51猎奇

On September 27, 1972, at 4 p.m., an audience of 500 gathered in Chancellors Hall at the State Education Department Building in Albany, New York, for the first-ever commencement of the Regents External Degree Program. A total of 77 men and women had accomplished what just two years prior, the new State Education Commissioner Ewald B. Nyquist had said should be possible: receiving degrees based on learning, not seat time, and awarded by the most unconventional university anywhere.

Alan Pifer, president of the Carnegie Corporation 鈥� which along with the Ford Foundation provided major grants to develop the Regents External Degree Program 鈥� delivered the Commencement address. He described higher education as 鈥淭he development of a refined capacity for thought, expression, and sensitivity 鈥� something to be discovered and used by individuals of all ages to make their lives more interesting and enjoyable, more purposeful, and more rewarding to themselves and society at large.鈥�

After the event, The New York Times reported the students received their degrees 鈥渇rom a university without campus, buildings, or professors.鈥�