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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 586. 



institution ; a spirit of cooperation and loyalty 

 naturally prevailed. The trustees also un- 

 derstood the economy of the college and were 

 able to work intelligently for the general good. 

 But when a university covers the whole field 

 of human knowledge, when it is concerned 

 with professional work in divergent directions, 

 when it adds research and creative scholar- 

 ship to instruction, when both men and women 

 are admitted, when there are 500 instructors 

 and 5,000 students, it is no longer possible for 

 each trustee and for each professor to share 

 intelligently in the conduct of the whole insti- 

 tution. We appear at present to be between 

 the Scylla of presidential autocracy and the 

 Charybdis of faculty and trustee incom- 

 petence. The more incompetent the faculties 

 become, the greater is the need for executive 

 autocracy, and the greater the autocracy of 

 the president, the more incompetent do the 

 faculties become. Under these conditions it 

 appears that the university must be completely 

 reorganized on a representative basis. It 

 should not be a despotism and it can not be a 

 simple democracy. Autonomy should be given 

 to the schools, departments or divisions. The 

 administrative, legislative and judicial work 

 must be done by experts, but they should 

 represent those whom they serve. 



In the course of the past few months there 

 have appeared in various quarters articles 

 discussing the problems of university and 

 educational administration. Two of these 

 contributions — one by Es-president Draper in 

 The Atlantic Monthly and one by President 

 Andrews in the Educational Review — laud 

 the university president and his office, but the 

 other articles which have come to my atten- 

 tion are criticisms of the absolutism and 

 commercialism that are alleged to obtain in 

 university control. Editorial discussion from 

 this point of view has appeared in The Nation, 

 The Outlook, The Dial, The C ongregationalist 

 and other journals. Articles by President 

 Pritchett in The Atlantic Monthly, by Pro- 

 fessor Stevenson in The Popular Science 

 Monthly, by Mr. Munroe in Science and by 

 the present writer in The Independent adopt 

 a similar attitude. 



The articles referred to are in the main 



attacks on the transference to university ad- 

 ministration of methods current in business 

 and in politics. Several suggestions of a con- 

 structive character have, however, been made. 

 Thus Professor Stevenson proposes that the 

 presidency as it now exists should be abolished 

 and that the faculty should make all appoint- 

 ments to the teaching stafF, and Dr. Pritchett 

 and Mr. Munroe suggest a joint council or 

 committee of trustees and faculty. 



The present writer ventures to propose 

 tentatively the following form of organization 

 for our larger universities, to be reached as 

 the result of a gradual evolution : 



1. There should be a corporation consisting 

 of the professors and other officers of the uni- 

 versity, the alumni who maintain their in- 

 terest in the institution and members of the 

 community who ally themselves with it. In 

 the case of the state universities part of the 

 corporation would be elected by the people. 

 This corporation should elect trustees having 

 the ordinary functions of trustees — the care 

 of the property and the representation of the 

 common sense of the corporation and of the 

 community in university policy. The trustees 

 should elect a chancellor and a treasurer who 

 would represent the university in its relations 

 with the community. 



2. The professors or officers, or their repre- 

 sentatives, should elect a president who has 

 expert knowledge of education and of univer- 

 sity administration. His salary should not 

 be larger, his position more dignified or his 

 powers greater than those of the professor. 



3. The unit of organization within the uni- 

 versity should be the school, division or de- 

 partment, a group of men having common 

 objects and interests, v/ho can meet frequently 

 and see each other daily. It should be large 

 enough to meet for deliberation and to repre- 

 sent diverse points of view, but small enough 

 for each to understand the whole and to feel 

 responsible for it. The size of this group is 

 prescribed by a psychological constant, its 

 efficient maximum being about twenty men 

 and its minimum about ten. 



4. Each school, division or department 

 should elect its dean or chairman and its 

 executive committee, and have as complete 



