The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-27
- Ia
ANNUAL REPORT OF
PRESIDENT HADLEY
NEEDED IMPROVEMENTSIN UNI
VERSITY ORGANIZATION

VERSITX ORGANIZATION
discussed at Some Length Fewer Pro-
fessors and Higher Salaries--Fhe
| Junior Instructors-The Graduates
Club - ANNOUNCEMENTS to Study
seIf-Goyerning Undergraduate Body
The "YaIe SpirIt''--The Problem of
Control of AthIetics-Gifts to Yale-
The Carnegie Fund-The $1,4OO,OO0
University Endowment Fund, Etc.
Following is the address of President
Hadley. of Yale, delivered yesterday
forenoon at the Yale alumni meeting
In his report for the current year
President Hadley discusses some OF the
needed improvements in university or
ganization.
Heads of departments ought to De
fewer in number and better PAID we
have too many full professors ana,
partly as a consequence of this, we pay
them too small salaries.
The first step toward reform is to re-
Ycognize the principle that no man
should be appointed to a full professor
4 ship in any subject merely because that
subject needs to be taught. If there is
a man of eminence in the subject who
has a genius for discovery or teaching,
the act that such a gap exists creates
an additional reason for calling this
man to a professorship. But if no such
man is to be found the place should 2e
filled by an assistant professor. The
fact that we have departed from this
principle in the past, and now have on
our faculties as full professors d num-
Der of men who ought to be only assls-
tant professors, does not alter the ne
cessity for a change of policy In this re-
spect. / am glad to say that nearly all
the members of the several faculties OF
the university cordially accept the prln-
ciple here laid down, and are willing to
try In futureto appoint none but a first
class man to a grade higher than an
assistant professor. even though TINS
policy may for the moment apparently
weaken the strength of our teaching
force. This weakening will be apparent
rather than real. There is nothing
which really weakens the teaching force
SO much as the permanent appointment
of man of the wrong type, who lowers
the standard held before the students
land blocks promotion among the
Younger instructors 1t is far better to
lhave a subject taught by ambitious
young men, who see an opening ahead
than by a somewhat older man, who
has little to recommend him except his
maturity.
| With the diminution Of numbers. an
increase of salaries can follow as a
matter of course This process has al
ready begun, and many of the profess
sors who have hitherto received $3,75l
are now to receive $4,000. But this
should be regarded as only Begin
lining. Just as soon as the university
Finances admit it, there should be fur
i Their increase to $4,000, and then to So
900 or even $6,000 There should also bt
an increase in the number of assistants
who can relieve the professor Of tbs
burdensome necessity of reading papers
Icr directing some Of the details Of in
Idiv.Gual study.
We must however, guard ourselves
against the danger of creating 4 sega
rate class of research professors, We
iwans the opportunities for research am
Investigation distributed as widely as
possible throughout the teaching force
and the student body. We cannot, un'
der the existing circumstances. pay or
liuni1r instructors as large sala"ias i!
We Should Ike to do, or as the work o.
many of them deserves; but we can a
least give them the fullest chance K
show what they have in them, If W.
have as heads of departments men VIII,
are competent to look after results W.
can leave their assistants the utmos
freedom in the choice of means. w,
can make university a good place TO
an instructor or student of any grad
who thinks that he has something t
discover. In each new laboratory tina
we establish or in each new appoint
Iment to the headship Of an old labora
tory, we set forth clearly the fact tina
it is to be open to the use of junior in
Istructors and graduate students, just a
V far as the circumstances allow, TO worl
I in the way that they think promising
9 rather than in the way that the chic
!, thinks promising This will result in
e good many mistakes and in some vast
+ which might have been avoided; but
Y will result in vastly increased efficienc,
9 and in a great many discoveries whicl
d would otherwise have been prevented.
t A committee of the university council
e is arranging plans for increased oppor
J. tunities for publication of new discov
: cries in various lines-a matter il
= which, during recent years. our faeili
ties have been inadequate.
A thing which is an unmixed help Il
= these matters, and should not be over
looked in any discussion of Yales ad
vantages, is the Graduates club. b
furnishing a center in which instruc
. tors and students of all grades and Wis
! itors from abroad meet informally on
: lplane of social equality, it tends to diff
: fuse the spirit of academic freedom an
: academic progress, 1t adds immensel
: to the attractiveness of New Haven a
! a place for the ambitious investigator
be he student or instructor, and doe
! more than any other one thing to he'll
= the formation of that indefnable thin
= called a university atmosphere. TIL
Cra dino foe o1i,fo uyoe Y1nt Oroeo r1izad wit