Coordination of Higher Education

• Published date: 01 September 1961
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296101400360
• Date: 01 September 1961
• Author: William R. Mcconnell
• Subject Matter: Articles

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voters. An interesting contrast is revealed in responses to the question, &dquo;How
interested are you in politics?&dquo; Combining &dquo;very much&dquo; and &dquo;much&dquo; on a
5-point scale, the results show strikingly higher totals for both Kennedy and
Stevenson voters, as contrasted with Nixon and Eisenhower voters. In this
sample, at least, there is an indication that Eisenhower’s successes may well
have turned upon his ability to mobilize the apathetic.
On the iron test of financial contributions to parties and candidates, the
professors’ performance is noteworthy. There were only 51 contributions to
Nixon, 15 to Eisenhower, and 120 to Stevenson (Kennedy figures are not avail-
able). In the category of twenty-five dollars and over, Eisenhower had only 3,
Nixon 8, and Stevenson 37. Perhaps no clearer indication than this last com-
parison can be given of the high degree of identification of academic voters
with the prototype of &dquo;egghead.&dquo;
Organization of Higher Education
COORDINATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION
WILLIAM R. MCCONNELL
Executive Secretary, New Mexico Board of Educational Finance
I wish to discuss the structure of state control of public higher education,
current trends, and some of the current thinking in this field. There are nearly
four hundred public four-year colleges and universities in the United States,
organized (more or less) into fifty state &dquo;systems.&dquo; The individual state struc-
tures vary all the way from a single statewide governing board for as many as
twenty or twenty-five institutions to, at the other extreme, a collection of ten
to fifteen operating boards, each responsible for one or a group of institutions,
with no statewide coordinating machinery short of the state budget office or
the legislature.
There are four general types of structures as far as coordination is con-
cerned. First is the case of multiple boards with no coordinating agency as
such. The second type is much like the first as far as the...