Autumn Song (verse)

...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...

...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...

...Professor Scott Nearing in I917 tabulated their professions in sixty-four state institutiona...

...are flattered, fed, and autoed until they return to the capital feeling that the university is a very fine place indeed...

...The regents, in the great majority of cases, are appointed by the governor...

...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...

...Every few years the august framers of the law pay a ceremonious visit to the campus...

...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...

...This means, as the same chancellor very cheerfully agreed, that no employee of a state uni-versity has any legal contract whatsoever...

...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...

...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...

...but with merchants and lawyers by far preponderating...

...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...

...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...

...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...

...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...

...Such visits are nearly always a source of profit to the university...

...but we in America have solved the problem much more simply...

...The actual reasons for the appointment or election of individual regents will always remain obscure--ignorant people seeing one set of motives--chancellors another...

...Political influence has nothing to do with these appointments...

...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...

...The non-educators, when analyzed, prove to be a rather chaotic assortment of "doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief...

...CLINWON SeOLL^im...

...The gov- ernor has only the good of the university at heart...

...Why should I love the autumn less Because of its fleet transientness...

...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...

...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...

...The strangers, a motley throng, go shuffling and peering about...

...the end of the session, with harmony still maintained, brings a general sigh of relief...

...Nor does he need one, the same chancellor assured me, because the regents would never act unjustly or unwisely...

...there is always the fear that the legislature may kick over the traces and start to "investigate" something or some one...

...November 4, I925-THE COMMONWEAL 637 some kind seem always to be needed...

...the president and deans scamper back and forth between the campus and the capital...

...They cannot be sued as an official body by any of their employees, because they represent the state...

...Plato thought it necessary to devise an elaborate sys- tem of education and representation to accomplish such a result...

...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...

...That we tolerate it so complacently here shows how little we really care about education...

...They are the actual rulers of the university and are truly endowed with sovereign powers...

...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...

...They have equal control over the financial and educational activities of the institution...

...While four years of high school are necessary for entrance to college...

...A more anomalous situation would be hard to find...

...There is no appeal from their decision...

...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...

...But luckily there is no difficul T in deter- mining from just what class of people the regents are drawn...