186 
Certainly, until October last the president had 
felt that his relations with the faculty were 
unusually satisfactory, and he has had very 
little reason to change his opinion since that 
time. 
The fourth point in the committee’s report 
alleges that the president is exceedingly un- 
popular among the high school students of the 
state. Regarding the basis of this charge and 
the credibility of any testimony to that effect 
nothing can be said, when nothing is known 
of the witnesses or their statements. If the 
truth on this matter is to be ascertained it 
should be elicited by inquiries from the high 
schools of the state. It would be most inter- 
esting to have high school teachers and their 
older students, and recent graduates, really 
express themselyes on such a point as this, 
provided it seems important. The reasons 
stated by large numbers of the recent fresh- 
men classes of the university when asked to 
tell why they came to the institution fur- 
nished interesting testimony in contradiction 
of the allegation as made. 
It would take too much space to deal ade- 
quately with the criticism upon the president 
for not visiting classrooms. Just a few direct 
statements may be made. In the first place 
the board has known, at least since June of 
1910, that the president believes any general 
visiting of university classes by him to be 
unwise. The board has also known since 
June of 1910 that the president admits the 
wisdom of visiting classrooms and _ labora- 
tories in certain instances and in elementary 
work. Furthermore the president has visited 
many laboratories and classes in the univer- 
sity. during the last year and a half. An over- 
whelming majority of college and university 
presidents do not make a practise of visiting 
classrooms and declare that such a practise 
would be unadvisable. Methods that produce 
good results in the public school system are 
not, applicable to a university faculty com- 
posed of highly-trained experts. 
It is then declared in general that the presi- 
dent, and his policies “seriously retard the 
growth of the university and impair the use- 
fulness thereof.”. In.the face of the growth 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 892 
of the university in the last two years, one may 
fairly call this an amazing statement. In 
December of 1909 the registration of the uni- 
versity for the current term was 145. In De- 
cember of 1910 the number had risen to 176. 
In December of 1911 the number had risen to 
191. Let it then be remembered that these 
are the figures for students of university 
grade, not including a preparatory depart- 
ment, special music students, or any short- 
course students—classes which swell the total 
attendance reported for many institutions. 
If the unpopularity of the president retards 
the growth of the university is it not. interest- 
ing that the last two freshmen classes have 
been the largest in the history of the institu- 
tion? Jf this unpopularity causes the uni- 
versity “to lose many students of the state, 
and is the reason for many of them going 
east to school when they should go to the uni- 
versity of their own state,” is it not interest- 
ing that the same problem of migrating stu- 
dents exists in every western state, and that 
921 students have entered the university this 
semester with advanced standing from other 
colleges or universities ? 
The whole tone of the university com- 
mittee’s report presents a curious contrast to 
the language of the following resolution 
unanimously adopted by the state board of 
education on June 6, 1911: “ We express our 
commendation and approval of the highly ef- 
ficient manner in which he has conducted the 
affairs of the state university, and express our 
appreciation of the executive and administra- 
tive ability shown by him since he has been 
president of said institution.” 
An understanding of the procedure of the 
state board at its December meeting can be 
reached only by remembering that the ses- 
sions of the board, with its presentation of the 
committee’s report, its discussion of the same, 
and its action upon it, were held and con- 
cluded without conference with the president. 
-The president was in Helena at the time, 
dealt with the university committee on vari- 
ous matters, attended the open sessions of the 
board, and informed members of the univer- 
sity committee that he would be in immediate 
