272 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



teacher, and financial agent that of a fitting social representative of the 

 institution. 



But increased and increasing endowments entailed the burden of 

 organizing and administering them. The funds secured must be wisely 

 used and no one could hope to be successful as the head of an educa- 

 tional institution who did not unite with the ability to raise funds that 

 of a wise administrator. 



But wise administration is a complex term. It implies the organi- 

 zation not only of the internal but of the external affairs of an institu- 

 tion — the care of buildings and of grounds, and even familiarity with 

 a species of hotel-keeping if the college has dormitories or residence 

 halls. 



Thus by an accumulation of duties that have been added as the scope 

 of the college has broadened, the college president has added to his 

 primary qualification of religious head that of educational head, finan- 

 cial head, social head and administrative head, including the duties of 

 superintendent of buildings and grounds and even those of hotel pro- 

 prietor. It has been a veritable piling of Ossa on Pelion and the office 

 has become so burdened with duties and responsibilities that it seems as 

 if it must break down of its own weight. 



A person unfamiliar with the situation might reasonably conclude 

 that all of our colleges and universities were threatened with bank- 

 ruptcy and had been placed in the hands of a receiver so unlimited are 

 the powers that have been conferred on their presidents. But those 

 whose acquaintance with present conditions makes it possible for them 

 to understand the steps by which this present development has been 

 reached know that the powers now placed in the hands of the president 

 have been cumulative and in a measure accidental rather than the 

 result of fixed plan. 



Of the eight factors concerned in college legislation and administra- 

 tion, seven have been considered. It remains only to examine the part 

 taken by the faculty in the government of the colleges with which they 

 are associated. Singularly enough this part seems entirely negligible. 

 The faculty of a college has no voice in the election of a president who 

 is to rule over them by appointive if not by divine right, nor are its 

 members, as far as known, ever consulted when a choice of president is 

 to be made, nor are even expressions of opinion sought from them. 



It is also true that no college professor is ever a member of the 

 board of trustees that governs the institution with which he is connected, 

 and that he is even in some cases expressly prohibited from ever becom- 

 ing a member of the governing body. The corporate state may be rep- 

 resented by its governor who may be ex officio a member of the board of 

 trustees of a college within the state ; the state at large may through the 

 votes of its citizens choose the boards of regents who control the policy 



