STATE UNIVERSITY SALARIES. 425 



intelligently, the starting point must be comprehensive statistics show- 

 ing exactly what the situation is. To get such statistics is not an 

 easy task. Though most institutions of learning have published re- 

 ports giving details of their business management, these reports are 

 not always easy to find, and, when found, certain kinds of informa- 

 tion are not always easy to obtain from their pages. In taking up 

 the matter, the authors saw that with the time at their disposal only 

 a limited number of institutions could be studied. In selecting this 

 small number, it seemed desirable to take a representative group of 

 some well denned type so that the figures would have wider applica- 

 tion. In choosing the type the state university of the Middle West 

 was selected, for the reason that in this large section of the country 

 it is the most important type, not in numbers, for in this particular 

 the small denominational college outranks it thirty to one, but in 

 wealth, number of students and rapid rate of growth. 



The actual group of which a discussion is to be found in the fol- 

 lowing pages consists of the universities of Wisconsin, Minnesota, 

 Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Effort was 

 also made to secure similar data from the universities of Iowa and 

 Michigan, but without success. 



These eight universities may certainly be looked upon as repre- 

 sentative. They have shared in the development of the region in 

 which they lie. The equipment, the attendance and the number of 

 instructors have increased to a remarkable extent, and, finally, there 

 is in them an almost entire absence of traditions of the past. In such 

 institutions, if anywhere, one would expect to find the normal salary 

 and the normal rate of change of salary. That is, the increase in 

 the incomes of these schools, as well as other conditions of a secondary 

 influence, has been such that a greater or less increase in the salaries 

 paid has been largely a matter of policy, to be followed or not as their 

 various boards of trustees have seen fit; and it is therefore reasonable 

 to suppose that whatever state of affairs in regard to salaries exists 

 in these institutions more nearly represents the rating of the positions 

 on the part of the people than can be found in other universities and 

 colleges. 



In the following pages then will be found an account of the salaries 

 paid at these eight institutions. No discussion of the conditions pre- 

 vailing at the several schools will in any sense be attempted. The 

 data as obtained from the published, or soon to be published, reports 

 are given and the important items are pointed out by references in 

 the text. Whatever local conditions may exist for explaining this 

 or that peculiarity are beyond the scope of the paper, which aims solely 

 at a presentation of the facts in this group of representative institu- 

 tions, the authors believing that such a presentation should be pre- 

 liminary to any change that may come. 



