270 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



appreciation of what the great educational problems of the day really 

 are, and it has aroused a desire to have these problems investigated by 

 experts in order that the layman may have put before him authoritative 

 data as a basis for discussion. If we have everywhere to-day a passion 

 for education that partakes of the religious fervor of an earlier time it 

 may in large part be explained by this thin entering wedge of alumni 

 representation on boards of college trustees. 



The part taken by the state, the parent, the benefactor, the under- 

 graduate body and the alumni is either too slight to have an appreciable 

 effect in formulating educational policy, or it is too irresponsible to be 

 met and discussed in the open, or it is prophetic of future opportunities 

 rather than a chronicle of past achievement. 



In the eye of the law the only authority responsible for the conduct 

 of the affairs of a college is that vested in the board of control, usually 

 denominated a board of regents or a board of trustees. The nature and 

 the measure of this responsibility is largely determined by the source of 

 the financial support of the institutions concerned. 



Higher institutions of learning are of two general types as regards 

 this support. In universities supported by the state, the members of 

 the board of regents may be appointed by the governor of the state or 

 elected by the qualified voters of the state; in either of these cases, the 

 members of the board hold office for a limited term of years. Colleges 

 on a private foundation are controlled by a board of trustees whose 

 members form a close corporation. They are self-perpetuating and are 

 elected for life, although a recent modification of this plan provides that 

 members of the board are to hold office for a limited term and member- 

 ship may be automatically changed at the end of a definite period. But 

 irrespective of number of members, term of office, and method of ap- 

 pointment or election, the result is the anomalous one of placing in 

 control of nearly every great and every small institution of higher learn- 

 ing in America a body of men that have no connection with the educa- 

 tional work of the institution, that are not members of its faculties, that 

 are not necessarily numbered among its graduates or its former students, 

 or indeed among those of any other college or university. Yet the 

 control of these external bodies over our educational institutions is 

 absolute in that both the financial and the educational policy come 

 within their jurisdiction, and their control is irresponsible in that they 

 render no account of their stewardship and as a rule they hold office for 

 life, not during good behavior. Technically and legally all-powerful, 

 these external boards of control do not exercise their authority directly, 

 but they delegate it to their appointee, the college president. He thus 

 in his turn becomes all-powerful, not by virtue of original and vested 

 authority but through authority delegated to him by these boards. 



It is thus seen that the most important function of this external 



