University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1908-11-16
PRESIDENT ELIOT'S
LATEST BOOK

1T EW more timely publications will
r be offered the public during the ap-
preaching h-water mark of the
years book season than that entitled
University Administration" by Charles
W. Eliot. to be brought out next week
by the Houghton Mifflin Company. Its
contents are the six lectures delivered
by President Eliot in the course found
ed two years ago through the generosity
of Norman Wait Harris of Chicago and
they are based upon almost forty years
of administrative experience in the high
and comprehensive interests with
which he deals in this volume. They
read almost like personal "reminiscences
of life of remarkable fruitfulness in
service. and whoever writes the biogra-
| ply of their author will find them a
valuable background for the complete
story
DIR. Eliot has never hesitated to take
the public into his confidence or been
slow to give reasons for his policies and
professional practices. His methods and
his standards are fairly well known
but in this volume there is to be found
perhaps the most complete grouping of
the principles that have governed his
administration after being submitted to
the test of practice. In his Judgment
the best number of members for
university's principle governing board is
seven: because that number of men can
sit around small table. talk with
each other informally without waste of
words or any display or pretense. pro-
vide an adequate diversity of points of
view and means of dealing with the sub
ject in hand. and Vet be prompt and
efficient in the discharge of business"
But he welcomes the elimination of the
old fashioned eN-OfficiO trustees. since
they We're men occupied in other al
fairs. and not because of their fitness to
govern a university
DR.. Eliot regards the organization of
Harvard University fortunate in having
a second board. called overseers. con-
sisting of thirty members. since lS66
elected by the alumni in groups of five
to serve six years. together with the
president and treasurer of the univer>i-
ty. eX-ofiicio. The influence on the |
lnnt md snll
need to procure the consent of the board /
of overseers is very strong. Every ap- /
pointment and every statute or stand /
ing vote must be capable of defense"
before them. DR.. Eliot's theory of
good scale of salaries has perhaps been
discussed before. but will bear restate-
ment: The salary of an annual ap
pointee at the start should be low
about the amount needed by young
man for comfortable support
N the university's city or village. When.
utter a few Years. this young man re-
elves an appointment without limit Of
ime. a somewhat higher salary should
" given him with a small advance each !
-ear. say for three years. Ii this in
tructor so commends himself that the
University desires his further service.
e should receive as assistant professor
salary which will enable him to sup I
,ort wife and two or three children ,
omfortably." c
No man has done more to establish I
he elective system in his own univer-
ity or by indirection cause its wide a
doption in many other institutions t
han President Eliot and no man is =
etter capable of interpreting and de- I
ending it. Its primary object is ito o
nable the serious student to select his Y
,udies in accordance with his tastes :
nd capacities He is enabled to select :
hose studies that interest him. or those il
,achers that interest him. with the re- h
nit that he works much harder than he Il
ould on subjects that do not interest Il
inn. makes more rapid progress. and Il
-rives sooner at the satisfactory stage b
real intellectual achievement. ."-Bos-
N Transcript.