84 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



sciences, the pattern of financing, and local interest and support are all involved. 

 The problem is too complex to treat adequately but, again, the experience with 

 agricultural experiment stations may be of value. 



There are two important factors which pull in opposite directions. First, 

 too many of our agricultural experiment stations try to do too many things. The 

 level of their support is such that their efforts are fragmented and it is not pos- 

 sible for them to have a significant total program. One certainly questions the 

 establishment of a large number of marine science centers with inadequate finan- 

 cing for each. In this connection, the wisdom of the Office of Naval Research in 

 supporting regional oceanography laboratories is appreciated. Given the present 

 and currently anticipated level of support, far more significant work is likely 

 to be done on this basis than if fragnnented among 30 or 40 institutions. At the 

 same time, 10 to 15 institutions are a sufficiently large number to preserve 

 competition and to avoid stereotyped approaches to problems. 



On the other side of the picture, there is the difficulty of establishing re- 

 gional centers which can develop adequate local support. It may be difficult for 

 a state which does not have a "sea-grant university" to bring itself to provide 

 (say) matching funds for the use of a regional undertaking. Nevertheless, there 

 are many hopeful examples of regional cooperation in a variety of fields. 



Considerable thought should be given to developing arrangements which 

 would permit the efficiencies of size to be captured and at the same time to ac- 

 commodate the virtues of local participation and contribution. As indicated 

 above, these are questions intinnately related to the level of support which is 

 projected and which Senator Pell has recognized. 



Paul M. Fye, Ph.D.,Columbia University, 1939. He has been Director, 

 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution since 1958 and President since 

 1961. He is a former professor, and for ten years was a research 

 scientist and adnninistrator for the U. S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory. 



The committee for arrangements for this sea- grant college conference is 

 highly complimented, I am sure, by this large attendance. I think that they are 

 not only pleased, but astonished, by the numbers of us that have turned out to 

 discuss this important subject. It is so large that, as someone mentioned out 

 in the corridor, there must have been some idea that there was some federal 

 money available. 



I am reminded of the fact that the Encyclopedia Britannica states that the 

 Land-Grant College Act was very disappointing in its financial return but highly 

 rewarding in its educational return. No one can deny that the Land-Grant Col- 

 lege Act did serve as a pump primer not only for the agricultural and mechanical 

 arts, but also for engineering in general. Obviously, it is hoped that the sea- 

 grant college idea might also serve as a trigger for a similar expansion and 

 pump primer in the sciences and technology related to the ocean. 



I was fortunate, summer before last, in being a member of a group of about 

 a dozen oceanographers, together with a rather large group of engineers, with 

 the assignment of seeing what could be done today in terms of the real conquest 

 of the ocean. I wish there were time to tell you of some of the concepts and 

 ideas that came out of that study, but this has been published and is available. 

 The point I want to make is that it was apparent to all of us that the time was 

 right not only for such a study, but also for beginning to accomplish some of the 

 ideas which evolved. We looked hard at how one might go about the engineering 



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