An Ivy Covered Crisis - The Silent Explosion (1965)

Duration: 0:29:01

Year Published: 1965

Sound: sound

Description: Narrated by Ronald Reagan, this 1965 institutional film from the College Loyalty Alumni Support Program (CLASP) argues that higher education is vital to preserving America’s democratic freedoms. The narrator directly addresses the viewer: a (male) college graduate who came of age during World War II. He reminds the viewer of their own college years and emphasizes the importance of education to the rapidly changing post-war world. Texas Governor John Connally concludes the film by asking the viewer to donate to their alma mater, so that future generations will have the skills necessary to protect the American Dream from threats both foreign and domestic. Even as it champions equal education for all citizens, this short film also reflects of the social and political anxieties of the mid-1960s. Founded in 1961, CLASP was a coalition of Texas colleges working together to fundraise and generate support for higher education.CLASP was started by James S. Triolo, Executive Director of Development at the University of Texas at Austin, in 1961. Modeled on a similar initiative for Ivy League schools held in Connecticut, CLASP united Texas colleges and universities for a short-term, personal solicitation campaign designed to generate both funds and publicity for higher education in the state.