Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 78.djvu/291

Rh the problem or its solution. And if the college professor is to be represented anywhere, it should be by himself.

Hence, there need be nothing in faculty representation which is invidious to the rights of either president or trustees. And there is reason to believe that responsible representation would in many cases be welcomed. To quote again from President Schurman's last report, "No greater good could come to Cornell University than a quickening and deepening of the faculty sense of responsibility for its welfare. Too often the faculties of American universities have rolled all responsibility on the president and trustees." And later he adds, speaking of the relations of the faculty to the executive officers, "It is for them [the faculty] to keep the institution democratic. And nowhere else is democracy so important as in the university."

Then, secondly, as embodying the point in which he is most directly interested, it should be the aim of the college professor to have all academic appointments made publicly, with sufficient time allowed, if possible, to secure the consideration of all available candidates; and to have the list of candidates submitted for consideration to a committee of the faculty, chosen by the faculty themselves; and further to include in this policy the matter of salaries and promotions. I know that at this point gentlemen will cry. Politics! Politics! But it must be remembered that politics open and aboveboard is no longer "politics." There can be no "politics" except where there is secrecy, as under the present system of pocket-appointments.

Thirdly, however, it should be his aim to have the general features of the budget submitted for consideration to a similar committee of the faculty. At present the budget is supposed to lie wholly beyond the faculty's domain. Yet there are few questions in which it is not more or less involved, from the granting of a scholarship to a new system of electives. In the college, as elsewhere, it is a question always of what you can afford. And what you can afford is a question of the various alternatives. If the faculty are to act wisely, either for themselves or the college, they must know the financial possibilities. And if the trustees are to spend wisely, the recommendations upon which they act must have had these in mind. Under the present system of non-communication expenditure is too often footless. And nothing has done more to discourage the faculty sense of responsibility than the feeling that only part of the situation is shown them and that the president holds a card up his sleeve.

Finally, in the interest, both of himself and his profession, he should insist upon a high standard, both of scholarly attainment and of personal culture and responsibility, for academic appointment; and especially should he insist that membership in the official faculty be restricted to men of rank and maturity. In other words, like the