December 26, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



911 



was equipped with a great amount of ex- 

 pensive glassware and analytical appa- 

 ratus of which the head of the department 

 did not know the uses, while the students' 

 tables were almost devoid of ordinary rea- 

 gent bottles. The younger men in the de- 

 partment were unable for a long time to 

 secure the ordinary equipment needed. In 

 other cases men who were drawing full pro- 

 fessors' salaries have taken their time for 

 outside professional work or for dealing 

 in real estate, coal or gas, neglecting their 

 teaching and imposing extra work on the 

 instructors to the detriment of both in- 

 structors and students. A head of depart- 

 ment may carry on for years policies which 

 are not approved by a single member of 

 his staff ; may absent himself from all teach- 

 ing whatever; may neglect to do any re- 

 search work or contribute anything to the 

 advancement of his science; may pursue 

 constantly a policy of selfish material ag- 

 grandizement for which the department 

 suffers both in the esteem of the university 

 and in the decrease of scientific work 

 which the members of staff can do ; may 

 deliberately sacrifice the interests of the 

 students to his personal ambitions, and may 

 in these ways cause constant friction and 

 great waste of energy throughout the col- 

 lege — all this while maintaining a pre- 

 tense, or even a belief, that he is a most 

 public-spirited and useful member of the 

 faculty. The head may conduct his de- 

 partment in such a way as to make re- 

 search impossible and even drive men out 

 of his depai'tment because they do research, 

 all the while that he himself talks of the 

 importance of research. Heads may ap- 

 point to high positions men who have given 

 no evidence whatever of their qualifica- 

 tions for the work proposed. Heads of de- 

 partments and deans have been known to 

 use their offices to secure advancement for 

 their personal friends and are able to side- 



track valuable proposals for the common 

 good which threaten to compete with their 

 own interests. 



The head of a department enjoys a re- 

 markable liberty in the conduct of his de- 

 partment and in the performance of his 

 individual duties. He may suppress the 

 individualism of his staff members, ignore 

 any suggestions which they may make, 

 and dismiss them if they insist upon 

 their ideas. He may falsify the reports 

 as to the teaching and other work done 

 by himself and by members of his 

 staff. If subordinate members of the staff 

 have different ideas as to the conduct 

 of the departments they are vigorously 

 overruled by the head, and if any 

 question of bad policy or of injustice is 

 brought to the stage of investigation by 

 the president, that officer is governed by 

 the principle that all matters of testimony 

 must be construed by him in a light as fav- 

 orable as possible to the head of the de- 

 partment. The president is bound to do 

 this because he is dependent upon his 

 heads of departments for information, ad- 

 vice and executive assistance. The "heads 

 of departments" thus become a system 

 which involves the president and from the 

 toils of which he can not easily extricate 

 himself. It is a matter of common knowl- 

 edge that in some departments no member 

 of staff is asked for his opinions or is en- 

 couraged to hold or express independent 

 views, that younger members of the faculty 

 commonly dare not express themselves pub- 

 licly or go to the president or dean in mat- 

 ters in which they differ from the heads 

 of their departments, and that generally 

 the department head assumes that the de- 

 cision of any question resides with the "re- 

 sponsible head," regardless of the views of 

 his subordinates. There is no way in which 

 the members of staff can influence the pol- 

 icj- of their department, there is no chan- 



