THE SMALL COLLEGE 457 



trial plant, and the president to a factory superintendent. But there is 

 this difference: The superintendent of the plow factory in our town 

 can make a plow. He knows the details of construction in every de- 

 partment of his factory, has actually done the work himself, and can do 

 it to-day if necessary better than any of his men. On the other hand, 

 the college president knows far less about any given subject than does 

 the professor who is set to teach that subject. He has no first-hand 

 knowledge of the needs of any department. The factory superintendent 

 is an expert directing the efforts of those less skilled than himself. 

 The college president is a tyro directing a body of experts. His very 

 ignorance makes it unsafe to place the power of official life and death 

 in his hands. 



As for the trustees, there can be no doubt that they are earnestly 

 loyal to the college and devoted to its interests, and their own careers 

 attest them good business men; yet the business management of our 

 college is notoriously poor. College property that might have been made 

 to return an excellent rental has been allowed to lie unproductive for 

 years, and finally sold off bit by bit to pay running expenses ; debt has 

 been recklessly incurred; and there has never been any settled or con- 

 sistent financial policy. The board, indeed, is too big a body to work 

 well. It consists of twenty-four members when five would be a much 

 more effective body. But the principal difficulty lies in the fact that 

 the time of board meetings is taken up in the consideration of a multi- 

 tude of problems all of which belong by right to the province of the 

 faculty, and too little attention is given to the matter of finance. 

 Briefly stated, our board fails because it does not concentrate its time 

 and energy exclusively on the one thing for which it exists, namely, the 

 providing of ways and means. 



It is easier to criticize an existing system than to work out the de- 

 tails of a new and better one; yet the diagnosis just given suggests the 

 remedy. The number of trustees should be reduced to five or six — of 

 whom the president of the college might well be one ex officio — and 

 their activities should be limited strictly to the investment of college 

 funds, the raising of new funds, and the collection of rents and inter- 

 est. After setting aside enough of the latter to meet overhead charges 

 in the way of repairs, care of buildings and grounds, etc., they should 

 place the balance with the college treasurer to be paid over to the vari- 

 ous departments in accordance with a budget to be worked out by the 

 faculty. The president should be the chairman of the faculty and its 

 public representative, and should have a veto on all acts of the faculty — 

 a veto which the faculty might override by a two thirds vote. The fac- 

 ulty should have complete and absolute jurisdiction over all the internal 

 affairs of the college, and over the budget, subject only to the veto of 

 the president; they should elect all teachers, subject to the approval of 

 the president, and should when occasion demands elect the president, 



