704 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 934 



ernment of liis university to conform. And 

 lie criticizes presidents and boards of trus- 

 tees because under the existing plan of gov- 

 ernment they obstruct the realization of 

 this ideal — nay, worse, actually set up and 

 maintain an alien ideal, the ideal of a busi- 

 ness corporation engaging professors as em- 

 ployees and controlling them by means of 

 authority which is exercised either directly 

 by "busybody trustees" or indirectly 

 through delegation or usurpation by a 

 "presidential boss." 



What is needed in American universities 

 to-day is a new application of the principle 

 of representative government. The faculty 

 is essentially the university; yet in the 

 governing boards of American universities 

 the faculty is without representation. The 

 only ultimately satisfactory solution of the 

 problem of the government of American 

 universities is the concession to the profes- 

 soriate of representation in the board of 

 trustees or regents and these representa- 

 tives of the intellectual, which is the real 

 life of the university, must not be mere 

 ornamental figures ; they should be granted 

 an active share in the routine administra- 

 tion of the institution. 



How could such a reform be carried out 

 in Cornell University? 



The board of trustees of Cornell Univer- 

 sity is a genuinely representative body. 

 That is, it represents everybody but the 

 faculty. The state of New Tork is repre- 

 sented by the governor and other ex-officio 

 trustees and also (since the recent amend- 

 ment of the charter) by trustees appointed 

 by the governor with the advice and con- 

 sent of the senate. The alumni are repre- 

 sented by trustees whom they themselves 

 elect, and in June last a woman was, 

 happily, once more elected as one of the 

 alumni trustees. And, apart from alumni 

 and state, the general public is represented 

 by the trustees — half of the entire body if 



the ex-officio trustees be not counted — whom 

 the board itself elects presumably from 

 citizens who are especially concerned for 

 the promotion of higher education or who 

 are particularly interested in Cornell Uni- 

 versity. The trustees thus elected by co- 

 optation number three annually; and it is 

 the custom to reelect these trustees when 

 their term expires. 



Now in ease of the death or resignation 

 of one of these cooptatively elected trustees, 

 the board might, without any change in the 

 charter, ask the professoriate to select a 

 candidate for the vacant position and then 

 formally elect the candidate thus recom- 

 mended. This process might be repeated 

 till the professors had designated one third 

 of the trustees now elected by the board, 

 and thereafter professorial representation 

 might remain in that ratio. 



For the purpose of such representation 

 it would probably be wise and expedient to 

 divide the professorial electorate into 

 groups each of which should elect one trus- 

 tee. Only full professors would have the 

 suffrage as only full professors hold perma- 

 nent appointments. The full professors in 

 the graduate school might constitute one 

 electoral group, to fill (say) the first trus- 

 teeship assigned to the professoriate. The 

 second electoral group might be composed 

 of the full professors of arts and of law, 

 and the third of the full professors of sci- 

 ence and of medicine (in Ithaca) . The full 

 professors in the two engineering colleges 

 and in architecture would naturally form a 

 fourth electoral group, and those in the two 

 state colleges— agriculture and veterinary 

 medicine — a fifth. The medical college in 

 New York City would furnish the sixth 

 electoral group, but the number of pro- 

 fessors entitled to vote should perhaps be 

 limited to those who give their entire time 

 to the work of the institution or those who 



