The advocate., 1897-09-01
Correspondence.
THE AaRTCULTURAL COLLEGE OAsE.
Statement of the Board Of Regents Rela-
tive to Changes Made.

The Board of Regents Of the Kansas
State Agricultural College, having
been duly invested by the people Of the
State of Kansas, through their law
fully constituted authorities, with full
power to administer the affairs OF said
college; and recognizing our RESPONSE
bility to the people of this State, sub
NIT the following statement Of reasons
for certain changes we have recently
made at that institution.
Following are facts which said Board
Of Regents are prepared to substan-
tiate:
/. The government Of the institu-
tiOn, which by law is vested in Board
Of Regents, appointed by the Governor
and confirmed by the Senate, has been
practically assumed and for years ex-
ercised by single employe Of the
board, filling the Office Of President Of
the college, the board having been re-
duced, meanwhile, to the rank Of
mere auditing committee The attempt
of the present board regularly to ex-
ercise our lawful functions was resisted
by him, and led to his voluntary and
unsuggested resignation.
2. The tendency in the past to swamp
the faculty with half-educated men has
been so marked as to excite comment.
OF all those removed, one alone, who
himself has been succeeded by an abler
man, could claim to have made fairly
respectable special preparation for the
high duties Of professor in a college.
That this condition of affairs was sat
isfactory to the outgoing President Is
evidenced not only by the fact that
these professors came, or at least re-
NAMED by his sanction, but by the fol-
lowing official declaration from his
pen: "It is rare, indeed, that so eff
cient corps Of instructors can be re-
tanned as ours has been." CTenth and
last biennial report of Board Of Re-
gents to Governor Of Kansas, page 31.)
Yet, Notwithstanding the now consid-
erably reduced schedule Of salaries,
and the false light in which certain
persons and newspapers have endeav-
ored to place this institution and its
present management, men and women
trained in the best universities of
America and Europe have applied to
us for prOfessorships.
8. Despite the imperative need for a
strong agricultural department in the
agricultural college Of State whose
leading interests are agricultural; and
despite tho fact that the land grant
colleges were established and are still
maintained for the special benefit of
the agricultural and industrial classes,
the inCficicnCy IL the agricultural as
compared to the other departments
of the college is notorious, both at the
college and throughout the State. Never
theless, every attempt to strengthen
the agricultural department, whether
by increasing it's work, or by filling
it with a. more capable professor,
has been until now steadily and sue
cessfully resisted by the President.
Other departments whose work should
be of great practical value to farmers,
fruit-grOWers, and stOck-Taisers have
similarly been characterized by inca
pacity we'll known to those familiar
with the college.
4. While some departments have
thus been crippled by the ineficiency
Of their heads, others have been neg
lected by professors and superintend-
ents who have regarded their offices
more as Sinecures than as fields of
labor-the work Of a certain depart
ment having been left, not OCCASION
ally, but habitually, in the hands of an
assistant that the head might witness
or engage in sports.
S. The distribution of work among
the professors has been such that while
some have been left for an entire term
practically without duties or RESPONSE
bilities, and certainly without teaching,
others have during the same terms
R,nnrn h,Ir al lntra