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SCIENCE 



[X. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 812 



am prepared to admit that in many issues tlie 

 administrative and the academic decisions 

 will agree. In those cases I shall still regret 

 that the right decision is reached for the 

 wrong reasons, or that an unwise precedent is 

 enforced by giving decisive weight to minor 

 considerations. Everything that makes for 

 the importance of the administrative function 

 in the higher education is, to my thinking, 

 bad, especially when it gains its prestige at 

 the sacrifice of the professors' interests. 



I go back but a few issues in Science to 

 find another illustration. Vigorous protests 

 appeared in Science and elsewhere against 

 the summary action of the Carnegie Founda- 

 tion in cutting ofE the privilege of retirement 

 after twenty-five years of service, which had 

 been definitely agreed upon as one of the two 

 main purposes of the foundation. That this 

 action was unwise and unethical has been 

 made clear ; and it is certainly most important 

 that the foundation modify it at its next 

 meeting. For the moment that is not the is- 

 sue. The pertinent matter is again that in 

 reaching this decision the academic interests 

 were insufficiently considered. It is incon- 

 ceivable that if the board of the foundation 

 were composed, as it should be, of professors 

 (with one or two presidents to represent the 

 necessary administrative side of things) such 

 an action should have been taken. It is 

 another case of the conflict of the two inter- 

 ests and the unwise and unjust arrangement 

 whereby the administrative side prevails and 

 the professorial side is not officially repre- 

 sented. 



I agree lastly with Mr. Chapman's conten- 

 tion, that as things are, the most hopeful pro- 

 cedure is for the professors to appeal directly 

 to the boards of laymen who control affairs. 

 I have every faith in the fairness of the lay 

 boards. I believe that they have been largely 

 misled by the over emphasis by the president 

 of the administrative side of affairs, by the 

 natural assumption that he was really repre- 

 senting faculty sentiment when he could not 

 vitally do so. This will not be a radical meas- 

 ure, only a temporizing one, it is true; but it 

 is practical. The only radical measure will 

 be one that rearranges the authority of pro- 



fessor and president and minimizes in every 

 respect the administrative function, making 

 the administrative officers, what they should 

 be and be satisfied to be, the convenient mode 

 of expressing the will of the faculty and of 

 preserving the energies of the faculty in be- 

 half of academic purposes. I am aware that 

 the suggestion has a danger of its own; that 

 of inducing the board to take a hand in edu- 

 cational matters. In principle that is unwise, 

 and is most subject to abuse. But the good 

 to be gained is well worth that risk. More- 

 over, I believe that the good sense of lay 

 boards will be and in the end must be the only 

 safeguard against their unwise interference 

 with the prerogatives of the faculty. Further- 

 more, the division between educational and 

 financial questions is quite artificial and has 

 as a fact been used to throw the authority 

 where it is desired. Just as soon as professor- 

 ial opinion makes itself felt, it will be re- 

 spected. It is certainly regrettable that the 

 situation demands this form of solution; but 

 practically I see no other as promising. A far 

 better solution would be the natural decline 

 of the administrative temper in the higher 

 education, by a refusal on the part of men 

 elected to such positions to exercise it. 



Be the solution what it may, and the tem- 

 porary steps such as in each situation the best 

 wisdom and the kindest consideration of all 

 interests may suggest, this remains certain : 

 that no one will respect those who do not 

 respect themselves and stand boldly and 

 proudly for their rights. The timidity and 

 the unwise reserve of the professor stand as 

 the most serious obstacle in the way of the 

 removal of the evils in the professorial situa- 

 tion. Joseph Jastrow 



Chester, Nova Scotia, 

 July 9, 1910 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Bara Arithmetica. A catalogue of the arith- 

 metics written before the year MDCI. with 

 a description of those in the library of 

 George Arthur Plimpton, of New York. By 

 David Eugene Smith, of Teachers College, 

 Columbia University. Boston and London, 

 Ginn and Co. 1908. 



