Presented to the faculty of the Fashion Institute of Technology (New York City) after the acceptance by the New York Board of Regents of the school's plan to offer master's degree programs, these remarks focus on the problems presented by rapid developments in communications technology and the responsibility of the faculty to participate in the continuing search for solutions to these problems. It is pointed out that the means of communication have social consequences that go far beyond merely increasing the efficiency of message transmission, and the influence on earlier civilizations of the means of communication prevalent at the time is briefly sketched. It is also argued that the medium can degrade the quality of thought as media that require less thought and effort displace those that require more, and that mass communications, including moving pictures and television with their emphasis on mass appeal, are not only enemies of quality of product, but enemies of quality of thought. It is concluded that the answer is not to resist new communications technologies, but to prepare students so that the school's graduates are in control of the new media rather than passive practitioners of their techniques, and able to embrace the techniques of the future without destroying the essential heritage of the past. (RP)