Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-06-30
TIE work OF TIE BOARD OF REGENTS.

lent man for the position of President, but
If he is his success will be the result of a
virtually haphazard choice on the part of
the Board. The latter has assuredly not
been guided in this matter by the only
principle which it was justified in follow
ing. It's duty was to select for President
a man whose fitness was unquestionable,
resting upon substantial evidence of adj
ministrative educational work of the high
est order. No man who had not thus
demonstrated his eligibility ought even to
have been named for the position, and the
actual decision of the Board must convince
every intelligent observer that the major
ity of the Regents are conspicuously unit
to perform the duties intrusted to them.
Indeed the marked disposition evineed by
these persons to administer the affairs of
the University secretly, and their coarse
and vulgarly expressed dislike of publicity
and of public opinion, show quite as
plainly as their indecent haste to appoint
an untried and unknown man President,
the extent of the mistake which was made
in assigning to such hands the government
of the States chief educational institution.
1t is a perfectly safe rule in judging the
actions of all Boards and Commissions,
that those which shun publicity, no matter
upon what pretexts, have sinister reasons
for doing so. In democracy the sus.
picion which naturally attaches to this
secretiye tendency is all the more justi-
fable because there is no ground for be-
lieving that the members of such Board
are individually superior in any way to
the average citizen, taken casually In
State institution, which owes its existence
to public grants and donations, which is
intended for the benefit of the entire COM
munity, which in fact belongs in peculiar
way to the people. the affectation OF ex-
clusiveness which the majority of these
Regents have set up is alike impudent and
preposterous. Nor could anything be
more fatuous and unfortunate than their
disdainful rejection of the advice and
warnings Of the press at the very moment
when they were about to commit them
selves to one of the most fragrant exhibit
tions of want of judgment conceivable.
They need the support of the press and OF
public opinion. They cannot hope for sue
cess without these auxiliaries. Yet
though they have pleaded the critical con-
dition of the University in excuse of the
extraordinary changes recently made in its
organization, they are silly enough to i'm
agine that they can conduct their expert
ments to prosperous issue in the teeth of
a hostile public opinion.
Mr.. Stebbins remarked during the
meeting of the Board that he and his col
leagues had sat there for sixteen years, and
ought therefore (such was the inference)
to understand their business. Let US ask
what these sixteen years have brought the
University to 1t is notorious that the
bad Judgment and worse administration
OF the Board of Regents have almost de-
stroyed the usefulness of the institution.
It has lost the confidence of the people,
and it has deserved to lose that confidence.
It has been declining and whitening in the
hands of these incompetent but self-con-
ceited men, and now, precisely when they
most urgently needed restoration OF pub
lie confidence in their wisdom and good
faith, they have, by an act of almost
incredible folly, effectually alienated them
selves from the good opinion of the CON-
munity.
The Regents have shown that they pos
sessed the stupid obstinacy requisite to the
rejection of sound advice. They have vim
Dictated their independence of the tram
mels of common sense, however, at fear
full cost to the institution which is so un-
fortunate as to be at their mercy. We are
really sorry for Mr.. Reid, for we feel that
he is called to the Presidency under cir
cumstances which would inevitably neu-
tralize the most energetic efforts of a much
better kIiOWU anu dDleI HAL. IlC
in fact, sacrifice to the vanity and clique
littleness of the majority of the Regents,
and though he has not fair opportunity
to show what he is capable OF, because the
paralyzing influence OF the Boards imbecil-
ity must clog all his activities, he is only
too certain to be held mainly responsible
for failure which has been prepared for
him in advance.
Henceforward the decline of the Uni
versitY viii be more rapid and unmistaka-
bic than ever. At one stroke it has abdi.
Gated the title OF a first-rate educational
institution. The election of Mr.. Reid is
an advertisement to all competent teachers
to avoid the California University, and it
is equally an invitation to second and third.
rate capacity to seek positions here. But
the Regents have also prepared for them
selves political troubles. They are charged
with partisan motives. 1t is true that
some who profess to be well informed deny
this, but the motives which are postulated
as substitutes for the political ones are il
possible less creditable, for theya personal
motives. The apologists of the Board in
fact are also their accusers, nor has there
yet appeared any Interpretation of their
action which does not support and confirm
the inference that they are unfit for
their positions. 1t was observed by Re-
gent Parks, the other day, that if what
some members of the Board then said con-
corning the springs of its action were true,
they ought all to be I" fired out" The ex-
preston is slangy but forcible, and we
entirely agree with Mr.. Parks. We also
submit that the majority of the Regents
ought to be fred out, and we are COM
PEELED to the conclusion that no other rem
edy for the present ailments OF the Uni
versity will ever be found.
The appointment of the Rev. J. II. C.
Bonte as Secretary in the place OF Mr..
Stearns is in some respects less open to
criticism than the Iselection for President.
/ NJ. Ronta 20 mo hal;aya n ILL.,. i