December 15, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



783 



of our country, the practises of the west 

 will be assimilated to those of the east in 

 regard to the education of young women 

 with young men— that is, some institutions 

 will remain frankly and throughout coedu- 

 cational while others will detach the groups 

 of women more or less from the groups of 

 men, and others again will be coeducational 

 in their graduate schools and summer ses- 

 sions, but not elsewhere. Moreover, both 

 separate colleges for women and colleges for 

 women affiliated with universities for men 

 will probably arise in the west. 



A significant distinction among Ameri- 

 can colleges is based on their terms of ad- 

 mission, some requiring examinations, but 

 the great majority admitting on certificates 

 from secondary schools. Almost all the 

 colleges use each method in some me*asure; 

 but there is an important group of eastern 

 colleges which admit regular students only 

 on examination. Both methods have been 

 improved and extended in recent years ; 

 so that there is now a good chance to test 

 fairly the relative merits of the two 

 methods. That method will ultimately be 

 preferred by schools and colleges alike 

 which delivers to the colleges the ablest, 

 best trained, most ambitious and most effi- 

 cient boys and girls. Between the two 

 groups of colleges the decisive test will be 

 the success of their graduates in after life. 

 The diiferentiation among colleges on this 

 basis may turn out to be quicker and more 

 decisive than most experts have imagined, 

 or on the other hand the results may be ob- 

 scure and hard to demonstrate. Again, a 

 third method, like that of Germany, may 

 supersede both of the existing methods. 



Another distinction among the leading 

 universities of this country depends on the 

 proportion which the work they do for un- 

 dergraduates bears to the work they do for 

 young men who already hold a bachelor's 

 degree. The graduate schools in arts and 



sciences are increasing rapidly in number 

 and in size ; but the number of universities 

 which require a bachelor's degree for ad- 

 mission to their other professional schools 

 is still very small. Here again a sound 

 experiment is in progress under fair condi- 

 tions, and in ten years more it may be pos- 

 sible for judicious observers to determine 

 what the interest of the universities is in 

 this matter, and what the interest of the 

 community. At any rate, it is certain that 

 preparation for the professions is growing 

 more and more elaborate, and that the in- 

 fluence of the professions steadily increases. 

 There is an important difference in the 

 organization and management of the Amer- 

 ican institutions of higher education which 

 has not attracted much public attention, but 

 which really affects strongly the present 

 management of these institutions and their 

 future prospects. In many of the institu- 

 tions, particularly the older and stronger 

 ones, the president of the college or uni- 

 versity is a member of the governing board, 

 or boards, with the full powers of a mem- 

 ber. In others, the board of trustees or 

 regents elects its own chairman; and the 

 president of the university, though invited 

 to attend the meetings of the board, is not a 

 member thereof, much less its head. The 

 position of the president who is a member 

 of the governing boards is, of course, 

 stronger than that of a president who is 

 not, provided that his personal quality and 

 his experience are such as to give him in- 

 fluence with the boards. A board of trus- 

 tees, which invites the presence of the presi- 

 dent who is not a member by right, is in- 

 clined to look on the president as one of its 

 numerous employees, with whose service 

 they can dispense, if they like, as they 

 would with the services of a professor, in- 

 structor or secretary. Such a relation to 

 the governing board impairs the dignity 

 and stability of a presidency, and there- 



