By El Gaucho, March 31, 1960
Dr. Samuel B. Gould last Monday night urged immediate public support for the master plan for higher education in California which is presently having rough sledding in the State Legislature.
At the annual dinner of the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce, held at San Marcos High School, the chancellor, in the final part of his speech, also expressed serious concern over the possibility of slum areas developing around the university campus, asking Goleta Valley leaders to help prevent this.
State’s Master Plan
In discussing the state’s master plan for higher education, Chancellor Gould described the background of its development which he said leads the nation in educational planning and organization. “It would be tragic to have this plan chopped to bits,” he said.
Himself a member of one of the key committees forming the plan, he noted that the plan now stands in danger because it doesn’t fit with certain individuals in our state. He feels it would be a serious blow to public education to have it rejected by the Legislature or by the people.
Functions Defined
The central core of the plan is a proposed constitutional amendment, he continued, which defines the function of the university, the state colleges and the junior colleges to reduce duplications of efforts. “This part of the plan, called the ‘differentiation of function,’ is the heart of the proposal — and right now the heart is being cut out.”
Everything points to the need of a board of trustees for the state colleges, similar to the regents, and the plan calls for this type of organization, he explained. It also creates a 12-man coordinating council to advise the three systems of higher education and the governor and Legislature.
Protection for Doctorate
He discussed the university’s insistence on protection for its doctoral degree and therefore the control of such degrees by the university from public institutions, as established in the master-plan proposal. “We at Santa Barbara who are about to be involved more deeply in graduate work and the doctorate, must have this program approved by various segments and faculty of the university to protect this world-famous graduate standard.”
In the growth of UCSB, he said, we can look forward to 10,000 students by 1975 — perhaps even more — with a faculty of 600 to 700. “Our campus plant is only one-third completed with an investment of over $25,000,000. In the next five to ten years we will see another 40 to 50 million dollars invested.”
Slum Around Campus
In his off-the-cuff speech the chancellor then turned to the problem of land use in the areas surrounding the campus. Speaking quite frankly, he said that “when I am on the campus I am thrilled with its beauty and its setting. When I leave the campus and see its surroundings, I am no longer thrilled.”
He warned that “you cannot have a first-rate university in a slum area. I am afraid if something isn’t done, it will become a slum area.”
Dr. Gould maintained that in the next 25 years this university campus is going to be the leading activity and influence in this area — culturally, educationally and economically. If this area does not take as its responsibility the careful development of the land area, unless this development is carefully planned, the University has little opportunity to become what it should.
“We must work with the most assiduous care to develop the master plan for this area to help make this the greatest campus on the coast by the end of the century,” he concluded.
