324 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



single administration as a money-getter or a builder of magnificent 

 buildings. 



The other arm of administration, which ought to be equally strong 

 and self-respecting and independent within its own appropriate sphere, 

 must be wielded by the faculties. But not by them as acting all together, 

 or as all acting equally in any one faculty, or as acting in an unorganized 

 and unrestricted way. The same process which has tended toward the 

 degradation of the professorial office has increased the danger of some- 

 thing resembling mob rule, if every teacher stands on equal terms with 

 every other, in a great university. Yet, in general, the educational 

 policy, matters touching the curriculum, and all the discipline of the 

 student body, as almost a matter of divine right, whether or not by 

 custom or by statute, belong to the men whose craft and experience is 

 in lines of education. And while they should always be thoughtfully 

 considerate of the judgment of their employers, and are quite of neces- 

 sity dependent upon them in the matter of their salaries and of the 

 equipment allowed for the prosecution of the work of their departments, 

 they should be so related to these employers as to be delivered from all 

 feelings of fear, or wish or chance to curry favor, in the discharge of 

 their functions as teachers and explorers of truth. 



In saying this I am far indeed from advocating an unrestricted 

 license for the individual teacher, or even for the whole of the teaching 

 force. The management of the more strictly educational affairs of each 

 one of the separate faculties would, in general, best be left to each one of 

 these faculties. And, indeed, so far as the professional schools of law 

 and medicine are concerned, this course is customarily adopted. In the 

 faculties of these schools there is customarily a moiety of strong and 

 independent men, who can readily take care of themselves if obliged to 

 leave their positions; and while ready to hear and heed advice (or, at 

 least, they ought to be so), they are not ready to take orders unques- 

 tioningly from the president or from the corporation. But the same 

 thing ought to be true of all the faculties. When, however, these 

 faculties are large and largely composed of young and inexperienced 

 men, as is sure to be the case with the faculties of the undergraduate 

 schools of a great university, their internal control can not be safely 

 committed to the entire body — share and share alike, as it were. It can 

 not be democratic; it must be aristocratic. And this arictocracy would 

 have — so it would seem — to be selected by joint action of the full pro- 

 fessors and the trustees. The method of its fixing might be adapted 

 to the circumstances and the needs of the particular institution. Once 

 fixed, the advice and cooperation of the entire body of officers, of every 

 sort and grade, might be invited or commanded, but the final control of 

 educational matters would rest in the authority of this aristocracy, with 

 the aid of those to whom they might see fit to delegate any portion of it. 

 And, finally, for matters affecting immediately the scholastic interests 



