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Show Congressman Dixon Launches Drive' To Expand Role of Junior Colleges Rep. H. A. Dixon (R-Utah), an. ( nounced today that he would soon introduce a measure calling for congressional approval of a $2.5 million appropriation to be divided among the states to encourage en-courage and assist them to develop de-velop a long-range program to meet their college problems. Congressman Dixon made the announcement yesterday in a speech on the House floor in which he said: "Part of the an. swer may be found in an ex-panded ex-panded Junior college program." Dr. Dixon, who has had 20 years experience as a Junior college col-lege president and administrator, called attention to the fact that twice as many young peo'ple will graduate from high school'" in 1969 as did this past year. "This assures us that by 1870 there will be twice as many people peo-ple attending school on the college col-lege level. Unless our present growth plans are greatly accelerated, accel-erated, before 1970 there will be room for less than 70 of the people applying for college admission." ad-mission." He listed the following reasons rea-sons why junior colleges can be a key means of solving the needs of the nation for expanded college col-lege opportunities in the years ahead: 1. The Junior college is less bound by tradition and standard university requirements and far more free to do those things most needed to meet the needs of its own students and community; commu-nity; 2. The Junior college does not believe that there is anything sacred about the word "four" and can provide semi-professional education for some and two years of academic transfer credit cre-dit for others planning to complete com-plete traditional college bachelor bache-lor degrees at senior Institutions; 3. The Junior college is extremely ex-tremely sensitive to the needs of the community and Dr. DiXon cited examples from his own experiences ex-periences at Weber College, Og-den, Og-den, Utah, illustration that the college had helped fill community commu-nity needs for - nurses, railroad station agents and skilled technicians tech-nicians and craftsmen for a new aircraft plant; 4. Statistics show that for vary, ing reasons, only about one-third of the college students can and do complete a four-year program while more than half of them complete two-year programs; 5. The Junior college Is geared to help the student discover his own interests, aptitudes and abilities and does not . tie him to a rigid academic program as senior-institutions often do; .- 6. A system of smaller Junior colleges can give more personalized personal-ized instruction than a huge university. uni-versity. The congressman decried the fact that oj" industrial age is so accustomed to the goals of speed, mass production and uniformity uni-formity of product that it tends to Impose these goals on the colleges col-leges to the detriment of the students enrolled; 7. The community-Junior college col-lege system makes college avail, able ,to more' people. Dr. Dixon cited a recent study : made, in Illinois which showed that only 19.7 of high school graduates went on to college when there was not a Junior college in their community, as against 53.5 attending at-tending when there was a Junior Jun-ior college present. In concluding his floor speech, Rep. Dixon urged the 'Congress to give careful study to the program pro-gram which might lead to establishment es-tablishment of a coordinated system of public education beyond be-yond the high school and to In elude the Junior college as an integral part of that public school system. |