THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 323 



in this country, it seems to me that some fixed places of standing may 

 be established. In closing this article I will mention the following as 

 among the most important and perhaps they may be summed up in a 

 tentative way, in this sentence : The administration of a large univer- 

 sity requires for its most effective conduct two boards or bodies of men, 

 which have largely different functions and for the most part a different 

 personnel, but which are bound to cooperation for the welfare of the 

 university by regularly appointed and trustworthy means of under- 

 standing each other's views, necessities, and measures enacted, and by 

 a system of checks that shall operate in guarded ways to make each 

 responsible for its initiative to the other. 



Of these two boards which are necessary for the efficient administra- 

 tion of a large university, one should be chiefly responsible for its mate- 

 rial affairs. For this reason it should be largely composed of men of 

 sound business principles and experience ; but also, as far as possible, of 

 men possessed of a worthy knowledge of the needs and methods of a 

 modern university education and with devotion to high educational 

 ideals. There would seem to be no valid objection to, but much valid 

 reason in favor of, having a small minority of this board chosen from 

 the different faculties of the university. Why should not a professor of 

 business law, a professor of economics, and a professor of architecture 

 or engineering, be useful members of such an administrative body? 

 Even a professor of ethics, if one could be found who combined a firm 

 grasp on moral ideals with a fair amount of practical wisdom, might 

 sometimes serve as a valuable control in the performance of the legiti- 

 mate functions of the trustees of an institution of the higher education. 



It is unnecessary to emphasize the fact that the business adminis- 

 tration of a large educational corporation requires the same trained 

 staff of competent and responsible assistants — treasurer, cashier, clerks, 

 etc. — which are required by any other business corporation of equal 

 magnitude ; and these paid assistants should be held to as strict account 

 in every respect as that which prevails in the best organized business 

 corporations. If, besides the gifts which are solicited or directed to the 

 endowment or income of a well-organized and well-administered univer- 

 sity through the free-will devotion of its trustees, faculties, alumni and 

 other friends, there is pressing need for yet more, it would always be 

 within the province of this board to call to its help especially selected 

 agents for meeting such need. But however the details of collecting and 

 distributing the material resources of the university are managed, and 

 whatever the success which attends their management, it should never 

 be lost out of mind that all their value consists in the efficiency with 

 which they minister to the real ends and promote the realization of the 

 true ideals of a great and good university. These are not in any way 

 necessarily connected with the glorification of any one man or of any 



