SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



79 



research and education, and similar functions. Dean Knauss here at Rhode 

 Island is in the process of developing a similar interdisciplinary approach to 

 the ocean. This sort of arrangement has the advantage of drawing on the large 

 potential of existing strong departments in the various disciplines. On the other 

 hand, it lacks the cohesiveness that a separate college devoted to the sea might 

 attain. Whatever way the problem is approached, we must not lose sight of the 

 importance of education, research, and scholarship as an indivisible whole. It 

 is also important, I believe, that at this level of education and research men 

 have a solid foundation in the fundamental disciplines before specializing in their 

 application to the ocean. The college of the sea needs, therefore, like a college 

 of medicine to operate primarily at the graduate level. 



OTHER NEEDS 



The foregoing concepts of the college of the sea, or of the ocean institute 

 within the university, are possible means of filling the requirements for univer- 

 sity level education, research, and scholarship. However, society has additional 

 demands. There need to be trained skilled technicians. There also needs to be 

 provided continuing education, beyond the formal educational period, of both pro- 

 fessional people and sub-professional people. Finally, it is extremely important 

 to establish a satisfactory mechanism for transm.itting new knowledge and under- 

 standing about the ocean to those who actually use the ocean, so that they can 

 employ it productively. This applies to personnel in industries already using 

 the ocean, such as the merchant marine, fisheries, or petroleum industries, and 

 others which will be increasingly usingthesea, such as the mining and construc- 

 tion industries. There is a need for aquacultural experiment stations and exten- 

 sion services. 



These are important elements in the development of the uses of the ocean. 

 In an earlier day, the satisfaction of similar requirements in relation to uses of 

 the land were important functions of the Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanical 

 Arts, and the agricultural extension services attached thereto. In recent years, 

 however, the faculty of many colleges and universities have come to regard many 

 of these functions as not being appropriate to the modern university. This is, I 

 believe, particularly true of the training of technicians, and extension services. 

 The question arises, therefore, whether these functions canbe successfully car- 

 ried out by the university, and if so, how? If not, what new sorts of institutions 

 do we need? Perhaps, answers to these questions will be provided at this con- 

 ference. 



53 



