University Administration

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THE N. W. HARRIS LECTURES FOR 1908 Ji, 5HU Harris were founded in 1906 through the generosity of Mr. Norinan Wait Harris of Chicago, and are to be given annually. The purpose of the lecture foundation is, as expressed by the donor, 44 to stimulate scientific research of the highest type and to bring the results of such research before the students and friends of Northwestern University, and through them to the world. By the term scientific research is meant scholarly investigation into any department of human thought or effort without limitation to research in the so-called natural sciences, but with a desire that such investigation should be extended to cover the whole field of human knowledge. UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION BY CHARLES W. ELIOT BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY CONTENTS I. UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES 1 II. AN INSPECTING AND CONSENTING BODY ALUMNI INFLUENCE 44 HI. THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY 81 IV. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 131 V. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 174 VI. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION THE PRESIDENT GENERAL ADMINISTRATION 214 INDEX 255 UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES THE principal governing board of an Ameri can university is most commonly called the trustees or the regents. In endowed institu tions the members of the board usually serve for life but in State and city institutions they ordinarily serve for a limited term of years, being ineligible term after term. The number of members in such boards varies very much, being sometimes as small as seven or nine, and often as large as twenty to forty, and even larger. The endowed institutions have a decided advantage over the institutions sup ported by taxation, in that they can select comparatively young men as trustees, and get from them a long service and they are also free, as regards the choice of trustees, from the political, commercial, or class influences 2 UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES which sometimes control the choice of trus tees or regents in institutions maintained from public revenues. In the American State and city universities and colleges the objectionable political influences have diminished with time but class influences such as that exerted by farmers as a class, or trade-unionists as a class, are still apt to prove potent. The kind of man needed in the governing board of a university is the highly educated, public-spirited, business or professional man, who takes a strong interest in educational and social problems, and believes in the higher education as the source of enlightenment and progress for all stages of education, and for all the industrial and social interests of the community. He should also be a man who has been successful in his own calling, and com mands the confidence of all who know him. The faculty he will most need is good judg ment for he will often be called upon to de cide on matters which lie beyond the scope of his own experience, and about which he must, therefore, get his facts through others, and SEVEN THE BEST NUMBER 3 his opinions through a process of comparison and judicious shifting. The best number of members for a univer sitys principal governing board is seven be cause that number of men can sit round a small table, talk with each other informally without waste of words or any display or pretence, provide an adequate diversity of points of view and modes of dealing with the subject in hand, and yet be prompt and efficient in the despatch of business. In a board of seven the different professions and callings can be sufficiently represented...