128 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is more exacting than that for any other profession, medicine not 

 excepted. 



The prospect of spending seven years in preparation, of working 

 afterwards as an assistant for several years at a salary of $700 or 

 $800, for several years more at a small advance, and of attaining by 

 middle age a salary not much greater than the wages of a switchman 

 in an eastern railway yard, with at the end little hope of a pension is 

 by no means alluring to a man unwilling to remain celibate throughout 

 life. Thoughtful young men in the higher classes of our colleges 

 recognize this condition and recognize also that the compensating 

 privileges of social standing and leisure for research have been reduced 

 to the minimum. This feeling respecting the status of American 

 professors is so widespread that, unless the conditions are modified 

 quickly, the next generation will see a notable change in type of pro- 

 fessors; some will be teachers because unwilling to be anything else; 

 some will be men of independent means desiring a not too burdensome 

 occupation; but a large proportion will consist of men carried along 

 on scholarships and fellowships into a profession for which they have 

 neither fitness nor inclination — perfunctory teachers, lamenting their 

 fate in being compelled to ' waste themselves on a parcel of boys.' 



To prescribe a remedy is not difficult; to bring the patient into 

 receptive mood is apt to be difficult. The writer suggests a remedy; 

 the administering must be left to others. 



The first step should be elimination of mimic universities and res- 

 toration of the college with a fixed curriculum, intended to develop 

 the man and to lay foundation for a broad education. By thus re- 

 moving odds and ends of elective courses and attempts at types of 

 work belonging altogether to graduate study, relief will be given from 

 much which is of doubtful utility to the undergraduate, and the pro- 

 fessors will regain that leisure, which for so many years was utilized 

 to the advantage of the whole community. 



The second step should be complete readjustment of the relation 

 between the corporate and educational boards. Times have changed 

 and with them the conditions also, but the powers and duties of the 

 corporate board have remained unchanged. Trustees are chosen in 

 view of their fitness to manage the financial affairs, very rarely with 

 reference to their familiarity with educational matters; yet their board 

 has, as of old, the power to appoint professors and even to create new 

 chairs, thus controlling not only the selection of the faculty but also 

 the curriculum, matters with which, in the very nature of the case, 

 they cannot deal intelligently — as a board. The teaching board should 

 have the sole right to name candidates for appointment, to determine 

 all matters concerning the curriculum and the corporate board should 

 be called upon to confirm the action, pro forma, whenever a business 

 contract is involved. Details respecting methods of procedure do not 



