Letters

Kudos for July issue!

Editor: Congratulations on the July 1987 issue. The review of Garry Wills' book on Reagan by James Carey and the essay on Afro-Americans of Chicago by Christopher Reed are exceptional both in insight and as pieces of writing.

The entire issue, with its review of current literature on and about Illinois establishes a new benchmark for Illinois Issues. Congratulations!

Robert J. Klaus
Executive Director
Illinois Humanities Council

On Carey on Wills' psychobiography of Reagan

Editor: I was enormously impressed with James Carey's discussion of Garry Wills' Reagan's America: Innocents at Home that appeared in the July issue of II. I have been watching the reviews of Wills' book rather carefully, and nowhere else have I seen such a thoughtful discussion of it. Carey takes what is usable in Wills and elaborates it intelligently into a commentary on what he calls the "truths of the republican tradition." Thankfully, he ignores Wills' tone of debunking and takes seriously the heart of his basically psychological approach to Ronald Reagan. Let no one be deceived. For all his kicking and screaming, his disdain for "psyco-babble," and his mocking of any and all efforts at psychobiography, that's what Wills has written: a psychobiography. In Carey the book found a deserving commentator.

Charles B. Strozier
Professor of History and Executive Director
Center on Violence and Human Survival
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
New York, N.Y.

State chamber's warning: control spending

Editor: Illinois has said "NO" to new taxes.

We are recommending that the governor establish a top-caliber task force of Illinois citizens, including representatives of business, to conduct a thorough review of state spending patterns and revenue growth and to make recommendations on future priorities.

We are pleased that the people of Illinois, including business men and women statewide, let their legislators know that a tax increase was not the acceptable approach to addressing the overspending problem in Illinois.

We will be watching the governor's '' doomsday" budget cuts, but it is our belief that we can expect nearly one-half billion dollars in revenue growth for fiscal year 1988, which should finance most of the state's major programs next year.

According to our recent study on state spending and its impact on economic growth, Illinois has clearly established spending patterns that are putting it on a collision course. There will continue to be unbalanced budgets unless something is done to control spending in the future. We cannot continue this present course.

Lester W. Brann Jr. President
Illinois State Chamber of Commerce

Higher ed in DuPage County: NIU's LaTourette responds

Editor: I would like to commend Boyd Keenan of the University of Illinois for his generally excellent attempt to provide a comprehensive analysis of the extraordinarily complex developments involving the future of graduate programs in DuPage County ("High tech and higher education in DuPage: testing the system of systems," June 1987, pp. 14-17).

Although Dr. Keenan does point out the recent interest in DuPage by the Illinois Institute of Technology and others, and his own university's presence in DuPage for "several decades," it also should be noted that Northern Illinois University has been providing classes and programs in DuPage County for more than 55 years. In fact, last year alone, Northern enrolled more than 2,000 students in off-campus degree granting programs in DuPage, and even more are expected this year as we expand offerings to new sites.

Another distinction also needs to be made concerning the difference between institutions such as Dr. Keenan's, which rely heavily on videotape or TV links for graduate extension courses, and Northern's tradition of off-campus programs taught by professors from the DeKalb campus who meet their students in the classroom.

We have always felt, and continue to feel, that this is a crucially important part of our role as the primary comprehensive regional university serving the taxpayers of all 23 counties of northern Illinois, in contrast with the University of Illinois' demonstrated goal of being a "world-class" flagship institution whose efforts are geared to a national and international constituency. In contrast to other major universities in the Midwest, which see the majority of their graduates migrate out of state, 86 percent of our undergraduates return to work in northern Illinois. This is dramatically underscored by a recent survey which showed that 76 percent of Northern's alumni reside in the state and thus contribute to the quality of life and the economic health of the state and support the state directly through the payment of taxes. Among the key factors that convinced members of the Illinois General Assembly in recent years to approve the creation of both the NIU College of Law and the NIU College of Engineering and Engineering Technology was the fact that many fully qualified and talented students from Illinois' most populous region were being forced to seek higher education in other states. This unfortunate brain drain of many of our state's best and brightest was due to the facy that no public institution offered the education they sought in a setting north of Champaign-Urbana.

The same points apply in DuPage, where Northern stands ready to continue its tradition of service to northern Illinois taxpayers, either at our own facilities, in Naperville, or elsewhere, or in a cooperative and equal partnership with Dr. Keenan's institution or other partners designated by the Illinois General Assembly and the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

John E. La Tourette President
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb

6/August & September 1987/Illinois Issues