Kellogg panel: Universities, public should renew bond

National higher education leaders, including President Kirwan, have combined a renewal of the promise of public institutions' service to America with a call for federal and state legislative action that bolsters support for state universities.

The Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities issued its sixth and final report March 21, asserting that federal legislation and university commitments would strengthen the bond between public higher education and the American people.

Renewing the Covenant: Learning, Discovery, and Engagement in a New Age and Different World is an open letter from the commission, which is part of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). Kirwan chaired the committee that produced the report, which urges passage of legislation to help universities acquire the technological infrastructure they need to meet their broad responsibilities, as well as changes in the tax code to encourage more partnerships between universities and the private sector.

The covenant refers to the 140-year partnership grounded in institutions' commitment to provide wide access, excellent curricula and research of value to people and communities in return for public financing and governance.

"Ohio State has enjoyed a close connection with the people who live in the state, perhaps more so than most institutions of higher learning. Now, as we move into the 21st century and an information age economy, the challenges and the opportunities are much more complex and dynamic," Kirwan said."In order to play the role that Ohio State must play in the state's future success and well-being, we need to expand the traditional means by which our university serves the state and nation. At the same time, the state needs to recognize that its major research university is the key to its success in the coming decades and support it accordingly."

The report recommends passage of a federal bill titled the Higher Educational Millennial Partnership Act, which would: ensure the technological infrastructure is available through such mechanisms as direct appropriations or dedicated fees; change federal tax policy to encourage more private-sector partnerships with universities for joint research and educational activities; and create tax advantages for parents and students to save for educational expenses.

In addition, state governments are called upon to continue providing the bulk of basic support for higher education and to understand that "patronage and politics have no place in appointing governing boards or administrative leaders if universities are to provide the intellectual and economic leadership states need."

In turn, public universities are expected to renew their historic commitments and keep an eye toward the future. The commission calls on institutions to support:

• Genuinely equal educational opportunity that provides access to success without regard to race, ethnicity, age, occupation or economic background;

• Excellence in undergraduate, graduate and professional curricula;

• Learning environments that meet the civic ends of public higher education.

• Agendas for discovery and graduate education that are informed by the latest scholarship and responsive to pressing public needs;

• Conscious efforts to bring their resources to bear on community, state, national and international problems in a coherent way;

• Systems and data that will allow universities to make an open accounting of progress toward achieving the public good; and

• Intensive, ongoing monitoring of the progress of the Kellogg Commission's recommendations.

The commission acknowledges challenges to the partnership between public universities and the American people in the 21st century, citing the need to recognize and serve a more diverse pool of young people, the way growing financial inequality is jeopardizing access to institutions, and uneven state support combined with limited federal support for basic research.

"The people of the United States continue to derive many benefits from the historic covenant," says the commission's letter,"just as they did when President Lincoln declared that public higher education is 'built on behalf of the people, who have invested in these public institutions their hopes, their support, and their confidence.' To Lincoln, state universities were not simply public universities, but in every sense, the 'public's universities.' The dawning of a new century is the right time to renew the covenant between our institutions and the public, the proper time to reclaim the heritage, and the ideal time to nourish the flame of the 'public's universities' in American higher education."

The first five open letters from the Kellogg Commission were directed to higher education leaders and laid out an agenda for reform that covered student access and the student experience, engagement with communities, lifelong learning and a coherent campus culture. The final letter is directed to a broader audience, including government, nonprofit and private-sector leaders, graduates and parents. A group of high-level policymakers were scheduled to meet with commission members in Washington on March 22 to discuss ways to carry out the panel's recommendations.

The entire text of Renewing the Covenant: Learning, Discovery, and Engagement in a New Age and Different World is available online at NASULGC's Web site: www.nasulgc.org.

By Jo McCulty

Department of Chemistry Chair Bruce Bursten, right, congratulates chemistry Ph.D. recipient Sibrina Nichelle Collins during the winter commencement ceremony.

Citino sends off graduates with verse

Pomp, Circumstance, and Other Songs of a Lifetime

By David Citino, OSU professor of English

Presented March 17, 2000

If you're like me, you've got a big head,

not to mention a funny robe, full of music--

poems and melodies, the tunes

we move to, shower and shave by,

study, write to. Not just the incidental,

but the momentous music keeping time.

Our histories are measures of song,

Listen to your heart: drums of Africa,

sea-spume of blind, far-sighted Homer,

Sappho's honeyed love lyrics. Often,



music speaks for us, one note saying

a thousand words. Like Rodolpho

in Puccini's La Boheme, Sono un poeta.

I am a poet. Che cosa faccio? What

do I do? Scrivo. I write. This ceremony



is loud music--pomp and circumstance

of the life you began freshman year

or that first day of graduate school.

In my head I press Play, and the CD

of Big Days kicks on. I leap and linger



over moments too sweet, nearly, for words.

I'll never escape rhymes from the nursery.

Up above the world so high, like a diamond

in the sky. We knew from the start

our universe was aglow with wonder.



Italian, Latin, English songs in nasal accents

of Cleveland. Gaudeamus igitur, Juvenes

dum sumus. So, let us rejoice, while

we are young. Youth is that gift we can't

comprehend while we're young. This ceremony



means you all are less young than you were.

Don't let the heavy knowledge gained

from your studies deprive you of the gifts

of youth, to be able to rejoice at the drop

of a hat, to care for, be moved by others.



Now I hear golden hits of five decades.

Big Mama Thornton, and that so-called King

(King of what, fried butter sandwiches?)

who stole away her hound dog. You ain't

never killed a rabbit, you ain't no friend



of mine. As with those profs and TA's,

course after course, you had to produce--

kill some rabbits--to earn respect.

And at times OSU may have seemed

like Heartbreak Hotel, down at the end



of Lonely Street, so difficult was it

to do your best. Tennessee Ernie Ford,

"Sixteen Tons": St. Peter don't you

call me 'Cause I can't go. I owe

my soul to the company store.



You have been digging deep in mines

of knowledge. We all owe our souls

to Ohio State, company store of learning,

shared experience--precious ore

we have in common forever.



Now I hear Domenico Modugno's

fervent urging to wish, sing, fly,

Volare, Wo-oo. Cantare, Wo-o-o-o.

My grandfather was a peasant farmer,

a contadino in Calabria in the toe



of Italy. He knew it's the human lot

to dream of flying. Lucky, lucky,

lucky me, I'm a lucky son-of-a-gun.

I work eight hours, I sleep eight hours,

That leaves eight hours for fun.



Hey! He sailed in steerage across

the Atlantic, came to Cleveland, where

he stayed long enough to work 52 years

for the B & O Railroad, before lying down

to rest in good Ohio soil. So many of us



here today came from elsewhere,

or ancestors did. From Tennessee, Italy,

Africa, Asia, Appalachia--even,

President Kirwan, the wilds of Kentucky

and Maryland. Women and men with backs



supple as birch trunks. The courage

it took to pick up stakes and begin again

in a new world! Think of the work

those older ones did. For you. You all

are facing a change right now.



This sheepskin is your passport.

You're bound for emigration to

the next song of your life. Ohio State

is the ark on which you've been sailing.

You've been the precious cargo.



But, as Noah once said, I can see

clearly now the rain is gone. The ark,

our university, was filled to overflowing

with the diversity of us. Diversity.

Networks and talk shows devalue the word.



I say, rather, the richness of us,

precious difference, the grand multiplicity

of selves that balance this globe

and enable it to spin true. Grandson

of peasant immigrants, I was given



the opportunity to earn a doctorate

in English literature from Ohio State--

because my family labored long nights

around the kitchen table trying to learn

this arduous English. I sat where



you're sitting twenty-six years ago.

Bob Dylan and Smokey Robinson got me

through. Yes, it took a prophet and Miracles!

My son earned an OSU Ph.D. in history.

Now you, graduates, are being honored--



by degrees. We've all come together

around the kitchen table of Ohio State.

Ohio, Round on the ends and high

in the middle. For the years to come

we'll sing together, Beautiful Ohio,



in dreams again I see, Visions of what

used to be. These psalms, sacred thoughts

of our tribes, 78's and 33's, tapes,

CD's--they take up space in shelves

of our skulls, our hearts. They remind us



we want a song beyond the run-

of-the-mill thrill, the moment throbbing

with pleasure or bathed in the blues.

We ache for something grander than

pure selfishness. Songs sung for one



alone are not true music. Arias shared

are music of the spheres, ways of saying

to another something from the soul.

Of course the Buckeye Battle Cry

is there. Drive, drive on down the field,



Men (and women!) of the Scarlet

and Gray. Well, you drove on down

the field, and you drove up and down

the streets, around and around

crowded lots, looking for a place to park,



and you searched our dark, ancient library

for a decent place to study. My wife,

Mary's, father marched in the first

"Script Ohio," in 1936. He's here today

with us, blowing his horn, I can't help



but feel, as is the sweet mother

I lost last year, the one who gave me

the stars. Today's music makes us think

of the debts we owe, and never can repay.

So many of us would not be here



were it not for the lullabies and songs

of dear parents, their parents, theirs.

Some are here today in the flesh.

Many are not. We mourn them with cadences

of our hearts. Think how many people



ang before us, gave us a name, a voice,

taught us the right words. We must

cherish them by remembering every song.

When we sing to others, we honor

our fathers and mothers, thank them



for this day of profound scarlet and gray

pomp and circumstance. O, come

let's sing Ohio's praise, And songs

to Alma Mater raise. Alma mater.

Ohio State is our sweet, nurturing mother.



We came of age here, with her help.

Well, Mother, we love you, but, like,

it's time we moved out, got a place

of our own. You're standing there,

Mom, gray hair, eyes scarlet



from crying. We won't forget you.

Now, even though this ceremony

means we're being weaned, taken off

the nipple, let's take care to cherish her

all our days. Let's remember



the words to the songs she taught us,

and pass them on. We'll remember

always, Graduation Day. Summer's heat,

and winter's cold, The seasons pass,

the years will roll, Time and change



will surely show How firm thy friendship,

O-hi- O. We call that little number

Carmen Ohio. Carmen means song

in Latin. You've worked hard; she

is your reward; today is your reward.



You're filled to overflowing with

the notes, the poems we've written

together. You know the score.

Continue to work hard for yourselves,

and one another. Find the ones who need



you to sing to, for them, in the world.

Graduates, this joyful litany, this hymn

our ancestors collaborated on with us,

the calling of your name today is music

to our ears. Sing that name proudly



all your days, as if your life depended

on it. It does, you know. It has been

an honor for me to speak--and sing--

to you today. Thank you, graduates,

and, again, Congratulations.

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