[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 134 (Friday, November 19, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S11627]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RETIREMENT OF CLARE COTTON

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to pay tribute 
to the outstanding contributions made to the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts by Clare Cotton, president of the Association of 
Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts. Next month, 
Clare will retire after 17 years of impressive service and advocacy on 
behalf of 55 Massachusetts colleges and universities, their students, 
and faculty.
  In fact, Clare's contributions to higher education reach far beyond 
our State. His dedication, knowledge, and passion for education have 
improved the lives of countless students in communities across America. 
It is difficult to consider any aspect of policy in higher education 
without thinking of Clare and calling upon his expertise. All of us who 
know him will miss him greatly.
  Clare's leadership in higher education is based on his brilliant 
intellect, his love of learning, and his sound political instincts. In 
conversation, he could call up specifics of accounting regulations 
governing private colleges and universities, refer to undergraduate 
enrollment trends in science and math, and discuss the impact of both 
on a pending piece of legislation.
  His work in 1997 as a member of the National Commission on the Cost 
of Higher Education is still cited by leaders of all sectors in the 
field. Need-based aid never had a better advocate than Clare, when he 
served first as a member and then as chairman of the congressionally 
authorized Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance during 
2002 and 2003.
  Whatever the issue, Clare is adept at assessing its political and 
economic cost to students and institutions, and he has championed 
colleges and universities and their students for nearly all of his 
professional life.
  His impressive contributions have earned him distinguished status in 
the national associations of Colleges and Universities, and he has 
served in leadership positions in two of these organizations. Almost no 
policy decision could be made without Clare's wise counsel and support.
  Clare's brilliant career was very much honed at the local level. From 
1977 to 1987, he was president of the Boston-Fenway Program, an urban 
planning group of 12 non-profit educational, cultural and medical 
institutions. Long before it became fashionable, Clare helped build an 
educational consortium that was able to maximize scarce financial 
resources and enhance both the quality and depth of these landmark 
institutions in Boston. Community policing in Boston was born through 
Clare's work with the Fenway consortium.
  Earlier in his career, Clare had also been a writer and a journalist. 
He was director of European Securities Publications in London during 
the 1960s, and he also served as a correspondent for The Wall Street 
Journal.
  Anyone in our nation who hopes for a better life and sees college 
education as the means for achieving it owes Clare Cotton a tremendous 
debt of gratitude. Our colleges and universities and Congress alike 
have benefited from his wise counsel, gentle humor, tireless 
dedication, and skillful advocacy. I wish him a long and happy 
retirement with his wonderful wife Helen, their four remarkable 
children, and their nine grandchildren, and I salute him for all he has 
done so well for Massachusetts and our country.

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