ORGANIZATION OF A STATE UNIVERSITY 93 



commercial, cultural — and in addition they should have some compre- 

 hension of the inner meanings of education. That is to say, they should 

 be men and women who realize that the world moves on, and that edu- 

 cation is central in that movement. 



They should have, for their services as representatives of the people 

 in the control of the state's highest institutions of learning, a broadly 

 social conception of education, and an understanding of the power of 

 truth, a real love of truth, and a belief in the growth of truth in the life 

 of the individual and the state. 



There should be also on this board of control at least one member, 

 man or woman, who understands something about the scientific nature 

 of educational methods and processes, so that the board will be able to 

 determine, by its own intelligence, whether the work of the university 

 is being well done or not. 



The members should be able to form for themselves a great working 

 conception of the purposes of a state university and a general working 

 program for such an institution. Such a conception will rightly gather 

 around some such ideal as the following: A state university is a group 

 of men and women of all degrees of general development, from the boys 

 and girls just in from high school, to the mature men and women who 

 may be leaders of the thought and action of the state. Whether young 

 or old, these members of the university should all be students — seekers 

 after truth, sincerely interested in life and its problems. But first of 

 all they should be real men and women, real citizens of the state, and 

 real members of society. 



At the lower fringe of the group they may be primarily learners, at 

 the upper fringe primarily teachers; but, both above and below, and 

 especially in the great central main mass of the group there should be 

 a natural and healthy mingling of the two attitudes. That is, they 

 should be students, who are learning and teaching, and teachers who are 

 instructing and learning. 



So, all in all, a state university should be a group of men and women 

 who are trained, and are in training, for service in the actual life and 

 problems of the state ; who are becoming intelligent in their work, and 

 who are preparing to help the state solve its present and future problems, 

 as true state's men and state's women, servants of the commonwealth and 

 leaders in the constructive, democratic life of the state. And if they are 

 not of this type, then there is no real reason why they should be members 

 of the university, as teachers; and if they can not reach this point of 

 view, there is no real reason why they should remain as students. 



There should be, as president of the university, a man of broadly 

 democratic and social intelligence, interested in all aspects of education 

 and capable of understanding the meaning of democratic service for the 

 state. The executive attitude and interests should be profoundly public, 



