December 26, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



915 



the fullest degree at the command of the 

 student and to facilitate research. These 

 things can be secured only where there is 

 harmony among the staff and where the 

 ideas of the staff are carried out in the ad- 

 ministration of the department. Harmony 

 of ideals and executive representation can 

 be secured only by the election both of new 

 members of the staff and of the administra- 

 tive head of the department. New members 

 of staff should be nominated to the presi- 

 dent by those who will be their colleagues 

 and who are best able to judge of their fit- 

 ness for their places. The president will 

 of course actively share the responsibility 

 of appointments. Promotions should be 

 recommended by the chairman and ap- 

 proved by a university committee on pro- 

 motions. 



All important business should be done in 

 staff meetings. The chairman should ad- 

 minister department affairs according to 

 the decisions and by the authority of the 

 staff and should represent the staff in rela- 

 tions with other departments. "Within the 

 department there should be the greatest 

 practicable freedom of the individual in 

 teaching and research, together with pub- 

 licity of results. Subdivision of the field 

 covered by the department, organization 

 and assignment of work would be done in 

 staff conference. Publicity regarding the 

 number of elective students, percentage of 

 students passed and failed, average grades 

 given, research work accomplished, and so 

 forth, would furnish opportunity for com- 

 parison, friendly rivalry, self-criticism and 

 improvement of the work of each teacher. 

 The first step toward improvement of or- 

 ganization of state universities would be 

 the organization of department staffs to 

 bear the responsibilities and to direct the 

 work of the department through an elected 

 chairman. The second step would be the 



gradual combination of .smaller into larger 

 departments. 



The next important step would be the 

 breaking down of the boundaries between 

 colleges on the side of teaching and inves- 

 tigation, making each student perfectly 

 free to study where and what he will, sub- 

 ject only to the regulations of departments 

 and to the means of gaining his own ends. 

 Some present schools and colleges would 

 take again their proper places as depart- 

 ments, the others would be dissolved. 



So far as the present colleges serve a 

 useful purpose their place would be taken 

 by faculties for the supervision of pro- 

 fessional and degree courees. Each such 

 faculty should be made up of representa- 

 tives of all departments which may offer 

 work toward the given degree, such repre- 

 sentatives to act under instructions from 

 the staffs of their respective departments. 

 These faculties should prescribe require- 

 ments for entrance and for graduation but 

 should have no control of finances or of ap- 

 pointments. They should exercise only an 

 advisory function in regard to the election 

 of studies or the student's use of his time. 

 Any faculty might, if it was deemed advis- 

 able, prescribe final examinations over the 

 whole course of study, or the presentation 

 of a thesis, and so forth. Thus we should 

 have an A.B. faculty, an LL.B. faculty, an 

 M.D. faculty, and so on, each safeguarding 

 the traditions which surround its degree or 

 the standards which should be upheld in 

 the profession, but each giving full oppor- 

 tunity to the various departments to place 

 before the student new materials, methods 

 and ideals ; and giving to the student oppor- 

 tunity to try his powers and extend his 

 acquaintance beyond the usual limits laid 

 down by the traditions of his degree or his 

 chosen profession. This mode of organiza- 

 tion would also make it as easy as possible 

 for the student to change his course in case 



