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President Williams (Ken) Alumni, and friends of Florida Atlantic
University:
This is indeed a homecoming for me -- and like all happy events that
are infrequent, it is all the more pleasant. I feel very much a part of this
University. I share your pride in its accomplishments, as I shared your
concerns when you were just starting od.
1 have had the pleasure of being with you on several historic occasions.
During and prior to 1960, Tom Fleming and others of your friends met with
me several times to consider the merits of Boca Raton as a location for Bocn U.
in December of 1962, l was here when ground was broken for the first
construction n and all we saw as far as the eye could scan was flat unkempt land
broken by runways rapidly being taken over by weeds. But 2,000 people came
out on that somewhat overcast day and sat on Tom Flemings upturned bean
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crates in front of an improvised platform. Together we predicted
a bright future for this new university which was being called upon to chart
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and junior college administrators and school principals. They and husbands
and wives, fathers and mothers. Before long. FAU alumni will be legislators.
and judges. 11 senator or a governor, too. The reputation of a University is
made by the record of its graduates, and by the affection and respect those
graduates hold for their alma mater. Florida Atlantic University is on its
way to an enviable reputation. Even though you have achieved your highest
goals. and may not during the tenure of those here, you are well embarked
on your great journey. I am proud to have been a part of the first step.
and delighted to be here with you this evening. Thank you.
a new course in higher education.
A little less than two years later I was on your campus again for
the dedication of your first buildings and to see Lyndon Johnson receive
your first honorary degree. The University had just admitted its first
class and there wan an excitement in the air as the business of education
began. The campus was then just beginning to show promise or the beauty
it now possesses. You have been justly recognized by the Association of
Landscape Architects for your fine work in restoring Florida's natural
beauty and you are receiving much attention through the efforts of your
faculty and students to save the trees that would be destroyed by the extension
or l-95, long overdue in this area. It is characteristic that you are in the
forefront of the great wave of concern for the future or our environment that
is now engulfing this nation.
Shortly after groundbreaking in 1964. I returned again for the inauguration
of your President. At that point. Ken Williams had already served two years
and had brought together the beginning of the fine team you have today. In
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this era of presidential fatigue, short term presidencies. and sudden changes,
it is heartening to me to t ind a man who enjoys the excitement of these volatile
times -- a man who does not lose his cool and one whose manner and enthusiasm
indicate that he thrives in the presidential hot seat. lie was then the junior presi-
dent of Florid's state Universities - he is now the senior. 'I'hat simple fact says
more than an hour of eulogy.
President Williams has been an excellent spokesman for Florida Atlantic
University's new concept in higher education. His Commitment to the junior college
system of Florida has been fully justified by deveIOpments not only in our state.
but in the nation.
The growth that Florida's public junior colleges and the university system
experienced during my service as governor is a source 01 considerable pride to
me. When we muvmi to establish an upper division university, We were convinced
that it would privtde a more rational, effective instrument for extending the
opportunities for higher education. in President Williams we had a man who did
not run for cover" when the first wave of problems hit him and the new kind of
university he was heading. There were many problems created for you because of
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your location. because you were pioneering new pathways. But these have been
largely overcome and our confidence in this new kind of university-building
upon the junior college-mas been vindicated. Florida Atlantic University is a
prototype for new universities in Florida and in the nation.
I recall, too. another distinctive feature about the founding of Florida
Atlantic University. The people of Palm Beach and Broward County wanted the
university so sincerely that they dug down into their own pockets to make possible
"lint-a U in '62". This watt it wise decision and it they were politically motivated
at that time. well. m a democracy politics. too, serves the people. Miami had
its own great private university, and there were some fears for it. it is now
getting a atate university in its midst, as it should. and Jacksonville is next.
Brownrd and Palm Beach have FAU practically on the county line. Now the
Cooperative approaches being undertaken by Florida Atlantic and Florida International
indicate that the people of these three pOpulous sprawling urban counties will be
well-served, that there will be more varied educational opportunities at less
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coat to the taxpayer than if either university attempted to go it alone. Yet each
university can continue to deveIOp its own special areas of excellence and its
own Institutional personality, thus giving students a valuable choice. And lots
of choices is what the American system is all about.
Florida Atlantic t'niversity really came into being at a most unusual
time in history. as Wt: entered the sixties, education Was the magic word.
Educators could do no wrong. Education was the idol of all. Flushed with
the triumph of havmg educated vast numbers -- as it was called upon to do when
the (3.]. Bill was enacted following WWII -- and triumphant again when it
was: called upon to prepare scientists and engineers. as it was called upon
to do after Sputnik, the educational establishment reached a pinnacle of power.
in the decade that followed we have witnessed some fall from grace. Continuing to do
your job in a world turned inside out by unrest. by spiraling costs, by changing
values, plagued by the new ethical problems confronting us in most fields
of learning, by the drug culture, by unpopular wars. educators find they
are not exempt from social concern and responsibility.
The gown plays an increasingly important role in the town.
and the town grows increasingly concerned about the role of the gown. It
15 one of those odd yet natural paradoxes that the more pervasive becomes
your inuence. the more general becomes resistance to it. The only
sure way for you to avoid attack is to cease questioning the foundations
of the status guo. To do that, of course. would be to accept the meanest
fate.
FM" was not created for such a purpose. Amid the unrest and the
crises that confront us constantly there are many new concerns developing
which can move mankind forward. Among these are the increasing aware-
ness of each generation's responsibility to nature, the recognition that
equality of opportunity must be provided all our citizens. the acknowledgement
that education must mean many different kinds of experiences, different
from those traditional educational experiences of the past. Many of us have
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been aware of the secelerating rate of change. Alvin Toffler's Future
Shock is almost upon us and if we are to survive. it will be by preparing
ourselves for easy adjustment to always new experiences. For most of
us -- schooled to consider ourselves "creatures of habit" -- this is a
real challenge.
Ln 1.058. I made a speech to a convention of land grant college
presidents in Washington of which the central thought was the necessity
for the adoption to and use of - not just change -- but the accelerating
rate of change. Time was when one generation evolved smoothly into
the next. despite age differences. because basic problems and values were
unchanged and unchallenged. Thats not true now, and in a way it is
amusing to see a "generation gap" between young people only a few years
apart because the rate of change has become so great.
A new and changing economic environment. a new and growing
knowledge base. a new and expanding capacity for mass communication.
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a new and changing moral environment. a new and changing attitude toward
the role oi government -~ all of these things create a condition in which
codified experience is not an adequate guide. it is to those conditions FAL
and all higher education must address themselves -- and in the process validate
the commitments of those who brought this institution into being. All great
Journeys require many steps, and the last step taken. which reaches the
goal. is no greater than any one taken along the way.
In all of these areas. Florida Atlantic University in making a
contribution. Because the junior colleges are pace setters, your continuing
articulation with their programs has opened up new opportunities for their
graduates. Your degrees in applied arts and applied sciences recognize
the new disciplines upon which our changing society depends. I encourage
you to press for the support you need from the state to devclOp programs in
the para-medical fields. and in other technical support and service areas
which will be in increasing demand. These new programs will expand
educational opportunities as your law entorement and computer sciences
programs now do.
You have been pioneering in a specialized phase of oceanography --
ocean engineering. Your still new College of Engineering programs are
heing developed in close association with the industrial firms you serve.
Your College of Business draws upon the knowledge and experience
of leaders in all fields of management and finance for advice in shaping its
curricula .
Your College of Education is involved in research and experimentation
m how children learn and in developing new teaching methods. Your College
of Social Science is giving its students Opportunities for field work and
involving them in the affairs or this urban area.
All of this activity on the cutting edge of progress is given balance
and perSpective by the humanizing inuences of the College of Humanities.
Your alumni n and these are the men and women we are saluting
tlus evening have entered all walks of life -- they are engineers and
certified public accountants, salesmen and stockbrokers and lawyers.
They are scientists and governmental employees. They are professors
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