May 31, 1912] 
clergymen of the state. In general the 
trustees of the primitive American college 
were competent to administer its simple 
economy. But even then there were diffi- 
culties. Before the American Institute of 
Instruction meeting in Worcester, Mass., 
in 1837, the Rev. Jasper Adams, president 
of Charleston College, gave a lecture on 
“The relations subsisting between the 
board of trustees and the faculty of the 
university,’’ stating that as far as he knew 
this had never been the subject of special 
investigation. He argues that the trustees 
should manage the funds of their institu- 
tion, while the faculty should regulate the 
courses of instruction and the internal ad- 
ministration. Professors should be ap- 
pointed by the trustees on the advice of 
and in accordance with the wishes of the 
faculty. It appears that in those days 
there was trouble through the trustees in- 
terfering with what the faculties regarded 
as their rights, notably at Hamilton Col- 
lege, concerning which the president wrote 
a pamphlet entitled ‘‘A Narrative of the 
Embarrassments and Decline of Hamilton 
College,’’ which he attributed to meddling 
by the trustees with the business of the 
faculty. At that time President Adams 
and President Davis seem to have regarded 
themselves as professors rather than as 
trustees. According to President Adams: 
More than one board of trustees has ruined, and 
every board will ruin its college, which shall inter- 
fere with the province rendered appropriate to 
the faculty by the peculiar skill, knowledge and 
experience which their education, greater attention 
to the subject, and practical opportunities, have 
naturally, and as a matter of course, given them. 
. .. Many a faculty of a college, who felt them- 
selves qualified, not only to sustain their institu- 
tion, but to raise it to usefulness and renown, and 
gain for it the favor, confidence and patronage of 
the public, have found all their efforts discour- 
aged, embarrassed and finally defeated by the 
conduct of their board of trustees, Plans of 
improvement, after having been matured by much 
SCIENCE 
843 
labor and careful consideration, have been pre- 
sented for acceptance and approbation, only to be 
retained with coldness and indifference, treated 
with neglect and finally rejected, after a hasty 
examination, for want of a competency to under- 
stand them. Favorable times and seasons have 
been permitted to pass by unimproved, and have 
been lost never to return, because the faculty had 
not power to act on the subject, and the trustees 
could not be induced to seize the favorable 
moment, and turn the occasion to the benefit of 
the institution. Under these circumstances, the 
faculty have been compelled to remain inactive, 
and let things take their course, or to resign their 
office in discouragement and disgust. In either 
case, the institution has been ruined. 
The legal powers of trustees and re- 
gents are similar everywhere, but their ac- 
tual part in the conduct of the institu- 
tion varies greatly. It is likely to be 
larger when the board is small and when 
the members reside near by. In his Harris 
lectures on ‘‘University Administration’’ 
President Eliot says: ‘‘The best number 
of members for a university’s principal 
board is seven,’’ and with pleasing naiveté 
he adds a little later: ‘‘It is a curious fact 
that the university with the most fortunate 
organization in the country is the oldest 
university, the principal governing board, 
the President and Fellows of Harvard Col- 
lege, consisting of seven men.’’? When the 
board of trustees is large and meets but 
rarely, there is usually an executive com- 
mittee which with the president is in sub- 
stantial control. The members of this com- 
mittee are likely to be the friends and ad- 
herents of the president—in practise the 
president is likely to select the trustees and 
the members of their executive committee 
—and the faculties and professors are sup- 
posed to communicate with the trustees 
only through the president. Under our 
existing system, there should be an elected 
committee of the faculties which would 
meet with the executive committee of the 
trustees. It would in addition be advis- 
