New Hope in New Jersey

New Jersey's long-neglected, almost nonexistent system of public higher education acquired a needed talent last week when Ralph A. Dungan, White House adviser in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, was sworn in as the state's first chancellor of higher education. His urgent task will be to transform six state colleges devoted mainly to teacher training into high-quality liberal-arts colleges in an effort to stem New Jersey's exodus of college students to other states.

While the unflappable and genial Dungan, 44, is ideally suited to the challenge of luring professorial talent into New Jersey, he will have to use all of his skills in salesmanship. The state has a deserved reputation for penny-pinching in running its colleges and its lone public university, Rutgers. It recently ranked 46th among the states in per capita support of higher education. The situation was so bad that a committee headed by Princeton President Robert F. Goheen last year urged a complete reorganization of the system. Pushed by Governor Richard Hughes, the New Jersey legislature enacted reforms, took higher education out of the hands of a state board and department of education dominated by the public grade and high schools. Following the pattern in 39 other states, it created a separate board and department of higher education, with a chancellor as top executive. Even more significantly, the state passed its first broad tax, a sales tax that will contribute to the $38 million in college-construction funds this year.

Dungan's background, far more political than academic, may be what the job requires. He holds a B.S. from St. Joseph's College, a Jesuit school in Philadelphia, and an M.A. in public affairs from Princeton. He became a legislative assistant to then Senator John Kennedy in 1956, thereafter was one of Kennedy's closest political associates. He stayed on as a special assistant to President Johnson, served as U.S. Ambassador to Chile from 1964 until last month. Dungan is aware that a tough job lies ahead. But the position has some compensations. It pays $32,000, includes the use of a $90,000 mansion --which his seven children will help fill--and he can hardly lose, since there is no way for higher education in New Jersey to decline.

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