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SCIENCE 



[>r. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 795 



courses and must be given entire control of the 

 conduct of their own classes except for the natural 

 limitations imposed by the need of correlation of 

 courses. They should be free as to methods, but 

 held strictly accountable to the university for 

 results. 



6. Tenure. 



The comments on tenure leave no doubt that a 

 short term — like annual appointments — dominated 

 by the head of the department is not wholesome 

 and should not be tolerated. Probationary service, 

 either in rank of instructor, or one term as as- 

 sistant professor, is recognized as necessary and 

 desirable; but a continued state of uncertainty is 

 demoralizing. No institution — even for the gain 

 of apparently frictionless administration — can 

 afford to pay the price in injury to dignity and 

 character disclosed by some of these letters. 



7. Promotion. 



The standards for promotion should be formu- 

 lated, openly stated, and adhered to. It is urged 

 that recognition be given to teaching ability and 

 that promotion depend not solely on research 

 work when the burden of teaching makes this so 

 generally impossible. " Promotion should not de- 

 pend upon aggressiveness in cultivating friend- 

 ships of those in authority, popularity with stu- 

 dents or alumni, capacity for routine administra- 

 tive work, or the personal favor and persistence 

 of the head of the department." Character, per- 

 sonality, ability and reputation in the world of 

 scholars should be the determining factors. Uni- 

 formity of standards in the different departments 

 is highly desirable — the prevailing systems of in- 

 definite tenure and recommendation by depart- 

 ment heads tend to make as many different 

 standards within a single university as there are 

 heads. Each man's case should automatically 

 come up for consideration at fixed intervals and 

 at these times he should be given an opportunity 

 to present such evidence of fitness for promotion 

 as he may feel he has to offer. The conclusions 

 as to his position should then be clearly stated to 

 him. 



8. General faculty status. 



The faculty should be the supreme academic 

 body. There should be more team-work and coop- 

 eration throughout. These men should have a 

 voice and vote in determining the general educa- 

 tional policies. Fear need not be entertained that 

 they will be too zealous or aggressive in the 

 presence of older men whose judgments they have 

 learned to respect. They wish to feel themselves 

 a vital part of the institution and not mere 



employees. They wish to learn about these mat- 

 ters so that they too can give them intelligent 

 consideration, get a view of their work in its 

 broader aspects and relations, and receive some 

 systematic training for the duties and responsi- 

 bilities of higher positions. They have no desire 

 to displace the older men— nor even to intimate 

 that younger men have a great many new and 

 invaluable ideas — but they do feel that a gain 

 may come to an institution in preventing an 

 attitude of settled convictions and consequent lack 

 of further interest in its problems, by injecting a 

 constant stream of fresh blood. To counterbal- 

 ance their lack of academic experience (after 

 seventeen years as students and teachers) they 

 offer an " idealism which has not been too rudely 

 shaken." 



9. Department status. 



One of the tragedies of life is the way we are 

 continually closing the doors behind us and for- 

 getting the lessons which our experiences should 

 have taught us. Nowhere, in this study, has this 

 fact appeared more clearly than in the delicate 

 matter of department organization. It is well, 

 therefore, to listen to the voice of our composite 

 assistant professor on this subject: "The assistant 

 professor should have a voice and vote in all de- 

 partmental matters as a matter of right and not 

 merely as a concession of the head of the depart- 

 ment." " I regard a democratic organization of 

 the departments, with full discussion of concrete 

 problems of instruction, as of the highest impor- 

 tance. Without it proper cooperation of different 

 instructors can not be obtained. It indirectly 

 contributes to an intelligent discussion of general 

 educational problems in faculty meetings." " The 

 president to be the head of each department and 

 to see that the men in all departments have uni- 

 form treatment." " The organization at , 



of departments with heads having large powers, is 

 prejudicial to professors and assistant professors 

 who are not department heads. A democratic 

 organization of departments would be much more 

 healthy — less immediately efficient but sounder in 

 the long run." 



In a democratic society the presence of a priv- 

 ileged class, or of one a considerable portion of 

 which feels itself deprived of natural participation 

 in affairs with which it is vitally concerned, is not 

 wholesome. The solution of this vexed problem, 

 already reached and long in satisfactory operation, 

 at one of our leading institutions, seems to be a 

 democratic departmental organization, having a 



