1990

A major part of this year's annual report is devoted to a review by Dr. Carolyn Makinson, Program Associate for Population, of the Foundation's approach to the sometimes contentious but critically important field of population studies and population policy. Few people dispute the long-term significance of population trends. At the same time, it is evident that strident debate and political actions, centered usually on issues related to abortion, have discouraged some donors from support of activities in this field, including activities unrelated to abortion. 

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has not chosen to play an advocacy role in the debate over abortion; as Dr. Makinson's review will indicate, our main programs in the population field have other foci. Nonetheless, some of our activities in this field inescapably intersect aspects of the debate over abortion, and our staff and Trustees have felt strongly that one of the functions of a private foundation is to continue to support programs that seem worthwhile and consistent with its mission, even in--perhaps especially in--the presence of strong ideological and political currents.

Before yielding to Dr. Makinson, I wish to comment briefly on other aspects of the work of the Foundation in 1990. Overall appropriations reached an all-time high of just over $80 million. This level of grantmaking was part of a longer-term plan, adopted in 1988, to phase in higher levels of appropriations as newly recruited staff, and newly initiated programs, permitted the effective expenditure of larger sums of money. The Trustees decided not to alter this plan because of the fall in stock-market values in the second half of 1990. Adherence to some reasonable version of a "steady-as-you-go" approach is necessary if the Foundation is to maintain the continuity of its programs; otherwise, we could not make the long-term commitments that are essential for the success of efforts to achieve systemic improvements in areas ranging from the operations of museums to graduate education in the arts and sciences to the revitalization of market economies in eastern Europe.

One of the many contributions of Dr. William 0. Baker, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the last sixteen years and a Trustee for more than two decades, was his willingness to argue persuasively for just such a long-term approach. And it is only because of his retirement, in September of 1990, that we can give him the credit he so richly deserves. If he were still responsible for the Foundation, and still "reviewing" these reports in his gentle way, that sentence, and the next few paragraphs, would have been expunged without question.

Dr. Baker's entry in Who's Who begins by identifying him as a "research chemist." Rarely have words concealed so much-as the next ten inches of the entry at least begin to illustrate. Dr. Baker has been a pioneer in the organization of science and learning, and the harnessing of their power to the needs of the world, through his leadership of Bell Laboratories, his service as advisor to every President of the United States since Dwight Eisenhower, his chairmanship of the Board of Rockefeller University, and his participation in countless other activities and organizations.

The extraordinary range of his accomplishments notwithstanding, it is the quality of Dr. Baker's contributions that is most noteworthy. His understated way of expressing himself ("we wonder," "we suspect," "we note") can be very deceptive. All who have worked with him have learned how carefully one must listen to avoid missing the absolutely central point, quite apart from the learned nuance. Dr. Baker's breadth of insight, combined with an unusual capacity for quietly effective leadership, has transformed some of the major institutions of our society. That is not too large a claim.

At this Foundation, Dr. Baker has been committed from the very start to its emphasis on the "higher learning," always seen as an instrument in support of "well-doing" and "well-being," the twin aims of the Foundation. He has been more responsible than anyone else, save Paul Mellon himself, for the Foundation's evolution into a national institution with the range of programmatic objectives detailed in its last twenty annual reports.

At the conclusion of the final meeting of the Trustees chaired by Dr. Baker, Paul Mellon read the following resolution, which we now make part of this record:

WHEREAS William 0. Baker has served more organizations engaged in a greater variety of important purposes across wider fields of knowledge and practice than is either common or indeed scarcely detectable in the sublunary worlds of ordinary mortals; and

WHEREAS no organization has received more of his devoted time,attentiveness, and commitment than has The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and

WHEREAS he has counseled and guided this Foundation as a Trustee for two decades and as Chairman of the Board for the last sixteen years, giving tangible expression to the deeply humane values that the Foundation embodies; and

WHEREAS he is a clear Copernican, insofar as he has always demonstrated a distinct preference for a world that, like himself, is in perpetual motion, but motion that is regulated by laws as elegant and purposeful as they are ultimately hidden from common view; and

WHEREAS he is a devout Newtonian and figure of the enlightenment who, with the aid of gravity, has remained firmly rooted upon this amiable planet Earth, contending with its bedeviling problems in ways that are always intellectually ingenious, syntactically inventive, and unerringly effective; and

WHEREAS he constantly approaches but is careful never to exceed the speed of light or permit Einstein's concept of relativity to slip inadvertently into any notion of mere relativism that might blur the clarity of those high standards to which he is unequivocally dedicated;

LET IT THEREFORE BE RESOLVED that William 0. Baker, having been present at the creation of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and having been so integral to its entire history, will from this time forth be linked indissolubly to its future by bearing the title "Chairman Emeritus" beginning this 29th day of September in the year 1990.

No attempt will be made here to survey the development of major programs of the Foundation in 1990 other than the population program. It may be useful, however, to call attention to one "theme" that runs through certain of the individual grants listed at the back of the printed annual report. For some years now, the Foundation has been extending its reach abroad, in ways that have seemed consistent with its primary emphasis on grantmaking in the United States (an emphasis that we expect to continue).

This modest enlargement of the scope of our activities was illustrated in recent annual reports by grants made in 1988 and 1989 for library projects in Britain and elsewhere in Europe that were designed to complement and reinforce ongoing efforts in this country; the goal is to achieve, on an international scale, coordinated microfilming of endangered collections and the attendant creation of on-line bibliographic records. Similarly, the 1988 annual report (pdf) called attention to special grants made to assist beleaguered universities in South Africa that were seeking--against great odds--to advance values to which the Foundation has long been committed.

During 1990, a number of grants were made (in widely differing areas of activity) that reflect this somewhat greater emphasis on responding to opportunities abroad when the arguments for doing so seem especially persuasive.

• By far the most ambitious effort has centered on Eastern Europe. Some three dozen grants, totaling approximately $5 million, were made in 1990 to assist Eastern European countries seeking to rebuild their economies and their educational systems. Emphasis has been placed on improving business education and strengthening the infrastructure of leading university centers and academies--primarily by making grants directly to institutions and organizations in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Under the leadership of Professor Richard E. Quandt of Princeton University, who has advised the Foundation in this area, progress has been made in establishing computer links between scholars in Eastern Europe and in other countries, in modernizing libraries, in reintroducing graduate education in modern economics (which was particularly damaged under Communist regimes), in teaching principles of accounting and business management, and in seeking to stimulate entrepreneurship and the development of small businesses.

  We are persuaded that political and social change in Eastern Europe is sustainable only if economic systems begin to work more effectively. Better economic performance in turn will depend at least in part on the capacity of educational systems operating at various levels to make contributions of many kinds, including the provision of both requisite skills and a deeper understanding of how markets work. Needless to say, much more needs to be accomplished on all of these fronts--but contacts have been established and a beginning has been made.

• Events in South Africa have been as momentous in their own way as the pace of change in Eastern Europe. In 1990, the Foundation made substantial grants--beyond those made in 1988--to three leading universities for the primary purpose of supporting education at the graduate level for larger numbers of black South Africans in South African universities. It is evident that these universities, which are operating under intense cross-pressures, have much to contribute in the difficult (but hopeful) transition that now appears to be at hand. The consequences of success or failure are so important for all of Africa that exceptional efforts to be of assistance seem fully justified.

  As this report was being drafted (February of 1991), a small delegation sponsored by the Foundation (led by Derek Bok, President of Harvard University, and including John Marcum of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Henry Drewry of the Foundation's staff) was in South Africa exploring a wide range of questions pertaining to the future of higher education in that country.

• Another large appropriation ($2.5 million) went to the Social Science Research Council to undergird the Council's program of dissertation fellowships for graduate students pursuing area studies. This grant complements other initiatives of the Foundation in graduate education and in area studies (including grants made to demographic centers in the population program and a program aimed at increasing the number of PhD recipients in economics with some competence in the languages and cultures of major regions of the world). The general decline of external support for graduate students with broad interests of this kind is worrying--especially when the need for them is greater than ever before.

• A combination of legislative changes and political and economic forces has led to new (and very different) waves of immigrants to this country. Surprisingly little is known, however, about either the effects of these immigrants on our society (including effects on minority groups) or the extent to which our institutions, and especially our educational institutions, are adapting appropriately to the needs of these new students. The Foundation made a number of grants in 1990 to explore these issues, in the hope that carefully chosen demonstration projects can then test some of the conclusions reached.

  Patterns of immigration can be understood, of course, only in the context of developments within the "sending" countries, and the effects of selective emigration on these countries can be even more significant than the effects of immigration here. It has seemed sensible, therefore, to reinforce our concern for the domestic implications of immigration with increased support for projects focused directly on regions such as the Caribbean. The Foundation has also extended its more general interest in the Caribbean and in Latin America, and grants were made in 1990 to the Kellogg Institute at Notre Dame, the Institute of the Americas at UC San Diego, other university-based programs, and organizations such as the Americas Society. In 1991, we expect to make additional grants to a small number of carefully chosen centers for policy studies that are based in different parts of Latin America.

• Another example of efforts within the Foundation to link domestic programs with related opportunities abroad is the series of grants to three Chilean universities for botanical research. The Foundation's broader program of support for studies in plant ecology is well known, and is well represented again this year on the list of appropriations. Special efforts have been made by William Robertson IV, the Foundation's Program Director for Conservation and the Environment, to encourage closer collaboration between institutions in the two hemispheres, and we are optimistic that the benefits of this approach will extend beyond the direct effects on teaching and research.

This brief account of particular grants that relate directly to other parts of the world is of course highly selective. It does not include any reference to such important programs as population (discussed in detail in a separate section), the Foundation's continuing support for scholarly centers such as Villa I Tatti, or other grants that might be put under the broad heading of international affairs. But we hope that it at least illustrates our interest in supporting ideas that reach across geographic regions as well as programmatic areas.

Let me conclude my comments by simply noting the continuing commitment of the Foundation to many activities not mentioned elsewhere in this account. These include:

• --major programs in the arts, including new programs for theater, dance preservation, and literary presses;
• --additional grants made to museums as part of the Foundation's effort to support scholarship and curatorial activities related to their permanent collections at a time when limited resources are available for such purposes;
• --renewed support of institutions such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the New York Public Library, and the New-York Historical Society;
• --recent grants in the field of literacy, following the program outlined by the Foundation's Executive Vice President, Neil L. Rudenstine, in the annual report for 1989 (pdf);
• --grants to advance work in science and society;
• --the major commitment by the Foundation to programs designed to increase the number of minority candidates for PhDs in selected areas of the arts and sciences;
• --new efforts to support the preparation of minority students for careers in elementary and secondary teaching;
• --"consolidation" grants to improve educational effectiveness and efficiency at colleges and universities, and discretionary awards to support initiatives of new presidents of a small number of liberal-arts colleges;
• --a new "institutional advancement" program for a limited number of universities in a position to make unusually rapid progress in key areas within the arts and sciences;
• --continuing support for the Mellon Fellowships in the Humanities, and new efforts to assist leading universities to address long-standing problems in graduate education in the arts and sciences-an area in which the Foundation plans to invest particularly heavily in the next five to ten years.

We expect to devote sections of future annual reports to these and other topics. In general, we have decided to concentrate on one or two areas or themes in each report, and not to attempt to recount recent developments in all fields of interest to the Foundation. Readers with special interests in other fields may find answers to some of their questions (by inference at least) by examining the summary table of appropriations (pdf) and the detailed list of specific grants made by the Foundation which is contained in the printed 1990 annual report. We would also be pleased to respond as fully as we can to questions or comments related to any field in which the Foundation is active. We are acutely conscious of how much we benefit from the candid advice of colleagues "in the field," and those of us on the staff hope no one will be dissuaded (at least not easily) from pursuing issues of consequence with any of us.

William G. Bowen
President
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
140 East 62nd Street
New York, NY 10021
(212) 838-8400