M.I.T. Chairman Urges Federal Study Of Youth Service
Endorsing what he called a “controversial idea,” David S. Saxon, chairman of the board of the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology and president emeritus of the University of California, proposed a program of universal national service for American youth “as a means of coupling access to educational opportunity to other national goals and to our American tradition of service.”
Mr. Saxon, addressing the 97th annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges in Washington, D.C., last month, cited a current bill in the Congress (S 1896) sponsored by Senators Paul Tsongas, Democrat of Massachusetts, Alan Cranston, Democrat of California, and others to establish a select committee to examine and make recommendations on the costs and benefits of alternative types of national-service programs.
“I myself would go much further,” Mr. Saxon said, “and recommend that we examine seriously the potential of a program of universal youth service coupled with an analogous G.I. Bill’ for education.”
