State Universities,I
Bates, Ernest Sutherland
636 THE COMMONWEAL November 4, 1925 STATE UNIVERSITIES
I. THE OLD VISITORS By ERNEST SUTHERLAND BATES (This is the first of a series of articles by Mr. Bates, the second of which will...
...In fact, since conditions in the larger private institutions of the East are not es-sentially dissimilar, it is really the question of the success of higher education in America...
...Special professors are appointed to take them about, show them the things they ought to see, and keep them from seeing the things they ought not to see...
...second, the faculties...
...or rather, since the state superintendent of education is usually, in virtue of his office, a member of the board of regents, and since the state superintendent is a popularly elected politi- cian, familiar at best with only the secondary schools, the estimate should really read: the fraction of a frac- tion of an educator, to each institution...
...Secondarily--for it IS a secondary avowed aim--how far is the state uni- versity successful in producing "scholars"--that is, graduates who have thoroughly mastered some par-ticular branch of learning...
...The regents, in the great majority of cases, are appointed by the governor...
...while four years of college are necessary for an instructorship, and three ],ears of post-graduate work are nearly always necessary for anything higher than an instructorship...
...the president and deans scamper back and forth between the campus and the capital...
...Such visits are nearly always a source of profit to the university...
...The state universities differ from the large private colleges mainly in their dependence upon the state legislatures as a source of supply...
...Whatever doubts he may have as to some of our institutions, he is confident of the success of our educational system...
...This means, as the same chancellor very cheerfully agreed, that no employee of a state uni-versity has any legal contract whatsoever...
...They are the actual rulers of the university and are truly endowed with sovereign powers...
...They have equal control over the financial and educational activities of the institution...
...So," I can imagine some ignorant person saying, "you have here only a group of political office-seekers l" "Ah, you forget," the chancellor would reply, "a governor would never act unjustly or unwisely...
...are flattered, fed, and autoed until they return to the capital feeling that the university is a very fine place indeed...
...Let autumn come, let autumn go, Within my heart I still shall find it Filled with a bounteous overflow Of loveliness, that leaves behind it A guerdon that will buoy me still Till Aprilhand the daffodil...
...These are the questions which the present series of articles will attempt to answer through an examination of the three main factors in the American university--first, the governing bodies...
...A more anomalous situation would be hard to find...
...An occasional legis- lature may scale down appropriations, an occasional embarrassing referendum may be taken, but, on the whole, the American public stands squarely behind its educational institutions...
...and third, the students...
...they appoint the president, they have the privilege of "hiring" or "firing" at any time, with or without cause, any and every member of the faculty...
...Bates, the second of which will a##ear in the next issue of The Com-monweal.--The Editors...
...And if the general public has remained satisfied, not so those actually concerned in university affairs...
...Most of the attacks have not even drawn blood because they have dealt chiefly with the suppression of radical or liberal political opinion in the universities...
...There is no appeal from their decision...
...Even if we count the state superintendent as a unit instead of a fraction, the proportion, in a total of 776 regents, is only one educator to seventeen non-educators...
...A similar investigation today would, in the opinion of the present writer, reveal an even higher percentage with the hostile criticism ex-tending much further than merely to the general system of control...
...D ESPITE Thorstein Veblen's careful indictment some years ago and Upton Sinclair's fiery diatribe of more recent days, and despite con-tinual criticism of one kind or another in the magazines, our universities remain unscathed...
...The general public would hardly be so satisfied unless our educational institu-tions were giving it, in some form or other, what it thinks it wants...
...One of my early recollections as a college student is of being drafted with scores of other literary students to spend the day in a chemical laboratory distilling water in order to impress our myopic visitors with the over-crowded conditions of the science depart- ments...
...The public is in a definitely conservative mood, and while it vaguely feels, perhaps, that some of our institutions may have been over-zealous in guillotining "danger- ous" individuals, still, the zeal was a righteous zeal and no great harm has been done...
...Formerly, the promotion of learning might have been considered primary...
...but today any discussion which assumed the promotion of learning to be the chief aim of the university would be absurdly inaccurate...
...Professor Scott Nearing in I917 tabulated their professions in sixty-four state institutiona...
...Imagine a bank managed by men who knew nothing of banking, or a railroad man- aged by men who did not know the difference between a Pullman and a freight carl The situation is one that would not be tolerated in any business in the world...
...There will be only passing reference in these articles to secondary or primary schools...
...and the state--so I have been assured by a high legal authority, no less a personage than the chancellor of a state university-- cannot be sued by its own citizens without its own consent...
...but with merchants and lawyers by far preponderating...
...Such a situation is evidently both ominous and confusing...
...The university must do a deal of lobbying during the legislative ses- sion...
...The ques-tion is solely of state universities, but when it is re-called that west of the Alleghanies almost all of the leading institutions fall in that class, it will be seen to be sufficiently broad...
...Who are the customary members of this remarkable body which is responsible to none but itself, and yet may be trusted never to act unjustly or unwisely...
...The results showed that in the total number of regents there were only forty-six educators--or the fraction of one educator to an institution...
...It believes in them and is willing to pay high taxes to maintain them...
...The question of academic freedom seems a very academic question to the man in the street, provided he can be sure that his scatter-brained college son will not be touched by any socialistic or communistic "rot...
...But luckily there is no difficul T in deter- mining from just what class of people the regents are drawn...
...A disquieting attitude of scepticism or even complete disillusionment is becoming more and mote apparent in our teachers...
...That we tolerate it so complacently here shows how little we really care about education...
...As long ago as 1913, Pro- fessor Cattell, then at Columbia, published the results of extensive enquiries which tended to show that 85 percent of the faculty members of our universities were profoundly discontented with the system of uni- versity management...
...The average campus of today is not more different in outward appearance than in inward spirit, from that of 19oo...
...qcutumn Song I love the autumn's misty gold, And yet you say there's nothing in it Save beauty that one may not hold, Like the faint fluting of the linnet...
...Unknown to him, however, a great change has been taking place in our colleges and universities during these twenty years...
...Plato thought it necessary to devise an elaborate sys- tem of education and representation to accomplish such a result...
...and a twenty-year habit is hard to change...
...on the other hand, an all but universal discontent on the part of faculty members must have some real foundation...
...WeU-placed invest- ments or a millage tax may reduce this dependence but never completely nullify it...
...Public confidence in them has not been affected...
...They cannot be sued as an official body by any of their employees, because they represent the state...
...How far, then, in the first place, is the state university successful in .producing such "good citizens...
...Why should I love the autumn less Because of its fleet transientness...
...The strangers, a motley throng, go shuffling and peering about...
...there is always the fear that the legislature may kick over the traces and start to "investigate" something or some one...
...and while, in addition to all this, at least ten years of teaching ex- perience are usually necessary for the presidency--those who rule educationally over students, instructors, professors, and presidents do not need to have even a high school education...
...He has been saying it for twenty years...
...Every few years the august framers of the law pay a ceremonious visit to the campus...
...We have the best schools in the world," he says proudly...
...Just what are the avowed aims of the university...
...The enormous increase in the number of students, already evident before the war but greatly accentuated since, has necessarily altered, for good or ill, the whole condition of things...
...The term is rarely defined and is perhaps indefinable, but presumably it means, in a general way, a body of high-minded men and women, of trained intelligence, keen sense of social values, and much devotion to the common welfare...
...Nor does he need one, the same chancellor assured me, because the regents would never act unjustly or unwisely...
...the end of the session, with harmony still maintained, brings a general sigh of relief...
...636 THE COMMONWEAL November 4, 1925 STATE UNIVERSITIES I. THE OLD VISITORS By ERNEST SUTHERLAND BATES (This is the first of a series of articles by Mr...
...If the term means less than that in ordinary parlance, I do not think there are many educators who would admit that it meant less than that to them...
...The gov- ernor has only the good of the university at heart...
...While four years of high school are necessary for entrance to college...
...The actual reasons for the appointment or election of individual regents will always remain obscure--ignorant people seeing one set of motives--chancellors another...
...Appropriations of November 4, I925-THE COMMONWEAL 637 some kind seem always to be needed...
...The non-educators, when analyzed, prove to be a rather chaotic assortment of "doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief...
...The writer does not intend to deal with the question whether our schools are "the best in the world," but with the less ambitious one as to how far some of our schools--the state universities--are successful in achieving the results at which they are supposed to aim...
...The avowed aim today is the much broader, if vaguer, one of producing "good citizens...
...CLINWON SeOLL^im...
...It is not, however, to these occasional visitors and absentee landlords that the title of this article refers, but to another body, officially called "visitors" in the wise institution founded by Thomas Jefferson, though more generally known as regents or trustees...
...Political influence has nothing to do with these appointments...
...but we in America have solved the problem much more simply...
...In other words, the regents are business men or men allied with business men, imbued with business methods, undertaking in a little of their spare time to run an educational institution...
Vol. 2 • November 1925 • No. 26
