Mabch 25, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



447 



" utmost freedom." " Removal for cause only." 

 " If I understand the conditions, they are : Good 

 behavior, efficient teaching and reasonable intel- 

 lectual growth. If this is correct, I think they 

 are the best possible." 



No comment is necessary, beyond calling 

 attention to the fact that undue subordina- 

 tion is destructive of character of both 

 subordinate and superior; and conditions 

 which tend to foster it should be tolerated 

 no longer than it will take to get rid of 

 them. 



So much for the existing conditions as 

 viewed by the assistant professors. We 

 may compare our impressions from their 

 conclusions with this by President Eliot :^ 



The young American \vho chooses a university 

 career must then abandon all expectation of riches, 

 and of the sort of luxuries which only wealth can 

 procure. What he may reasonably expect is a 

 secure income, a life-tenure, long vacations, the 

 gratification of his intellectual tastes, good fellow- 

 ship in study, teaching and research, plenty of 

 books and a dignified though simple mode of life. 



We now turn to their suggestions con- 

 cerning the problem of the assistant pro- 

 fessorship, looking toward higher individ- 

 ual or institutional efficiency. These have 

 been grouped as well as may be under 

 separate headings and the most revolution- 

 ary one is here given the place of honor: 



1. Abolish the assistant professorship. 



" Let the instructor be a temporary appointee. 

 After he has clearly proven his ability let him be 

 appointed to a professorship. The instructor 

 should have little or no voice [in administrative 

 matters or those of educational policy] while all 

 the professors should be on an equality." 



2. Appointment. 



It is urged that the dignity of the position could 

 be increased by the exercise of greater care in 

 appointment, that the aim should be to get good 

 men and then to give them plenty of opportunity 

 for development, holding them responsible for 

 results; and not to be overparticular about de- 

 grees and publications. There is nothing very 

 radical here. 



3. Clear understanding of status. 



' " University Administration," pp. 98-99. 



Policies should be well-known, clear-cut and 

 loyalty insisted upon; these men wish to cooperate 

 and to that end desire that they be given the 

 confidence of their seniors, and not to be kept 

 intentionally in the dark as to the possibilities of 

 their position or the scope of their work. " Each 

 man (president, professors, instructors, etc.) 

 should have a better understanding with all his 

 associates as to what specific purpose in the world 

 he is trying to accomplish, and in what details he 

 is responsible and in what details only an agent. 

 The whole to be open and aboveboard." 



4. Facilities. 



In addition to such criticism. of limitations of 

 library or lack of equipment from which all mem- 

 bers of the staff suff'er alike, the assistant pro- 

 fessor feels that his needs of office and research 

 room and occasional clerical or stenographic 

 service are overlooked. 



More serious than this is the complaint that he 

 has no voice in making up the department budget 

 and that, as a consequence, serious injustice is 

 sometimes done his classes and himself by an 

 indifTerent or unfriendly head of department. In 

 the following quotation I change the actual figures 

 — to prevent identification — but retain their essen- 

 tial ratio: 



"Our department has $5,000 this year for cur- 

 rent expenses. Although second in rank in a 

 department of five men, my grant was only $85. 



This sum was soon exhausted, and from 



until next July my laboratories must get along as 

 best they can without funds. In this matter the 

 head of the department has absolute power, from 

 which there is no appeal." 



The failure to include in book-lists those which 

 the assistant professor requires for his advanced 

 work and growth is also not unknown. 



Facilities for the publication of longer, more 

 ambitious work, rather than short papers, are 

 inadequate. There are occasional instances where 

 he has been urged by the superior, upon whose 

 good-will the permanence of his position and ad- 

 vancement depend, to undertake such a task and 

 upon its completion face the necessity of paying 

 a large sum toward its cost of publication out 

 of his scanty resources. 



5. Schedule and curriculum. 



The burden of instructional work is too heavy 

 to encourage or even, in many cases, to permit 

 research work. The suggestion is made that there 

 is too great a variety of undergraduate courses 

 offered. 



The men should have some share in the advanced 



