the higher learning in america-第20节
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be said as regards the suggestion that there may have been an
interested collusion between the academic head and the active
members of the board。 These were 〃all honourable men;〃 of great
repute in the community and well known as sagacious and
successful men in their private business ventures。
2。 Cf。 The Instinct of Workmanship; ch。 vii; pp。 343…352。
3。 A subsidiary reason of some weight should not be overlooked in
seeking the cause of this secularization of the boards; and of
the peculiar colour which the secularization has given them。 In
any community where wealth and business enterprise are held in
such high esteem; men of wealth and of affairs are not only
deferred to; but their countenance is sought from one motive and
another。 At the same time election to one of these boards has
come to have a high value as an honourable distinction。 Such
election or appointment therefore is often sought from motives of
vanity; and it is at the same time a convenient means of
conciliating the good will of the wealthy incumbent。
It may be added that now and again the discretionary control
of large funds which so falls to the members of the board may
come to be pecuniarily profitable to them; so that the office may
come to be attractive as a business proposition as well as in
point of prestige。 Instances of the kind are not wholly unknown;
though presumably exceptional。
4。 Cf。; e。 g。。 R。 T。 Crane。 The Futility of All Kinds of Higher
Schooling; especially part I; ch。 iv。
5。 Cf。 R。T。 Crane; as above; especially part I; ch。 ii。 iii; and
vi。 Cf。 also H。P。 Judson; The Higher Education as a Training for
Business; where the case is argued in a typically commonplace and
matter…of…fact spirit; but where 〃The Higher Education〃 is taken
to mean the undergraduate curriculum simply; also 〃A Symposium on
the value of humanistic; particularly classical; studies as a
training for men of affairs;〃 Proceedings of the Classical
Conference at Ann Arbor; Michigan; April 3; 1909。
6。 Cf。 Bacon; Essays 〃Of Cunning〃; and 〃Of Wisdom for a Man's
Self。〃
7。 Cf。 ch。 viii; especially pp。 242…269。
CHAPTER III
The Academic Administration and Policy
Men dilate on the high necessity of a businesslike
organization and control of the university; its equipment;
personnel and routine。 What is had in mind in this insistence on
an efficient system is that these corporations of learning shall
set their affairs in order after the pattern of a well…conducted
business concern。 In this view the university is conceived as a
business house dealing in merchantable knowledge; placed under
the governing hand of a captain of erudition; whose office it is
to turn the means in hand to account in the largest feasible
output。 It is a corporation with large funds; and for men biased
by their workday training in business affairs it comes as a
matter of course to rate the university in terms of investment
and turnover。 Hence the insistence on business capacity in the
executive heads of the universities; and hence also the extensive
range of businesslike duties and powers that devolve on them。
Yet when all these sophistications of practical wisdom are
duly allowed for; the fact remains that the university is; in
usage; precedent; and common sense preconception; an
establishment for the conservation and advancement of the higher
learning; devoted to a disinterested pursuit of knowledge。 As
such; it consists of a body of scholars and scientists; each and
several of whom necessarily goes to his work on his own
initiative and pursues it in his own way。 This work necessarily
follows an orderly sequence and procedure; and so takes on a
systematic form; of an organic kind。 But the system and order
that so govern the work; and that come into view in its procedure
and results; are the logical system and order of intellectual
enterprise; not the mechanical or statistical systematization
that goes into effect in the management of an industrial plant or
the financiering of a business corporation。
Those items of human intelligence and initiative that go to
make up the pursuit of knowledge; and that are embodied in
systematic form in its conclusions; do not lend themselves to
quantitative statement; and can not be made to appear on a
balance…sheet。 Neither can that intellectual initiative and
proclivity that goes in as the indispensable motive force in the
pursuit of learning be reduced to any known terms of
subordination; obedience; or authoritative direction。 No scholar
or scientist can become an employee in respect of his scholarly
or scientific work。 Mechanical systematization and authoritative
control can in these premises not reach beyond the material
circumstances that condition the work in hand; nor can it in
these external matters with good effect go farther than is
necessary to supply the material ways and means requisite to the
work; and to adapt them to the peculiar needs of any given line
of inquiry or group of scholars。 In order to their best
efficiency; and indeed in the degree in which efficiency in this
field of activity is to be attained at all; the executive
officers of the university must stand in the relation of
assistants serving the needs and catering to the idiosyncrasies
of the body of scholars and scientists that make up the
university;(1*) in the degree in which the converse relation is
allowed to take effect; the unavoidable consequence is wasteful
defeat。 A free hand is the first and abiding requisite of
scholarly and scientific work。
Now; in accepting office as executive head of a university;
the incumbent necessarily accepts all the conditions that attach
to the administration of his office; whether by usage and common
sense expectation; by express arrangement; or by patent
understanding with the board to which he owes his elevation to
this post of dignity and command。 By usage and precedent it is
incumbent on him to govern the academic personnel and equipment
with an eye single to the pursuit of knowledge; and so to conduct
its affairs as will most effectually compass that end。 That is to
say he must so administer his office as best to serve the
scholarly needs of the academic staff; due regard being
scrupulously had to the idiosyncrasies; and even to the vagaries;
of the men whose work he is called on to further。 But by patent
understanding; if not by explicit stipulation; from the side of
the governing board; fortified by the preconceptions of the laity
at large to the same effect; he is held to such a conspicuously
efficient employment of the means in hand as will gratify those
who look for a voluminous turnover。 To this end he must keep the
academic administration and its activity constantly in the public
eye; with such 〃pomp and circumstance〃 of untiring urgency and
expedition as will carry the conviction abroad that the
university under his management is a highly successful going
concern; and he must be able to show by itemized accounts that
the volume of output is such as to warrant the investment。 So the
equipment and personnel must be organized into a facile and
orderly working force; held under the directive control of the
captain of erudition at every point; and so articulated and
standardized that its rate of speed and the volume of its current
output can be exhibited to full statistical effect as it runs。
The university is to make good both as a corporation of
learning and as a business concern dealing in standardized
erudition; and the executive head necessarily assumes the
responsibility of making it count wholly and unreservedly in each
of these divergent; if not incompatible lines。(2*) Humanly
speaking; it follows by necessary consequence that he will first
and always take care of those duties that are most jealously
insisted on by the powers to whom he is accountable; and the due
performance of which will at the same time yield some
sufficiently tangible evidence of his efficiency。 That other;
more recondite side of the university's work that has
substantially to do with the higher learning is not readily set
out in the form of statistical exhibits; at the best; and can
ordinarily come to appraisal and popular appreciation only in the
long run。 The need of a businesslike showing is instant and
imperative; particularly in a business e