Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/271

Rh the college authorities believe that they stand in loco parentis, they are certainly right in governing their action by the supposed wishes of parents. Yet it is not known that a poll of the parents has ever been taken on any subject of college policy, it is quite possible that the expressions of approval or disapproval of proposed changes are purely individual, it is even probable that the opinions expressed are such as are felt to be in harmony with the wishes of the administration, and it is altogether credible that the shade of the absent parent has been evoked to give countenance to policies of the administration as unalterable as were the laws of the Medes and Persians.

The benefactor has long been recognized as a powerful, although unacknowledged, influence in the administration of the college on a private foundation. Pie is a member of the board of trustees and as such wields great authority. He is consulted on all matters of college policy, his wishes are deferred to whenever a difference of opinion arises between him and his colleagues, and he is the power behind the throne on which sits the college president. To him more than to any other giver is applied the adage that one must not look a gift horse in the mouth. If the benefactor is interested in science and wishes to give the college a physical laboratory, the college accepts it without question although its greatest need may be for a new library building. If the benefactor thinks "the boys" need more athletics, he spends a fortune on a stadium even though the college may be in crying need of funds to pay the salaries of its professors. If the benefactor thinks a building would adorn a sightly part of the campus, he puts one there, even though the college may not have sufficient funds to keep it adequately cleaned, warmed and lighted. "I would a thousand times rather have dealings with a state legislature than with the private benefactor on whose will or whims the welfare of a university depends," said a president who had had experience as the head of a state university and of one controlled by "the munificent benefactor." It is possible to meet political influence fairly, squarely and openly, but it is impossible to meet the undue personal influence of the private benefactor who may be giving to the college his time and his energies, as well as his funds, but is practically irresponsible. The zeal of the benefactor is appreciated, yet it often is an illustration of misdirected energy since the educational interest realized on the capitalistic benefaction is sometimes in inverse proportion to the amount invested.

The student body is as yet a somewhat inert mass as regards its attitude toward educational policies. The force of tradition is strong and tradition makes the student, at least in theory, passive and receptive rather than active and creative; it teaches him unquestioning obedience to authority; it scoffs at his desire to know the meaning of what he does; it mocks his wish to have a part in deciding the policy that controls his