Report Says Colleges Fear Federal Control

American colleges face eventual governmental control unless they can find immediate sources of steady private income, according to a recent report of the American Association of Universities' Commission on Financing Higher Education.

The Commission, of which Provost Buck is a member, found after a three-year study that 1,500 colleges at present need a total of $250,000,000 a year more income. Although students pay higher tuition fees than ever before, the colleges cannot make ends meet.

The federal government already provides $500,000,000 a year for higher education but dangerous political pressures will develop if the government is the only available source for the additional income, the commission fears. "Direct federal control would in the end produce uniformity, mediocrity, and compliance," the report said.

Liberal Arts students now pay 73 percent of all college expenses, as tuition has become an increasingly larger source of income in the last 20 years. But in nation and increased enrollments have forced private colleges to keep raising tuition fees.

The comprehensive study was supported by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation.