April 13, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



573 



effective. Yet it has great positive value 

 imder present circumstances, for the rea- 

 son that only when this phase of the matter 

 is disposed of, is it possible satisfactorily 

 to consider other weighty issues. It is 

 most unfortunate that this financial as- 

 pect must be placed so prominently in 

 present discussions; for such prominence 

 but enforces the inadequacy of the aca- 

 demic situation. It would, however, be 

 foolish to disregard this irritating stum- 

 bling-block, which must be removed if 

 academic freedom is to be maintained. The 

 professor desires money in order that 

 money considerations may not enter dis- 

 turbingly into his life; and universities 

 should once for all determine matters of 

 salary, in order that their energies may be 

 more profitably expended. 



The second provision is that no measure 

 shall be decided by the president or the 

 board without giving the faculty an op- 

 portunity to decide whether it cares to ex- 

 press itself upon that measure or not. 

 Such provision inevitably carries with it 

 the right to have a share in deciding in the 

 first place what division of questions shall 

 be made between faculty and board. To 

 accomplish this end, an advisory committee 

 of the faculty seems an efficient means. 

 Such committee should decide in each case 

 whether and how far questions should be 

 considered by the faculty; and naturally 

 the president, as a member of such a com- 

 mittee, will bring before it first and for 

 approval all measures that he regards as 

 worthy of the attention of the board. An 

 arrangement of this type is in force in Le- 

 land Stanford University. With slight 

 change in the apportionment of the present 

 authority, such a measure will be adequate 

 to bring to the faculty a voice on all ques- 

 tions upon which, in its own judgment, its 

 expression of opinion would be for the 

 best interests of the university. Such com- 

 mittee would attend the meetings of the 



board and participate in its discussions, 

 though without right of vote. The presi- 

 dent would serve as the formal spokesman 

 of the faculty influence, and could then be, 

 what it should be his highest ambition to 

 be, the leader, not the governor of the 

 faculty, and a defender of the academic 

 life. 



I have no desire to lay minute stress 

 upon particular remedies, which must 

 always take their shape from local condi- 

 tions, though in still larger measure must 

 they be framed by ideals and purposes, 

 that are much the same wherever the aca- 

 demic spirit is cherished. I desire only to 

 remove the objection that practical meas- 

 ures to remove difficulties can not be readily 

 devised. I know very well that changes 

 of ideals and purposes must first inspire 

 confidence and enthusiasm before they 

 reach practical possibilities; but I am en- 

 couraged by the example of so many other 

 educational and national evils, that, once 

 clearly recognized, have in astonishingly 

 brief time been swept away by the strenu- 

 ous purpose of the national temper. It is 

 in such a movement that the present dis- 

 cussion would find the most desirable con- 

 summation. 



I am fully aware that no such admin- 

 istrative reform is to be looked for until 

 the ambitions that universities and partic- 

 ularly their presidents cherish, are consid- 

 erably altered. When internal cultural 

 measures are acknowledged to be the lead- 

 ing issues of the academic life, it will fall 

 more and more to the faculty to carry them 

 out ; there will be less and less need of the 

 present type of president, less temptation 

 to develop the office primarily for those 

 functions which it now serves. The type 

 of individual that will then be sought for 

 the position will be selected by a different 

 perspective of considerations; and the 

 academic career will have greater promise 

 of reaching a worthier status than it now 



