2oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the perpetuation of the college spirit and traditions. We have seen 

 that the college without radical administrative reorganization can not 

 " grow into " the university. The supposition that the natural devel- 

 opment of the former will, according to the laws of growth, expand into 

 the latter, is an assumption that has resulted in an unnecessary conflict 

 of ideals ; as those of the two institutions are not interchangeable. The 

 unfortunate state of affairs is exemplified in more than one of our 

 eastern universities, where we see the members of administrative boards, 

 thoroughly imbued with the collegiate idea, attempting to carry out 

 educational policies that do not conform with the ideals of members of 

 the faculties, who have had greater opportunities for familiarizing 

 themselves with university standards. When the attempt is made to 

 effect a compromise, the efficiency of both institutions is seriously 

 impaired and results in an interminable conflict of interests. The 

 trustees who, as a rule, are unfamiliar with the nature of the university 

 problems, often control its policy through the administration of the 

 finances, even determining the election of presidents and the distribu- 

 tion of sums for educational purposes. As a result of this usurpation 

 of powers the faculty is in danger of becoming merely a body of 

 employees of the trustees, without any power to shape the educational 

 policy of the institution. 



The increased emoluments and the excessive prominence bestowed 

 upon executive officers have had a disastrous effect in detracting from 

 the appraised value of the work of scholar and investigator. The great 

 eagerness with which administrative offices are sought for by members 

 of the faculty show how extremely superficial are their intellectual 

 interests. One can not imagine a Momsen, Pasteur or Darwin delib- 

 erately putting aside his special investigations in order to become an 

 administrator. 



The present system of organization has resulted in a temporary but, 

 nevertheless, serious depreciation of the estimated value of scholarship ; 

 and has also given rise to an extreme spirit of Chauvinism, inimicable 

 to the development of those mental qualities that underlie true culture. 

 In executing a plan for the development of the university, boards of 

 trustees defer largely to the wishes of the alumni of the institution. 

 On account of the great and constant influence exerted by the large 

 body of alumni, the older institutions in the east will find that it is 

 increasingly difficult for them to identify their interests with those of 

 the national life. Admirable as are a few of the influences which grow 

 out of the " college spirit," there is a great deal that is objectionable 

 and affords a suitable medium for the development of fixed ideas. The 

 intense emotional reactions of the undergraduates and their more or 

 less absurd sentimental devotion to the standards of a single institution 

 give rise to conditions not specifically different from those that give 

 fixity and undue valuation to many of the ideas characteristic of hys- 



