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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 785 



satisfactory to plan for tlie future with more 

 certainty." 



2. Indeterminate. Continued from year to year. 

 " A man's tenure depends upon his worth." 



" Assistant professors are not supposed to have 

 independence of thought and action. They are 

 treated as mere assistants just out of college." 

 " Wholly dominated by head of department." " I 

 believe in some cases the institution might be 

 better served if there were not so much inde- 

 pendence of thought and action indulged in." 



3. Annual appointment. 



" The tenure of office depends, if I mistake not, 

 on the wishes ( 1 ) of the head of the department 

 and (2) of the president. The actual appointment 

 is for the year only. The condition is unfortunate. 

 It can not tend to independence of thought and 

 action, but only the reverse. It cultivates sub- 

 servience, toadyism. Its ill effect is intensified by 

 the fact that the assistant professor has no open 

 market in which he may offer his wares; an 

 ' agreement in restraint of trade ' virtually exists 

 among leading universities." [?] " The under men 

 are at the mercy of the head of the department, 

 and must submit to any treatment if that head is 

 autocratic or overbearing. Some heads keep their 

 men reminded that they may lose their positions." 

 " Until ... I cringed and trimmed and was not 

 half a man in my own esteem. I know dozens 

 who are fawning because they feel it necessary." 

 " One can not know whether he is to be dropped 

 out at the end of the year or not. To establish 

 anything like a permanent home seems out of the 

 question." " I think that a three- or five-year 

 term would be preferable, but, if the president is 

 a competent person, I do not regard the matter 

 of great importance." " Continuance in position 

 and promotion are automatic, provided incum- 

 bent's efficiency is reasonably maintained." " All 

 that should be asked for." 



4. Tliree years. 



" Reasonable for a first term." " Just a little 

 better than one-year tenure." " This seems to me 

 reasonable and fair and theoretically most stim- 

 ulating for good work." " I am inclined to think 

 that, for one thing, under the three-year tenure 

 worry over future possibilities more than offsets 

 any advantage of stimulus to do good work as 

 means of retaining position." " Conditions by no 



means best. When I lost out at I had a 



contract with the president and regents for three 

 years, and two of these years were yet before me. 

 It was deliberate breach of contract. ... I was 

 never allowed to face my accusers, nor do I know 



who they were. When I expostulated with the 

 dean, be bullied me. I am not a fighter and could 

 not stand up for myself. He literally bullied me 

 out of the university. . . . The moral shock of 

 this experience I never shall recover from." " I 

 know of no restrictions on thought and action 

 except in a few departments, the heads of which 

 are inclined to be domineering." " In my institu- 

 tion the assistant professor is theoretically inde- 

 pendent, having (after three years) an equal voice 

 in the council and the department. Practically, 

 however, he is dependent on the good-will of the 

 head of the department. In the two vital matters 

 of salary and promotion he has no personal access 

 to the president, with whom the formal initiative 

 rests, but is obliged to depend upon whatever 

 representations the head of the department may 

 choose to make. The latter's written recommenda- 

 tion is necessaiy to promotion, and his report is 

 indeed the basis of all action taken by the presi- 

 dent in reference to an assistant professor." " It 

 would seem that the work of the assistant pro- 

 fessor should be estimated by more than one per- 

 son (usually the head of the department) and 

 that some systematic method should obtain by 

 which the appointing and promoting powers should 

 be made acquainted with this work from more 

 than one point of view." " I should say they are 

 here what they are everywhere else: making one- 

 self generally agreeable and setting up no opposi- 

 tion to superiors. Thus are fostered obedience, 

 patience, self-control, submergence of self — all 

 cardinal virtues. Independence of action is not 

 for the assistant professor — his thoughts are his 

 own." " In my experience the conditions are not 

 the best for independence." 



5. Four years. 



" It is a temporally appointment for four years, 

 and hence in a few cases operates to suppress 

 independence of action and thought, though in 

 most cases I see no such difficulty. Tenure usually 

 depends on good work and usual standards of 

 conduct." 



G. Five years. 



" Appointments for term of five years each ; 

 ordinarily leading to a professorship at the end 

 of the second. There is entire independence." 

 " Tenure dependent upon ' making good.' " " Have 

 had no anxiety about reappointment." " Fact of 

 reappointment being uncertain even though prob- 

 able, militates against absolute independence of 

 thought and action." 



7. Permanent (sometimes after probationary 

 term ) . 



