Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 47

Jack Allsliul Inform the Book Dat Platnick Is Here 1 Vi The pang of the Duke of Windsor reminds me at a story Call it Commoner end the and dw hero a newspaper photographer whose version of the language was at variance with the English Die was classically fractured with a Yiddish idiom Sam Platnick was a Russian immigrant who came to this country just in time to be drafted for World War I They sent him out to old Camp Mills and he Immediately came to the attention of a general The commander figure out how his toughest topkick could ever make Sam understand an order like the top So Sam got the assignment to take identification pictures of the doughboys headed for France That gave him a trade and after the war he settled in Hempstead and opened a photo studio He lan hustled his tail to the accidents and fires and police busts and peddled the pictures to the wire services and the New York tabloids Sam took pictures of the most celebrated people of the day and his reputation grew It so much that he always managed to be where the news was tweaking but that his subjects never forgot the non-sequiturs he dropped on every assignment They tell the story about the late Cardinal Hayes returning from Rome after his elevation to that rank The shipboard photographers around the prelate but Sam never lifted his camera He waited until toe competition dispersed walked over to toe cardinal and said all gone your worship go to your cabin and make a picture of toe wife and toe One day in 1947 1 got a tip at ournews desk that toe Duke and Duchess had arrived on toe North Shore for their first visit to toe states since before World War I dispatched reporter Virginia Sheward and photographer Edna Murray to track them down Ihe girls were smart They headed immediately for Freddie joint in Locust Valley That was the hangout for toe society crowd and anybody knew the location Freddie was the man He told the girls toe Duke and Duchess had The girts not only lost Drennan chief competitor in toe Long Island free-lance photography business they lost Sam too They came to toe Robertson estate and were stopped by a security guard Could they interview toe Duke and Duchess and take pictures? The guard checked by phone Duke will grant an he said only when all toe representatives of toe press That was when Sam bustled up out of brenih looking to toe right and left visibly relieved that no Drennan was in sight good he Raid to the guard inform please toe doiok dot Platnick is here He knows me already from toe Palace where I took his picture before even he was a The answer came back: Mr Platnick in And whoever else is They walked in toe three of them shortly followed by reporters from AP UP and INS The Duke and Duchess emerged from the door of toe French chateau and stood in toe brick-paved courtyard waiting to be interviewed The press conference had to wait a minute however Platnick walked over to the king who had abdicated his throne tor his sweetheart he said remember me from when I was in London before toe war I would like to please present Miss Murray and Miss Sheward from News-day end all the bendits from New The little duke accepted toe introductions as If they had been prepared at 10 Downing Street with no deviation from protocol He shook hands all around and then submitted to toe poses ordered by Platnick As they departed Sam said send a couple prints No charge of Die duke nodded his acceptance a former king who had found something in common with a commoner Sam died a few years ago and his son Ray now runs toe family business He has a story too Sam had gone to Miami on vacation and his bridgework had fallen from a wadi basin and broken He was sad when Ray greeted him on his return Ray told him not to worry it take long for a new set of dentures "But until Sam groaned hcv to talk so Sam the Commoner in 1954 just checked ki as guests of toe Markoe Robertsons in Lattingtown The Newsday team hurried to toe assignment end ran into Sam Platnick He was looking for the Duke too Apprised of his whereabouts Sam said know how to get there? follow you in my car But make a hurry John Drennan who sleeps with his pants on he miss a fire must be looking toot lose Martin Buskin A Way Out of the Fiscal Darkness all of Long Island Into one college with credits and courses recognized by all colleges Adel-phi Post and Hofstra could eliminate expensive competing graduate programs the engineering programs at Stony Brook and Brooklyn Poly could be coordinated to make toe best use of expensive facilities the crush for admission to Nassau Community College might be siphoned off to nearby Hofstra technical programs at New York Institute of Technology and toe State University at Farmingdale could be coordinated to avoid duplication There would be massive commuting of students and faculty from campus to campus and a system formulated to have tuition costs charged hack to a home campus None of it would be easy There would be as there is now petty bickering and jealousy Thera would be trampling of institutional pride and traditions Thera would be an enormous overhaul of archaic administrative machinery But what could result would be a dynamic new system that would offer a wealth of opportunity to students at reduced cost without sacrificing toe diversity of various institutions Hopefully what would be eliminated in tlie new system would be costly duplication of services that exist because of toe present academic jungle Higher education on Long Island and throughout most of New York is at present an archaic wasteful and inefficient contraption that can no longer justify its existence One wonders which Long Island college will have to collapse before a sense of urgent change emerges consider necessary if the competing institutions are all to survive Diey acknowledged that any dramatic Efforts at cooperation were probably several years away In toe meantime college presidents are hungrily awaiting the massive federal aid bill which could provide colleges with more than $600000000 in annual aid for toe next three years In addition students could obtain depending on need up to 60 per cent of toe amount needed to attend college Somehow in the near future toe conflict over toe antibusing amendments will be resolved and toe money will begin flowing It will ease toe pressure but it will not end toe crisis Die federal aid may not come in time to prevent toe dismemberment of New York University And it may not be enough to stop tuition increases at Long Island colleges in toe next few years And it certainly will not be enough to stop the unprecedented pressure for admission to overcrowded factory-like State University units throughout the state Much more than toe dole of federal aid Is needed although at this stage of toe chaos such a program is essential There is already the beginnings of a blueprint for toe needed change in toe talk of regional cooperation going on among private institutions and among public and private colleges A master plan for growth in higher education has to become a living force rather than just another piece of paper occasionally referred to by the State Board of Regents The reality of true regional cooperation would turn The chestnut about the crisis in private higher education is such that no one who is not paying tuition or trying to run a college on tuition funds really thinks about it any more It is much easier to ignore this nagging mess than to worry about it And there are cynics who say that nothing will ever be done about this problem until some private colleges actually tout down So now it appears that this is about to happen Legislation has been approved to permit New York Uiveisity to sell its Bronx campus to City University And a task force at NYU has reoommended closing down the graduate school of social work cutting toe faculty by about 200 and selling university-owned Town Hall In Washington Congress still agonizes over toe most ambitious aid to higher education bill ever devised: Anti-busing amendments are tied to it In Albany the legislature has passed toe same amount of aid to private universities as was authorized last year The money has been repeatedly criticized as completely inadequate for toe needs of toe schools eligible for such assistance Last month four private colleges on Long Island Post Southampton Molloy and Brooklyn Poly announced tuition in-(veasea How long the other Institutions will be able to avoid raising their charges is an unsettling question A few weeks ago toe presidents of toe major Long Island colleges met and acknowledged that students would continue to face regular tuition increases unless now sources of money were found Diey also described preliminary efforts at regional cooperation that all A master plan for growth in higher education has to become a living force rather than just another piece of paper occasionally referred to by the State Board of Regents Wednesday May 1972 47 1 -4 I bT.