May 24, 1912] 
1. There should be a corporation consisting of 
the professors and other officers of the university, 
the alumni who maintain their interest in the 
institution and members of the community who 
ally themselves with it.© In the case of the state 
universities part of the corporation would be 
elected by the people. This corporation should 
elect trustees having the ordinary functions of 
trustees—the care of the property and the repre- 
sentation of the common sense of the corporation 
and of the community in university policy.° The 
trustees should elect a chancellor’ and a treasurer 
who would represent the university in its relations 
with the community. 
2. The professors or officers, or their representa- 
tives, should elect a president who has expert 
knowledge of education and of university admin- 
istration. His salary should not be larger, his 
it tempts a man to play for his own hand and 
selects for academic work men lacking in char- 
acter, individuality and genius. 
°A large corporation of this character places the 
ultimate control on a democratie basis. The mem- 
bers would pay annual dues, and a considerable 
income would thus acerue. A large number of 
individuals would take an active interest in the 
welfare and development of the institution. In 
the case of the state universities the people of the 
state are in a sense the corporation with ultimate 
control, and it might be undesirable to establish 
an intermediate body. Still the state might dele- 
gate its powers to such a corporation, and a society 
of members of the university might be formed, 
even though the regents or trustees were elected by 
the people or appointed by their elected governors. 
‘The trustees or regents of an American uni- 
versity have absolute powers, but tend to delegate 
them to the president. They place a limit on the 
amount of money that can be spent and sometimes 
use their reserve powers even in matters of educa- 
tional detail. When the corporation is small, as 
at Harvard, it may be in active control of policies. 
In the private chartered institutions it is usually 
large, its members haying but little knowledge of 
educational problems or of the special university 
under their control. There are often several trus- 
tees wno take an active, though not always a wise, 
interest in the university, and it is a delicate 
problem of the president to manage such trustees. 
One of the most serious difficulties of the present 
situation is that the president owes his office, 
salary and powers to the trustees and must obtain 
their favor, whereas he is not responsible to the 
faculties. The professor is likely to owe his office 
and salary to the president, and is sometimes 
placed in a position that is humiliating. 
7It might or might not be an advantage to have 
a chancellor, such as exists in the British univer- 
sities, a man of prominence in the community, who 
would obtain endowments and represent the uni- 
versity at public functions. 
SCIENCE 
805 
position more dignified or his powers greater than 
those of the professor.® 
3. The unit of organization within the univer- 
sity should be the school, division or department, 
a group of men having common objects and inter- 
ests, who can meet frequently and see each other 
daily. It should be large enough to meet for 
deliberation and to represent diverse points of 
view, but small enough for each to understand the 
whole and to feel responsible for it. The size of 
this group is prescribed by a psychological con- 
stant, its efficient maximum being about twenty 
men and its minimum about ten.° 
4. Hach school, division or department should 
elect its dean or chairman and its executive com- 
mittee, and have as complete autonomy as is con- 
sistent with the welfare of the university as a 
whole.” It should elect its minor officers and 
nominate its professors. The nominations for pro- 
®Tt may be that no president is desirable other 
than an annually elected rector, as in the German 
universities. If, however, the president were 
elected by the faculties for a limited term and 
made responsible to them, the academic situation 
would be greatly improved. The argument of 
efficiency can be adduced in favor of giving auto- 
cratic powers to one individual, but the university 
is the last place where such system should pre- 
vail. It is neither necessary nor desirable that 
things be done in haste. Administrative details 
can be handled promptly by a clerk or secretary. 
Men and women should not be subject to the 
judgment or whims of an individual. Security, 
permanence, honor, the slow growth of traditions, 
are essential to a true university. 
® Such autonomy is usually possessed by medical, 
law and technical schools forming a part of a 
university. It should be extended to other divi- 
sions when they become sufficiently large. Partly 
independent institutions for teaching or research 
can to advantage form part of a university. The 
separately endowed colleges of the English uni- 
versities have certain advantages. 
10 Jn the department-store system, which is likely 
to prevail in our universities, the junior professors 
and instructors are responsible to the head of the 
department and are dependent on him for ad- 
vances in office and salary, while the heads of 
departments are in like position in relation to the 
dean or the president, the heads of departments 
and deans being named by the president. The 
active committees are appointed by the president ; 
in one of our leading universities even faculty 
members are named by the president from among 
the professors, making the faculty a presidential 
committee. This procedure reverses the proper or, 
at all events, the democratic method of control, 
according to which officers are chosen by those 
whom they serve and leaders are followed because 
they are acknowledged as such. 
