every necessary item for a year in advance. Only in a general way can the expenditures be anticipated, and there will arise almost daily the need for something which could not have been anticipated by any foresight. I have found in my own experience in the management of a department, which extends over a period of nearly thirty-six years, that I can estimate pretty closely as to the aggregate expenditures necessary for the normal growth of the department, and I can even indicate fairly well how much will be necessary for this and that subdivison of the work, but it often happens that some change takes place in the amount of work which must be done which makes it necessary to quite materially increase the expenditures here, while decreasing them there. I consider it to be a sound policy to consult with the president in regard to plans for large expenditures, and especially for such as involve considerable expenditure for a series of years. In other words, it is wise not to begin the purchase of expensive annual distributions of specimens, or of particular sets of expensive machines or other apparatus, without some assurance of the continuance of sufficient annual appropriations. It ought not to be necessary to write down such business commonplaces as these, for these are the every day practice of business concerns the world over, and yet too often these very simple and obvious rules are ignored or wholly forgotten. We must remember that the business. side of a college must be conducted on business principles, and these must be rigidly observed by both trustee and faculty.

"7. Should the trustees of all institutions, public and private alike, be required by law to file full financial statements with some public authority and publish the same?"

I am a believer in publicity, and favor the suggestion for both state and private colleges.

In state institutions, publicity is required by law. There is no valid reason why the same practice should not prevail in regard to private colleges and universities, and it would certainly tend to greater carefulness. Moreover, it would inspire greater confidence in the trustees on the part of the public were it known that all their actions were to be made public in an official manner.

"8. Should the alumni have some formally recognized place in the scheme of government of the institution? If so, what?

Give the alumni some representation on the board of trustees. The growing practice in both state and private colleges of electing alumni to membership on the board of trustees, is to be commended. In the private institutions, this is a matter which can easily be regulated by a rule of the board itself, but in state institutions, since there can be no rule or law upon this point, all that can be done is for the alumni to be sufficiently active and influential to secure the nomina

tion of graduates of the institution. In Nebraska this has given us one or more alumni on the board for many years.

"Should the student body have formal recognition in the scheme of government by being privileged to appoint representatives to any disciplinary or administrative body?"

The "student body" is a community in which the intelligent and active life of the individual is too short to make it available in any permanently helpful way. Freshmen are too timid; sophomores do not understand the college problems; juniors and seniors might render some help, but they soon leave college.

In my opinion, based upon fifteen years of experience with it, "student government," so-called, is impracticable in so far as permanent results are concerned. I took prominent part in a prolonged attempt to secure a condition in which the students could and would govern themselves. It was fairly successful only as long as the faculty watched every step taken by the student officers. When we relaxed our watchfulness the "government" fell into nocuous desuetude.

In all this talk about the desirability of having the students take some part in the government of the college, there is the feeling that in some way wherever there is government it must be a representative government in order that individual rights may be secure, and the "consent of the governed" attained. Now, we may as well understand first as last that there are a great many places in even the most democratic society where "representation " is impracticable, and where the "governed" are not competent to have any voice in the government, or even if competent, do not want to be bothered about the matter. We cannot run railway trains or steamships with their hundreds of passengers by a committee of the passengers. When I go on board of either, I am too busy with my own affairs to be willing to "work my way" by taking part in the management. So too it is with the college boy. He expects us to manage things, himself included, and he rarely has time to turn to in order to take part in what is manifestly our own business, that is, the business of the faculty and the trustees.

"10. Is it possible to devise uniform methods of bookkeeping and statistics, so as to make comparisons more valuable?”

I should like to see greater uniformity in the bookkeeping of the colleges, and no doubt much improvement may be brought about by a proper committee.

This is a matter for the bookkeepers, and all that we need do here is to arrange that they and the president shall take up the matter.

Additional Remarks by Professor Forbes

I have been asked by the program committee of this conference to add to this paper, in the absence of its distinguished author, anything which may seem to me to be called for by way of discussion. I am pleased to be able to approve it most heartily in general, with some exceptions in details, however, one or two of which will presently be made.

Especially I approve it as exhibiting a symmetrical, well-balanced plan of a university organization, drawn by a man who has had much. personal experience in all parts of it, who has lived virtually his whole. life in an American university, and who is able, consequently, to look at it intelligently and fairly, from all points of view; and I would have you contrast it with that view of university organization, sometimes held up to us, which shows us a Brobdingnagian president, a commonsized board of trustees, and a Lilliputian faculty-a view evidently due to a radically wrong perspective, and which gives us no proper understanding of right relations and proportions.

ment.

What is the real, the vital, the essential work of a university, that for which alone it has been established and for which it is maintained, that for which all else exists and to which all else must be subordinated? And where is this work done and who are the real doers of it? It is the work of education and research, done in lecture-rooms and laboratories and libraries, and by the members of the university faculty. Whatever improves and strengthens this faculty, whatever best organizes its various abilities and makes them most effective for the university service, is good; whatever tends to weaken it, to suppress, to depress, to disorganize it, is bad. This is the test by which to try every proposition in university administration and developAnd what is this faculty, and of whom is it composed? It is presumably and such it should certainly be made a body of strong capable, well-trained, well-organized men and women, themselves the picked product, the very flower, of the educational processes and institutions of which they have now become the active agents for the education of others. If they are not worthy and well developed and well trained, then the whole scheme of the higher education is a blunder, for they are its final outcome. It is because I believe in university education, and hence in the university faculty as its main and most important agent, that I am led to respectfully dissent from Dean Bessey's recommendation that the president should be given a veto power over deliberate and well-considered faculty action.

The president's position of advantage in most American universities, in that he speaks for the faculty in trustee meetings and for the trustees in faculty meetings; in that he powerfully influences, if he does not virtually control, appointment to the faculty itself, promotion in it, and removal from it; in that he stands at the center of university

intelligence, and is presumably gifted beyond the ordinary in diplomatic capacity, in a knowledge of human nature, and in the management of men, insures him all the power over faculty action which any executive officer which any one man-ought to have; and if we add to this the fact that he is free to comment to the trustees on any action which the faculty may send up to trustee sessions, and that there is no one to defend the faculty position if he attacks it there, we shall see, I am sure, that this legislative body needs rather to be strengthened. in the interests of its own efficiency than to be weakened still further by giving greater power over it to its own executive.

If this were the final session of this body, I should be tempted to ask the privilege of saying a few words on the university budget system, in the light of Dean Bessey's suggestions, but this subject will no doubt be fully covered under another topic on your program.

DISCUSSION

MR. HENRY H. HILTON

Trustee of Dartmouth College

Because of Dr. Bessey's high standing as an educator and his long. experience, I have great respect for his opinion on all of these questions and I find myself in accord with many of his conclusions. should modify and some, in my judgment, need emphasis.

to me.

Some I

Should the president be the sole advisory authority? From the standpoint of a business man, the answer to this question seems clear Most large business enterprises to-day have their boards of directors but also their presidents, through whom all matters are brought to the attention of the boards. The president is held responsible for results and accountable if results are unsatisfactory. And so with any institution of learning. While it is to be assumed that the trustees will inform themselves through the faculty or otherwise, and while it is to be assumed that the successful president will advise with his faculty and endeavor to cooperate with them, yet he and he alone must be the head; and whenever a majority of the board lose confidence in the judgment of the president or when it becomes clear that affairs are going wrong, it is time to look for a new man for the position. I see no advantage in Dr. Bessey's suggestion that the president's veto should be overruled by a three-fourths' or four-fifths' vote of the faculty. A wise president would commonly yield to the views of a large majority of his faculty, but in special cases where he felt it essential that his views prevail his word should be final.

As to the publicity of financial statements, the wisdom of such action can hardly be emphasized too much. As regards all institutions in which the public have a direct interest, mismanagement and errors of judgment ultimately may assume proportions which mean disaster to the institution and its officers, and these might be antici

pated and avoided were periodical public statements the practice. Instances come to mind where public school funds have been embezzled and college endowments seriously impaired by being wrongfully used in the payment of current expenses because incompetent or dishonest men were in charge and there was no accounting to anybody of the distribution of the money. Any man can profit by advice. No man is too honest for supervision.

Should the student body have formal recognition in the scheme of government? Dr. Bessey has the negative opinion and many will agree with him. Still I was reading only the other day a statement from Wellesley where student government has been in vogue for four years and they are enthusiastic over its results, and I know of other institutions where the students are participating more or less with different degrees of success. On the whole, I am inclined to believe that such participation has a place in most institutions.

Would uniform statistics be of assistance? As a business proposition this appeals to me as being sound. Whenever similar lines of work are being conducted in different parts of the country where the results sought for are much the same, statistics are invaluable. Comparison is sure to lead to a better general average, helping as it will to show weaknesses and emphasizing better methods.

What should be the relation of the alumni to the institution? The question appeals to me as vitally important. A college or university fails to attain its largest success without the sympathetic coöperation of faculty, president and alumni. The alumni will not, cannot sustain their interest without the opportunity for active participation in the affairs of the college, and general participation is only possible by alumni representation on the board of trustees. In addition to the regular duties of such trustees, it is my conception that they should see to it especially that the alumni scattered in various directions should be reached personally where it is possible, or by correspondence, made cognizant of changes and plans for developing the institution, and encouraged to make occasional pilgrimages to their alma mater. If this is done, their children are likely to follow in the footsteps of the parents. Such a consituency is peculiarly valuable because the boy or girl has an appreciation of conditions and a knowledge and sympathy with traditions which strengthen enthusiasm and kindle love, no small considerations in an undergraduate body. And besides the children, one's money, where there is money to give, will have a tendency to revert to the college where one obtained his preparation for life and his capacity for amassing wealth, and very properly. Apart from the importance of such a constituency per se, a geographically diversified constituency is recognized everywhere as a valuable leaven, and while any institution expects that the great majority of its student body will come from its own state or vicinity, the alumni if active