I urge educators to vacate their ivory towers, conduct alumni outcomes and neighborhood financial influence research, and match ensuing knowledge with tales about achievements of their graduates. These will make the case for greater training.
John E. Ross
Middleburg, Va.
To the Editor:
Re “We’ll Miss Universities When They’re Gone,” by Meghan O’Rourke (Opinion visitor essay, March 16):
Ms. O’Rourke provides a compelling account of the importance of presidency help within the creation of the American college system within the second half of the twentieth century.
There’s one other essential issue, nonetheless, that contributed to the dominance of the US within the sciences, social sciences, humanities and humanities: the mind drain of lots of the world’s main scientists, students and artists from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Spain and different components of Europe, who, because of Hitler, Mussolini and different dictators, got here to dwell and pursue their careers right here.
A short record of a few of those that have been expelled, or fled, tells the story of how and why the American universities turned actually world class: Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, John von Neumann, Hannah Arendt, Paul Tillich, Herbert Marcuse and dozens extra. An analogous record could be given within the arts, music and structure.
We might do properly to keep in mind that brains can drain in a couple of path.
Larry Gross
Los Angeles
The author is a professor emeritus of the Annenberg College for Communication and Journalism, College of Southern California.
