A Letter from the President

Emily Dickinson once wrote, “There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away.” So it is that our second issue of the Carnegie Reporter takes us on a global voyage: to Balkan nations seeking to build a civil society in a region still bristling with ethnic tensions; to African countries that are plugging into the Internet to overcome another famine, the information famine; to the seemingly apolitical world inhabited by young Americans, many of whom don’t vote and think that volunteering is sufficient for citizenship; and to American high schools where significant numbers of students graduate with no or limited reading skills and where, it seems, “only computers and condoms are new,” as Bel Kaufman wrote, comparing current realities with her fictional portrayal of failing schools in her best-selling 1964 novel, Up the Down Staircase.

These four articles explore issues close to our philanthropic mission, which puts faith in the power of education, knowledge and communication to improve the lot of mankind and promote international peace. These ideas were carved into our work by our founder, Andrew Carnegie. He wrote: “Peace wins her way not by force; her appeal is to the reason and conscience of man…Upon no foundation but that of popular education can man erect the structure of an enduring civilization.”

Along with many other philanthropies, we see our work as nurturing good ideas. In this context, the Carnegie Reporter is a “frigate” for carrying ideas forward and developing discussions among colleagues, researchers and policymakers who share our interests. It’s also worth noting that while the Reporter inevitably mentions the pioneering work of some of our grantees, the magazine is not a showcase for the Corporation’s grantmaking. The issues presented here are also of deep concern to other foundations, which have a different, but equal dedication to the work of creating knowledge. We mention some of their philanthropic work to provide a glimpse of the whole picture; in a sense, we are unified by our efforts to nurture the growth of knowledge and peace. In a small way, then, the Reporter is an effort to promote greater understanding of these global challenges and to encourage more collaboration among the many individuals and organizations that are taking on the arduous task of improving the human endeavor.

During the last few months I had the inspirational opportunity to travel with my colleagues to Russia, China and East Africa. In visits to the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Makerere University in Uganda, we saw the enthusiastic start of a joint effort to strengthen these universities. In sub-Saharan Africa, we are working with African universities and academic associations as well as with the MacArthur, Ford and Rockefeller foundations to strengthen higher education and foster such things as continent-wide learning networks.

In China, I was asked to give several lectures on the strength and weaknesses of American higher education as part of a celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the Fulbright program in China. And in Moscow, we launched another higher education initiative, mentioned in the Reporter’s first issue, called Higher Education in the former Soviet Union. Our goal is to help restore Russia’s intelligentsia, the country’s engine of reform, and nurture a new generation of scholars and leaders. Once again, we’re collaborating with the MacArthur Foundation as well as with the Russian government. During our visit to Moscow, we announced the creation of the first three Centers for Advanced Study and Education. These centers, located in regional universities, are designed to become epicenters of excellence in the social sciences and humanities.

During the trip, I was struck again and again by the universal quest for learning, the unity of scholarship, the centrality of the English language, the high regard in which American higher education is held and—on the part of so many people in so many places—the thirst for connection, contact and communication. In that regard, the Internet has removed many barriers, creating a new unity in the realm of access to learning communities.

The trip also reinforced, once again, the vision of Andrew Carnegie that education, equal opportunity and access to knowledge are the sure way to understanding and, hence, international peace. Since I began this letter with an American poet, in the interests of universality of learning, I will sign off with a quotation from a Senegalese poet, Baba Dioun:

In the end
We will conserve only what we love
We will love only what we understand
And we will understand only what we have been taught

Vartan Gregorian
President

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