180 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



would be in the interest of economy and efficiency if there were more 

 division of labor and cooperation among our universities than has 

 hitherto obtained. It is not necessary for every university to have a 

 complete equipment in every department. 



The main ends of the university are the same in all lands, but our 

 American presidents and boards of trustees are indigenous products 

 which can scarcely be regarded as essential. They are the natural 

 outcome of the denominational college, and have developed in line with 

 methods of business organization that have proved themselves highly 

 efficient. Given a small and compact group of men who represent a 

 certain policy, but whose chief duty it is to elect an absolute dictator, 

 who in turn appoints minor dictators, and the result is an economical 

 and powerful machine. In politics, in business and in education, this 

 form of despotism has prevailed, and has on the whole justified itself 

 by the results. But it appears to be only a passing phase in educational 

 development. 



The college president has enjoyed a rapid evolution in the course 

 of a single generation. Thirty or forty years ago he was a clergyman, 

 as a matter of course; later he was likely to be selected for business 

 qualifications; now he is a member of the faculty who unites executive 

 ability with high scholarship. We seem to have made a further ad- 

 vance at Columbia by the election of a president who is at the outset 

 an educational expert. He alone does not begin as an amateur and can 

 devote himself to his work while cultivating his scholarship. But 

 the demands now made on the university president are so diverse and 

 exorbitant that even when he gives up both teaching and research 

 they can scarcely be met. He can not be in loco parentis for 5,000 

 students; select and control 400 officers; coordinate the conflicting 

 demands of incommensurable schools and departments; arrange 

 diverse curricula in accordance with changing needs; superintend 

 buildings and grounds; manage an estate of $10,000,000 and secure 

 the additional funds always needed; be a public orator and monthly 

 contributor to magazines; attend bicentennials, sesquicentennials and 

 semi-sesquicentennials ; occupy positions of honor and trust whenever 

 called upon by the community or nation, and all the rest. It has become 

 necessary to delegate part of these duties to deans and other officers, 

 and it seems probable that the office of president should be divided 

 and filled by two men of different type: one an educational expert, in 

 charge of the internal administration; the other a man of prominence 

 and weight in the community, in charge of external affairs. 



The president and trustees as they now exist have their chief justi- 

 fication in financial conditions. We know that the lack of money is 

 the root of all evil. Our private educational corporations, dependent 

 on the generosity of millionaires, are in a remarkable and almost 



