10 University Heads Praise Bush

George Bush gave and received advice on federal budget constraints and education Monday in a meeting with 10 university presidents, who generally praised the man who has vowed to be “the education President.”

“He reaffirmed that commitment to us today in no uncertain terms,” said Benno Schmidt Jr., president of Yale University, Bush’s alma mater.

“We recognize that we have a friend of education in the White House. We’re excited and grateful for that,” Schmidt said at the outset of the hourlong discussion with Bush, Vice President-elect Dan Quayle, Education Secretary Lauro F. Cavazos, New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, the future White House chief of staff, and transition co-director Robert Teeter.

Bush did not join the presidents in speaking to reporters.

The university heads said that they had discussed the importance of the federal role in ensuring access to higher education, a need to support scientific research on campuses and a shortage of scientists and engineers, especially among members of minority groups.

Schmidt said Bush had “stressed the limits on federal resources and the need to make hard choices about the federal budget to bring the deficit under control.” He said the presidents understood that and agreed to help Bush by carefully setting “the educational priorities and the science research priorities in the country.”