Adapting the university to the constraints. Responsibilities and opportunities of a new age

James J. Duderstadt, University of Michigan
2016

During the years following the Great Depression and World War II,the United States launched a massive effort to provide educationalopportunities to all Americans. Returning veterans funded through the GI Bill (Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944) tripled college enrolments. The post-WWII research strategy developed by Vannevar Bush transformed our campuses into research universities responsible for most of the nation’s basic research (Bush, 1945).