Assumtion College - Heights Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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LAWRENCE G. FLAMAN JR. Psychology MICHAEL P. TSOTSIS Political Science

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From 1957 to 1968 a momentum had built up, based on these beliefs. To shift gears would not be easy. How does one go from a state of mind consisting of inflation, expansion and trust in an eventual bail-out, to a frame of mind which must have as its key components: (1) that the share of the burden of higher education which the private sector will have to bear will be smaller than in the past, while the public sector will have to absorb the major part of the growth in the college-age population; (2) that indebtedness will have to be amortized from the oper¬ ational proceeds of each educational institution; and (3) that any further capital additions will have to be financed in the same way. For those who may be familiar with the stock market, the ques¬ tion is one of going from a decade and more of bull attitude to a period of bear mentality. A bull market is one which is ex¬ pected to go even higher, hence the need to plan for bigger, more diversified operations. Hence, also, the need to decentralize to encourage initiative in growth opportunities. In this kind of at¬ mosphere, one can tolerate unused facilities and personnel on the grounds that tomorrow ' s growth will make them necessary. A deficit today will be made up out of tomorrow ' s profits. Trans¬ lated into educational terms, a bull market is the time of prolifer¬ ation of programs, hurried additions to plant, and headlong hiring of staff to stay abreast of the growth in the student population without endangering the quality of the educational effort nor the style of campus life. It is a time of optimism, when the pot at the end of the rainbow is one ' s fingertips. A bear market, on the other hand, is a time when tomorrow will be more difficult than today. It is a time for belt tightening in order to ride out what will hopefully be a short period of dwindling resources. Everything which is not essential to survival must be jettisoned. It is a time of more work for less pay — to stretch out the available funds until the upturn comes. In educa¬ tional terms, a bear market is a time of consolidation of programs, a time when quality is sought intensely since there can be no additional quantity. As far as students are concerned, a bear period is one when they can expect the educational institutions to provide them with the best education opportunities since the total effort must be towards quality — there being no means of pursuing quantitative growth. Some of the frills will disappear from the campus, but the essentials of quality education will be all the more evident. This is how the new decade (age?) seems to be dawning — at least from the president ' s desk. George Bissonnette, A.A.

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Ujmmarn ■jm r sri PAUL J. ORLOWSKI Religious Studies