896 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1016 



President A. K. Hill of Missouri expresses 

 himself as follows : 



I can see no justification for a new managing 

 board declaring all positions vacant and reap- 

 pointing whomsoever they see fit. The appoint- 

 ment by any managing board I regard as a mere 

 formality. The real appointment should always be 

 made by the faculty of the department concerned, 

 including, of course, the president and dean who 

 are members of that faculty, meaning by depart- 

 ment, as a rule, what used to be meant by chair. 

 Where the faculty of a school or college is small, 

 as in- the case of most law schools, the entire fac- 

 ulty of the school should be consulted. I do not 

 mean that a formal vote of the faculty of tho 

 school or department need be taken either in ma- 

 king the appointment or in severing the relation- 

 ship; but the actual sentiment of the faculty 

 should be voiced in either action and when this is 

 the case the action of the Board who are not edu- 

 cational experts, should be merely formal. 



Mr. V. H. Henderson, secretary of the 

 regents of the University of California, says: 



For a new managing board to declare all posi- 

 tions vacant and to reappoint whom they see fit, is 

 apt to prove a mistake. A wholesale violence of 

 this sort has been proved by the history of Ameri- 

 can university life ordinarily to result in weaken- 

 ing an institution and hindering its healthy and 

 normal development. As a matter of university 

 planning it is very much better if a managing 

 board shall not itself be a "new board" — that is 

 to say, the governing board should be made up of 

 a body of men whose terms expire at different 

 times, so that the board shall always contain a 

 considerable proportion of members who are thor- 

 oughly acquainted with the work of the institution 

 and sympathetic with the purposes and ideals of 

 American university work. 



Mr. Henderson then makes the same point 

 as does President Hill: 



In the University of California, all initiative as 

 to appointments, promotions, salaries and changes 

 of title is with the president of the university. He 

 invariably obtains the approval of the finance com- 

 mittee of the regents to the creation of a new 

 position, or to changes which involve increase of 

 expenditure, but the initiative in these matters re- 

 mains with him and questions of personality re- 

 main with him. That this should be the case is an 

 essential for the best success of any educational 



institution, whether it be a university or a city 

 school system. 



Mr. Henderson strikes at the hasis of much 

 of the trouble in regard to tenure. Where 

 governing boards consider it their duty to 

 take the initiative in the appointment or re- 

 tirement of members of the faculty without 

 the approval of the president, trouble is cer- 

 tain to ensue. With the formation of single 

 boards governing all a state's educational 

 institutions, a system now being tried in 

 several states, this policy becomes all the more 

 necessary, for it will be entirely impossible for 

 members of such boards to have much personal 

 knowledge of the fitness of the candidates. 



I have endeavored to present to you the pre- 

 vailing custom upon these matters in the land- 

 grant colleges. Evidently, there is a consid- 

 erable divergence of policy among the several 

 institutions, the smaller of which may some- 

 times need to pursue a somewhat different 

 course from that found satisfactory to those 

 enjoying larger resources. However, it would 

 seem fairly evident that there are certain gen- 

 eral principles concerning the matter of defi- 

 niteness of appointments and tenure which 

 should be observed by all. If these could be 

 clearly formulated by our committee on college 

 organization and policy, and then be adopted 

 by this section, would not such action be of 

 considerable value in encouraging a more 

 uniform practise and be a most welcome sup- 

 port to many of our college executives? 



E. D. Sanderson 

 College op Agricdltuee, 

 West Vikginia University 



THE POBTO BICO SURVEY 

 The New York Academy of Sciences has 

 begun a scientific study of the island of Porto 

 Rico along the lines of geology, paleontology, 

 zoology, botany, anthropology and oceanog- 

 raphy. With the assistance of a friend, the 

 academy has voted to expend $1,500 a year for 

 five years on this work, and cooperation with 

 the academy has been assured by the American 

 Museum of Natural History, the New York 

 Botanical Garden and by scientific depart- 



