TEE NEXT COLLEGE PRESIDENT 283 



the presidency. And first of all it seems clear to one who "can easier 

 teach twenty what were good to he done than he one of twenty to follow 

 his own teaching " that the first plain duty is to recognize the existence 

 of the situation and then frankly meet it. 



A recent inquiry instituted among three hundred professors of 

 science in this country seems to indicate that in the opinion of eighty- 

 five per cent, of these the present conditions are intolerable. This 

 opinion may be entirely wrong, but it behooves even the college presi- 

 dent either to disprove it or to accept it. Since he is to-day, by the very 

 nature of his position, an administrative officer and business manager, 

 rather than an investigator, it seems improbable that he will be inclined 

 to undertake such investigation as would give a larger basis for gen- 

 eralization than that already carried on by a college professor. Until 

 such time, therefore, as the college president can broaden the basis of 

 generalization already provided for him by a college professor he should 

 accept the conclusions drawn and adapt his course to them. 



This investigation seems to show that what many college professors 

 to-day desire is not more administrative work, but greater legislative 

 power. Time is now frittered away by college faculties in administra- 

 tion that ought to be done by the administrative officer ; college faculties 

 wish less rather than more of these responsibilities. But many college 

 professors do believe that every question of legislation that concerns the 

 educational work of the college no matter how remotely or how indi- 

 rectly should be acted upon by themselves, that they should have repre- 

 sentation on the boards of control, and most of all that they should 

 be educationally enfranchised to the extent of choosing their own presi- 

 dent. They would probably at the outset agree with Dr. Patton that 

 " the qualities which enter into the making of an ideal college president 

 are very widely distributed," and that " it is their assemblage and their 

 blending in the charm of an engaging personality that creats diffi- 

 culties and also makes the selection of a college president a weary 

 search." Recognizing the weariness of the search, they would abandon 

 it at the outset and concentrate their efforts on the consideration of 

 what should be the organization, powers and duties of the presidency. 



What many college professors also desire is greater community of 

 interest and of action with each other and with their official head. Col- 

 lege presidents are wont to boast of the infrequency of the faculty meet- 

 ings in their own institutions and they seem to believe that one measure 

 of their official success is their ability to dispense wholly or in part with 

 such meetings. Yet what is needed for the good of the cause is not 

 fewer but many more faculty meetings. College professors are tempted, 

 under present conditions, to confine themselves exclusively to their own 

 line of work; they do not make connections with the work of other 

 departments, or seek out relationships between different branches of 

 knowledge, or see things as a whole. The college professor has in large 



