The More Things Change (I)

It is important that each member of the faculty, not the college alone but of the University as a whole, understand that he shares responsibility for the success of the student in acquiring an ability to express himself orally and to write with clarity and effectiveness. For whatever reason, young people entering college in these days are handicapped by lack of background; background that in the past was obtained through reading. Currently, most young people, unless they make an effort, acquire their background from the radio and the so-called "funny books", a combination which makes a far from dependable foundation for college work.

excerpted from the UNH "Annual Report of the College of Liberal Arts," 1946-47