488 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 796 



THE PROBLEM OF THE ASSISTANT 

 PROFESSOR, in 



PAET II 



The foregoing part represents the prob- 

 lem as seen from one point of view. It is 

 therefore partial, incomplete. For the 

 sake of completeness, a questionnaire (Ap- 

 pendix B) was prepared and sent to the 

 presidents of the twenty-two institutions. 

 The queries were drawn up for the pur- 

 pose of showing, if possible, some of the 

 broader movements which have affected 

 and are affecting the status of the assistant 

 professor, and also to get light from the 

 administrative standpoint on the lower and 

 upper limits of requirements for the posi- 

 tion, etc. 



An unfortunate clerical error, discov- 

 ered too late for correction, called for data 

 concerning students and staff for the years 

 1890-1 and 1900-1, instead of 1899-1900 

 and 1909-10. This was Ivindly remedied 

 in some of the replies ; while it was possible 

 from other data available partially to 

 remedy the error in a few other cases. It 



is greatly to be regretted that but ten 

 practically complete replies had been re- 

 ceived when the time for compilation ar- 

 rived. It is obvious, for instance, that the 

 present actual average salary of the as- 

 sistant professor in these institutions could 

 have been obtained (and used as a check 

 on the result in Part I., as to whether the 

 replies came from typical representatives 

 of the ranli), if answers had been received 

 from each institution as to the number of 

 assistant professors and the average sal- 

 ary. Because of partial answers, the show- 

 ing of growth of student body and staff 

 must also be omitted. The general trends 

 of these are too well known to need demon- 

 stration here. The following table (VII.) 

 has been compiled, however, from the data 

 at hand, to show the change in the propor- 

 tionate composition of staff which has 

 taken place in the past twenty years.* 



It is seen that while the assistant pro- 

 fessors have formed a practically constant 

 or slightly increasing proportion of the en- 

 tire staff, the proportion of the staff above 



TABLE vn 

 Proportionate Composition of Staff 



'See also Science, May 14, 1909, pp. 767-770. 



