Convening for a second time this year, delegates from three Brooklyn colleges will meet today to discuss student problems and to attempt to formulate a concrete program for solving them.

            Such a conference is of great importance at the present time, when educational budgets are being reduced throughout the country, necessitating increased expenses on the part of the students, and when the business world is unable to absorb the influx of college graduates, who, as a result, clutter up the labor market and accept any work that is available, if they are fortunate enough to find anything available.

            It was thought for a time that the National Youth Administration would be able to care for needy young people, but all of its many ambitious aims have apparently not been fulfilled; for Aubrey Williams, National Youth Administrator, discussing the problem of giving employment to unemployed young persons, has said,"I don't know where to turn, I don't know what to do. The only way out I see just now is public work for these young people ... There will be no expansion of private industry to include these young people at any time that you and I can forsee immediately."

            Realizing the full stress of a situation such as this, it is up to the young people themselves to formulate concrete plans for their own welfare. That is why they are meeting today to take up the questions of retrenchment in education, student undergraduate employment, and opportunities for graduates. That is why as many student delegates as possibly should join in today's conference, while those who are not official delegates should attend as non-voting representatives.

            It is up to us to solve the problems facing us. The gripping needs of unemployed young men and women and of students facing unemployment are present and cannot wait too long. Something must be done, and we must start to do it today!

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May 20, 2004