3i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of the great and good university ; her pupils are also the nation and the 

 world. 



What now are the principal obstacles which have stood, and are still 

 standing, in the way of the most efficient discharge of their obligations 

 to their pupils, to the nation and to mankind, by the institutions of the 

 higher and professional education in the United States ? If we confine 

 our attention — as indeed our theme demands — to those obstacles which 

 arise more strictly within the university circles themselves, we may say : 

 On the part of the students, the chief are the vices of extravagance, law- 

 lessness, superficiality and idleness. All these are, to an extent, difficult 

 to determine, connected with the grosser vices of certain forms of dis- 

 sipation. The obstacles arising from the existing form of administra- 

 tion, on the part of the trustees, are chiefly due to ignorance, indifl:er- 

 ence and a species of cowardice which too often takes the fashion of 

 reluctance to oppose the president or the majority of their colleagues 

 on the governing board, or even to inquire too curiously into the motives 

 or the significance of the measures brought before them by their pre- 

 siding officer. And, finally, the smooth and efficient discharge of the 

 functions of the university are hindred by insufficient education, lack 

 of didactic skill, tactlessness, indifference or low moral tone, in any or 

 all of its several faculties. 



It would by no means be fair to charge the deficiencies and vices of 

 the student body to the administration of the university, whatever the 

 exact form of that administration might happen to be. The particular 

 list of vices mentioned above are the national vices. And no amount of 

 painstaking or system of discipline can keep life in the university free 

 from infection by its public environment. It is not at all clear for what 

 proportion of the extravagance, lawlessness, superficiality and indolence 

 of the students the university may justly be held responsible. And, of 

 course, previous to prolonged experience it is difficult to prove that these 

 vices would be minimized or better held in check by a somewhat radically 

 different form of university administration. 



Of late years, the presidents who have been wise at the beginning, or 

 who have become wise through experience in the early period of their 

 career, have been more and more inclined to leave most of the discipline 

 of the students in the hands of the faculties, or of the appointees of the 

 faculties, to which the various classes of the students belong. In a large 

 institution, the less there is of the one-man-power discipline, on the 

 whole the better. Especially is the president tempted by favoritism, 

 prejudice, various kinds of fears and by personal or family or friendly 

 sympathies, to act unwisely if any power of punishing or pardoning is 

 left in his hands alone. It is a misfortune for him and for the institu- 

 tion even to seem to have any such power. Too often has the professor, 

 on bringing forward the name of some member of his classes who had 

 failed in his studies or cheated in an examination, been made by the 



