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Last week, Indiana University President Myles Brand testified before a congressional subcommittee in support of the Clinton administration's proposed $136 million budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in fiscal year 1999.
In a statement before the appropriations subcommittee on interior and related agencies of the U.S. House of Representatives March 4, Brand expressed his commitment to the well-being of the arts and sciences, including the humanities, and the importance of the NEH in preserving and advancing American culture through the language, literature, philosophy and history that defines it.
"The United States, like all great nations, possesses a culture of worldwide significance," Brand told the representatives. "If we are to preserve and advance that culture, we must protect and celebrate America's place in the world. NEH plays a vital role in that mission by preserving our national heritage because it promotes lifelong learning, strengthens our communities and makes the humanities available to all Americans."
Brand spoke on behalf of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the American Council on Education (ACE).
| "NEH plays a vital role in that mission by preserving our national heritage because it promotes lifelong learning, strengthens our communities and makes the humanities available to all Americans." |
The humanities, said Brand, "encompass a world of stories, an ongoing dialogue about meaning and value. The humanities represent the endless human attempt to understand our world and our place in it. More than any other set of disciplines, the humanities embody the spirit of our civilization. As a university president, I cannot overemphasize the importance of research and study in the humanities, which provide a framework for clear thinking while producing good citizens and instilling in them a respect for history. In short, the humanities are at the heart of who we are.
| "At Indiana University, we look upon the summer seminars and institutes as an important way to partner with the schools and to enhance the education of the state's schoolchildren." |
NEH investments make a major impact on the nation's college and university campuses, Brand said, affecting the lives of both faculty and students with research project opportunities.
"Such projects become part of the learning environment, contributing not only to our knowledge base, but to the education of new generations of scholars," Brand said. "And as we approach the millennium and as we embrace the challenges of a global marketplace, we find ourselves increasingly relying on the fruits of research in the humanities, which deepen our appreciation of our ethical obligations to one another and increase the breadth of human knowledge."
NEH also fosters better teaching, the IU president said.
"Each year, many colleges and universities, including my own, host summer seminars for high school and college teachers who spend six to eight weeks studying with leading scholars in their fields," he said. "These seminars provide an exhilarating boost to the participants, regenerate their enthusiasm and facilitate the transfer of new knowledge.
"In fiscal year 1998, NEH will be able to fund 51 seminars, out of 250 applications. These seminars will be attended by 950 teachers who reach approximately 142,000 students. At the requested level for fiscal year 1999, NEH would be able to make 70 awards, reaching more than 1,300 teachers, who will teach almost 200,000 students. At Indiana University, we look upon the summer seminars and institutes as an important way to partner with the schools and to enhance the education of the state's schoolchildren.
"By bringing teachers to our campuses, by involving them in the search for new knowledge and by sharing with them the results of our own on-going explorations, we become even more involved in the fabric of the educational community. It is one more way in which higher education can reach out to the schools and share our expertise and resources with all Americans.
NEH investments also make a crucial difference on the nation's college and university campuses in the support of long-term projects that might otherwise be lost, Brand said. The NEH underwrites compelling work on projects such as bibliographies, encyclopedias, dictionaries and critical editions that are of national significance, but that are unlikely to be funded by any other institution, state or private corporation.
As an example, he said, IU has received NEH support for its ongoing project to organize and publish the writings of philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Peirce invented pragmatism, Brand told the congressmen, which is "America's distinctive contribution to philosophy."
| The humanities represent the endless human attempt to understand our world and our place in it. More than any other set of disciplines, the humanities embody the spirit of our civilization. |
"A healthy and advanced society cannot afford to lose the hard-won intellectual achievements of great thinkers like Charles S. Peirce," Brand said. "He is part of our heritage."
Brand praised NEH involvement at the community level and its regional humanities centers that are a part of an initiative "Rediscovering America: The Humanities and the Millennium," proposed by William R. Ferris Jr., who was confirmed by the Senate to head the NEH and has been acting in that capacity since December. Ferris was previously director of the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
 Ferris
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"I am extremely pleased about Chairman Ferris' plans to involve America's colleges and universities in the new regional centers; indeed, it is a role that we are uniquely qualified to play, whether with assistance in course development, the systematic building of research collections or the preparation of research tools," Brand said. " Such endeavors are anchored in the academic tradition, and we look forward to having yet another opportunity to share our expertise with our citizens. At the same time, we have much to contribute to these centers. Indiana University, for example, has the country's best Folklore Institute, which encompasses a superb ethnomusicology program and an outstanding Archives of Traditional Music. This archives includes a collection of wax cylinder recordings rivaled only by the Library of Congress, the original compositions of Hoagy Carmichael and a vast collection of jazz and of original field recordings of the music of American Indians and American ethnic groups."
Most major NEH projects, such as the preservation of the papers of George Washington, Frederick Douglass and Mark Twain; the critical editions of our great philosophers, Charles Peirce, William James and John Dewey; the celebrated film series on the Civil War; and seminars and exhibitions on the Constitution, are important to the nation and to the world. Only an agency like NEH, with its federal funds, its broad vision and its long-term commitment, can support these kinds of projects"
"Shepherding and nurturing endeavors of this scale and this magnitude," Brand said, " is the government's trust and must remain at the federal level.
"We in higher education certainly appreciate the budget constraints facing the nation. But we also would remind you that NEH plays a unique role in the United States, which is why it has enjoyed bipartisan support throughout its history."
For the full text of Brand's testimony, go to this site:
http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/homepages/031398/text/testimony.htm
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