December 15, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



Ill 



originate measures. Thus early Harvard 

 University acquired the double-headed or 

 bicameral organization that has proved in- 

 valuable in political constitutions, being in 

 this respect the most fortunate of all the 

 American institutions of learning. The 

 same motives, however, which determined 

 the general court of Massachusetts to char- 

 ter the president and fellows of Harvard 

 College have prevailed in all subsequent 

 cases, though not expressed as at Harvard 

 through the preferable method of establish- 

 ing a separate governing board. The large 

 body of trustees of an American college or 

 university can not meet frequently. The 

 members are too numerous, and their resi- 

 dences are so widely scattered that meet- 

 ings are (Mostly and troublesome. Moreover, 

 they are too large for active executive 

 functions. They have, therefore, as a rule, 

 given large powers to an executive or pru- 

 dential committee, the members of which 

 can be conveniently brought together, and 

 can give much time and thought to the 

 affairs of the university. In this way many 

 of the advantages of the bicameral organ- 

 ization of Harvard have been secured by 

 the other American institutions. The in- 

 itiating body is the executive committee, 

 and the trustees incjuire, examine and ap- 

 prove or consent. 



The composition of the first Harvard 

 governing board— the overseers — has been 

 repeatedly altered by the legislature. The 

 original composition was altered in 1780 to 

 the governor, lieutenant-governor, council 

 and senate of the commonw^ealth, with the 

 president of Harvard College and the min- 

 isters of the Congregational churches of the 

 six towns. Thirty years later the board 

 was reconstituted as follows : The governor, 

 lieutenant-governor, councilors, president 

 of the senate and speaker of the house of 

 representatives and the president of Har- 

 vard College, with fifteen ministers of Con- 

 gregational churches and fifteen laymen 



elected by the ballots of the majority of 

 the overseers. A few years later the senate 

 of the commonwealth was incorporated in 

 the board of overseers. In 1834 it was 

 enacted that ministers of any denomination 

 might be elected to the board of overseers. 

 In 1851 the senate was dropped and the 

 board was made up of the usual ex officio 

 members and thirty persons elected by the 

 senators and representatives of the com- 

 mouM^ealth in six equal classes, each class 

 to serve six years. Finally, in 1865, the 

 power to elect these thirty overseers in six 

 classes was conferred on persons who have 

 received from the college the degree of 

 bachelor of arts, or master of arts, or any 

 honorary degree, voting on commencement 

 day in the city of Cambridge. This series 

 of changes in the Harvard board of over- 

 seers perfectly illustrates certain common 

 tendencies in American institutions of the 

 higher education which will ultimately 

 bring them all to a great similarity so far 

 as their governing bodies are concerned: 

 in the first place, the amount of political 

 control tends to diminish; secondly, the 

 religious denominations lose influence ; and 

 thirdly, the graduates of an institution as 

 such come into possession of some power 

 over it. The state universities have stead- 

 ily endeavored to diminish the influence of 

 politics in the selection of their boards of 

 trustees or regents ; and they have also suc- 

 cessfully excluded denominational control 

 —not without effort, to be sure; for 

 strangely enough, there was formerly a 

 considerable amount of denominational 

 control over some state universities, ex- 

 hibited for the most part in the successive 

 elections of presidents. Finally, many of 

 the older American colleges and universi- 

 ties have succeeded in providing, some- 

 times by new legislation, and sometimes by 

 tacit understandings, that a portion of the 

 members of the single board of trustees 

 shall be elected by the graduates of the 



