412 



SCIENCE. 



[KS. Vol. XXII. No. 561. 



this fluctuation did not take place simultane- 

 ously at widely distant stations, but progressed 

 in accordance with the passage of the shadow 

 cone, the presumption will be strong that an 

 eclipse efl^ect has again been detected. A 

 fuller announcement must be reserved for a 

 later occasion. 



L. A. Bauer. 

 Dept. Teekestrial Magnetism, 

 Carnegie Institution, 

 Washington, D. C, 

 September 11, 1905. 



A NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF TRUSTEES 



OF AMERICAN COLLEGES AND 



UNIVERSITIES. 



A IsTational Conference of Trustees of 

 American Colleges and Universities will be 

 held at the University of Illinois, Urbana, 

 Illinois, beginning Tuesday, October 17, 1905. 

 All trustees of such institutions and all per- 

 sons who have served as trustees are cordially 

 invited to attend. 



The sessions will be held during the week in 

 which Dr. Edmund J. James will be formally 

 inaugurated as president of the University of 

 Illinois. The members of the conference will 

 be invited to attend the exercises connected 

 with the inauguration. This will give the 

 members of the conference an opportunity to 

 meet representative men, presidents and pro- 

 fessors, from many different institutions, who 

 will be in attendance as delegates, and also to 

 inspect the work of one of the larger of the 

 state universities. 



It is well known that the method of govern- 

 ing higher institutions of learning by boards 

 of trustees, that is, bodies of non-experts — 

 laymen, so to speak, in the field of education, 

 — is peculiarly American. 



In England the old universities are self- 

 governing bodies, controlled largely by the 

 faculties ; in Erance and Germany they are de- 

 partments of the government, and so far as 

 they are not directly under the control of 

 the government, they are autonomous, that is, 

 ruled by the faculties. In the United States 

 alone we felt it necessary to create a third 

 organ, an independent, often self-renewing 



body of non-experts, in whose hands the entire 

 legal control has usually been placed. 



Many authorities regard this as a most 

 satisfactory method; others find in it some of 

 the most serious weaknesses of our American 

 system of higher education; all believe that 

 the problems connected with such a plan of 

 control are far from being worked out satis- 

 factorily. 



This conference has been called for the pur- 

 pose of discussing some of the most important 

 questions of college and university administra- 

 tion, involving the relations of trustees, presi- 

 dents and faculties. Among the questions 

 which will be discussed are the following: 



1. What should be the real administrative 

 body of a college or university, the faculty or 

 the trustees? 



Should the trustees limit their functions to 

 selecting a faculty and then vest in the latter 

 the actual administration, or shpuld the board 

 itself undertake to administer the institution, 

 either as a body or through its committees? 



3. Should the president of the institution 

 be the sole advisory authority to the board of 

 trustees, or should the other administrative 

 officers, or the various faculties, be consulted? 



3. Should the faculty be authorized to nomi- 

 nate men to the board for vacancies, or should 

 that be done by the president or by the com- 

 mittees, or by the members of the board? 



4. How should trustees be selected? (A) 

 By cooperation? (B) By the alumni? (C) 

 By outside authority? (1) In case of private 

 institutions, by the church or other body ? (2) 

 In case of state institutions : (a) Appointed by 

 the governor? (&) Elected by the people? 

 (c) Or ex officio, e. g., governor, superintend- 

 ent of public instruction, etc. ? 



5. Should the trustees assume entire control 

 of the financial administration, or should they 

 allow the faculties to have a representation 

 also, by allowing them to submit a budget 

 either by departments or as a whole? 



6. Should the trustees, if they reserve the 

 financial authority, undertake to determine the 

 budget in all its details, or should they simply 

 distribute by departments and leave it to the 

 individual departments to make detailed dis- 

 tribution ? 



