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Summer Session Kansan
Tuesday, July 30, 1963
Space Age College Works Without Ivy
By Leon Daniel
CAPE CANAVERAL — (UPI) You won't find any halls of ivy at the nation's only space engineering college.
But what you will find at Brevard Engineering College, about 20 miles down the coast, is a faculty made up of some of the nation's top scientists and engineers.
THE PART-TIME instructors lecture in classrooms filled with dedicated students whose average age is 30.
Most of the students and nearly all the faculty members are employed at missile and space technological centers at Cape Canaveral and Patrick Air Force Base.
Sparked by space-race industries which have grown up along the coast near the Cape, Brevard is the first college in the United States to offer a master of science degree in space technology.
VINE-COVERED walls would seem out of place at Brevard, where theories chalked on a blackboard may be used the next day in dealing with a real missile-tracking situation. With the rapid advance in space science, some of the school's teachers must write their own text-books.
While five-year-old Brevard may be too young to have traditions, it is sophisticated enough to offer such lofty courses as celestial mechanics, space medicine and a long list of subjects in higher mathematics.
The college was established in 1958 by Dr. Jerome P. Keuper (pronounced Cooper), now its president, and a group of scientists who worked with Keuper for the Radio Corporation of America service company.
KEUPER SAID they started the college because they saw the need for still higher education for the well-educated people in the space field.
"We learned that many scholars and other space experts hesitated to come to Cape Canaveral because
they could not continue their studies here." Keuner said.
Of the school's 700 students, Keuper said about 165 are graduate engineers working for master's degrees. The rest of the students are undergraduates, some of whom are taking a few special courses and others who are working toward a bachelor of science degree.
KEUPER TAKES great pride in his ability to stretch his education dollars, which he spends a good part of his time soliciting from private sources.
"We built this building we're in now for $7 a square foot," he said proudly, adding that other school buildings in the area would have cost twice as much.
"What we need now is somebody who wants to have his name on a new library building," Keuper said. "I believe we could build it for $60,-000. We already have the books."
KEUPER KEEPS a tight rein on operational costs. He, a single faculty member, a clerk and a janitor are the only full-time employees at the college.
Keuper said the school, so far, has received no local, state or federal aid, but he gave the impression he wouldn't turn it down if it were offered.
Keuper said all of the major companies near here working on government missile contracts approve of the college as a way for their employees to progress in their fields. Many of these companies make donations to the school as well as pay the tuition of their employees, he said.
Keuper, a 42-year-old native of Newport, Ky., who holds a bachelor of science degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master's degree in physics from Stanford University, said he is in the education field to stay.
"I intend to devote the rest of my life to building the best space-science college in the world right here," he said.
Quiet Moves by British Could Change NATO
By K. C. Thaler
LONDON — Britain's Conservative government is quietly switching around to President Kennedy's plan for a mixed-manned, Polaris-equipped nuclear surface force.
The shift is prompted by a revised appraisal of the international situation and Germany's future role in the alliance.
BRITISH LEADERS who have been critical of Kennedy's multinational force project now feel the idea may prove the best way of securing West Germany's adherence to the Western Alliance.
They are also coming around, hesitantly, to Kennedy's view that the project of a mixed-manned nuclear NATO force may be the best way of stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.
The government intends, for the time being, to maintain publicly its cool attitude to the project, largely for inner-political reasons and to silence the Laborite opposition before an election.
BUT THE Conservative government, if re-elected, will be inclined to take another look at the mixed-manned force project with a view to adopting it.
British reaction so far has been negative to the plan for both political and technical reasons.
Some of Britain's top experts have said the idea is not practical, and that running a nuclear force with mixed crews would lead to friction and trouble.
THEY ALSO have argued that surface ships would be too exposed to enemy attacks, and that at any rate the financing of the force would be too costly.
The Laborite opposition, which is divided on the advisibility of an independent British nuclear deterrent altogether, is strongly opposed to a mixed manned force which would give Germany a finger on the nuclear trigger. It rules out British participation in it.
Air-Conditioned JAYHAWK CAFE
When Kennedy and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan met here earlier this month they agreed that "various possible ways" should be discussed with the allies on closer association of NATO members with the nuclear deterrent. The official communique specifically stated that discussions on the mixed manned force would be "without prejudice to the question of British participation."
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