsidize their institution. Unpaid salaries, and bills for heat, light, and necessary supplies finally forced the board of trustees to file a petition in bankruptcy. For more than a generation we have encouraged every elementaryschool graduate to go to high school, and every high-school graduate to go to college. Then we had to acquire more lands, buildings, and equipment to take care of the increased enrollment. Many colleges have had gifts of dormitories, law schools, libraries, and laboratories thrust upon them by old graduates who wished to erect lasting memorials to themselves. The upkeep on such buildings often necessitated appeals for funds. Growing institutions attracted more students. So, the process repeated itself. In i890, the 121,942 students in the 594 colleges in the United States were taught by I3,565 faculty members. In I930, there were 924,275 students in I,078 schools, and the faculty had increased to 7I,722. Those figures represent an enormous growth in interest in higher education. The purely financial aspects

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