Statement Announcing the Appointment of a Special Adviser on the Academic Community and the Young

I RECOGNIZE the profound concerns that are rending many of our campuses today. However, this is a time for communication rather than violence and above all for mutual understanding.

In order to keep fully and currently informed on the thinking of the academic community and especially of the young, I am appointing G. Alexander Heard, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, as a special adviser for the next 2 critical months. I will look to Mr. Heard to help present to this administration the views and sentiments of the campuses around the country.

He is one of the representatives of the Association of American Universities that I met with yesterday to review recent events on the campus and with whom I had met previously on this administration's higher education proposals. I plan to meet with this group regularly in the future. They include, in addition to Chancellor Heard:

WILLIAM C. FRIDAY, president, University of North Carolina;

FRED H. HARRINGTON, president, University of Wisconsin;

CHARLES J. HITCH, president, University of California at Berkeley;

EDWARD H. LEVI, president, University of Chicago;

MALCOLM C. Moos, president, University of Minnesota;

NATHAN M. PUSEY, president, Harvard University;

W. ALLEN WALLIS, president, University of Rochester.

Prior to assuming his present position in 1963, Chancellor Heard was dean of the Graduate School of the University of North Carolina from 1958 to 1963. He is a member of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations and a member of the board of trustees of the Ford Foundation. He served in the Navy during World War II, is married to the former Laura Jean Keller, and the father of four children.

I appreciate Mr. Heard's taking on this assignment which should be of great benefit to the country.