Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/511

 THE DEVELOPING UNIVERSITY 445 involving the establishing of new faculties and the change of statutes as estab- lished by the Trustees, final action is reserved for the Trustees themselves. But it is a firmly established policy of the Trustees that the responsibility for the settlement of educational questions rests with the faculties, and although in some instances the request of a faculty has not been granted, for lack of the funds required, in no instance has the action of a faculty on educational ques- tions been disapproved. It is clearly recognized that the Trustees are respon- sible for the financial administration of the University, but that to the faculties belongs in the fullest extent the care of educational administration. Beginning with this understanding the relations existing between the Board and the faculties were those of uninterrupted respect and confidence. In the early years, the Trustees and faculties were to a considerable extent "known to each other individually," in the language of Dean Small: "they were not infrequently in contact with one another, and they had a feeling of partnership in a common enterprise." When the number of instructors rose to three and four hundred, this somewhat intimate relation became difficult, if not impossible. Both bodies regretted this. Dean Small voiced the sentiment of the faculties as follows: Some sort of a revival of the early exchange of views about academic interests between Trustees and professors would be heartily welcomed by the latter and it would be a salutary and stimulating influence. That there existed among the Trustees a sentiment similar to that expressed above was made evident by an action taken May 11,1915, that at least two meetings of the Board shall be held each year at the Univer- sity, and that after the transaction of the regular business the remainder of the meeting shall be given to investigation of buildings, grounds, and equipment, and to examination of special activities of the University. These meetings at the University took the form of bringing the Trustees at each meeting into ultimate contact with some one department, including its faculty, thus acquainting them with the facilities it possessed or lacked for doing its work. One interesting and not unimportant event of 1892 must be recorded. Before the University opened its doors to students, October i, 1892, Mr. Rockefeller had subscribed nearly three million dollars to its funds, and the question arose among the Trustees whether his name ought not, in some form, to be connected with the institution. The Trustees did not wish to give up the old name