564 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 589. 



almost any other, that he finds it difficult 

 to realize how vitally it affects the motives 

 and actions of men devoted to other affairs. 

 I confess that I found incomprehensible the 

 declaration of one whose character com- 

 mands my admiration, that he would far 

 prefer to be mayor of Chicago than Presi- 

 dent of the United States ; and for no other 

 reason than that the exercise of the per- 

 sonal power of which the former officer dis- 

 poses, would furnish him with the keenest 

 satisfaction, with the most deeply felt trib- 

 ute to his own success. That such type of 

 man possesses many qualities of great value 

 must be admitted ; but such qualities are in 

 no situation less appropriate than in the 

 governing boards of universities. There, if 

 anywhere, is needed one who finds within 

 him no impulse to use power wantonly, no 

 tendency to control where cooperation 

 alone is desired, to interpret his office in 

 any other spirit than of determining, with 

 generous confidence in expert opinion, what 

 ends are most to be desired, and of using 

 his practical wisdom in aiding the purposes 

 of the common cause. As the national ex- 

 periments in benevolent assimilation have 

 been more notable for the success of the lat- 

 ter than of the former quality, so has the 

 trustees' interpretation of cooperative con- 

 trol emphasized the latter to the disparage- 

 ment of the former element. That the cor- 

 rection for this tendency lies neither in the 

 abolition of boards of trustees, nor neces- 

 sarily in their reconstruction, but only in 

 the transformation of the policy by which 

 the division of authority between them and 

 the faculty shall be regulated, will appear 

 in due course. 



Let us remain a moment longer with the 

 bare description of things as they are.* 



'I must here intrude a word of explanation. 

 My task requires that I speak frankly of existing 

 conditions; and were any one disposed to misin- 

 terpret the spirit in which that is done, personal 

 considerations and the reference to particular men 



The status quo, summarily exhibited, re- 

 cites that the board and the president dis- 

 pose of many, most or all of the measures 

 that affect in any decisive manner the 

 growth and official welfare of the univer- 

 sity, and that affect the personal and pro- 

 fessional welfare of the professor. The 

 board in framing its edicts looks to the 

 president as the source of initiative; sets 

 gTcat store by the president's approval; 

 follows his lead in determining academic 

 sentiment or university needs; awards 

 medals of gold or silver or bronze, or dis- 

 misses with honorable mention or without 

 it, in accordance with his verdicts; decides 

 what shall be done first and what last and 

 what not at all, largely according to his 

 judgment or preferences. In all this it 

 depends, as a rule, wholly upon the tem- 

 perament of the president whether he con- 

 sults or does not consult faculty opinion. 

 His measures may, and most of them do, go 

 directly to the board; they are announced 



or institutions might be read into a discussion in 

 which they have no place. I shall offer no 

 affront to any who may be interested in what I 

 have to say by implying any such misconstruc- 

 tion. The discussion will be maintained upon a 

 wholly objective basis. As is regarded as proper 

 in speaking of the dead, I shall refer to no partic- 

 ular institution except to praise it. Yet I would 

 not have it said that I am speaking of imaginary 

 or exaggerated conditions, not of real ones. I 

 have constantly in mind actual conditions in 

 definite institutions; I find it necessary to exer- 

 cise caution not to refer to them so definitely that 

 their identity will be surmised. A deliberately 

 cultivated acquaintance with many members of 

 many faculties, a considerable range of earnest 

 and confidential discussion of actual conditions are 

 the basis of my observation. My observations may 

 be faulty; but they are free, they are honestly 

 acquired and have been slowly matured. Some 

 may be inclined to consider the conditions over- 

 drawn, because they have in mind the few most 

 exceptional universities in which the spirit of 

 administration is far more favorable than I 

 picture it. It is the average, not the exceptionally 

 best, that counts in this discussion; and it is the 

 average to which I address myself. 



