Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-01-07
COST OF LIVING
HITS EDUCATORS
ASSISTANT PROFESSORS IN HIGHER
INSTITUTIONS ARE UNDERPAID,
SAYS CALIFORNIAN.
SCHOLARSHIP system ABUSED.
Members of Association of American Uni
versities Hear Severe Criticism Of
'TntelectuaI Valet" System.
MANY UNIVERSITIES REPRESENTED

MADISON, Wis, Jan. 4.-[Special.l
That 80 per cent. Of the assistant pro-
fessors in American universities must
supplement their salaries by outside
work, in order to make both ends
meet" that they receive, on an average,
lust enough to suffice for an unmarried
man, and that "A per cent of them are
married and have families to support,
were facts presented with other striking
statistics by Prof. Guido Marx of the
engineering college of Stanford univer-
sity i'll paper on The Problem of the
Assistant Professor before the AssocIa-
ton of American Universities, which
opened its annual convention at the uni
YerSity this morning.
Replies to questions sent to go assist
atI professors i'll the twenty-five inStitu-
tons represented in the association
showed that the average assistant pro-
fessor receives his appointment at the
age Of 81. years, after spending, as
rule, some seven years in graduate study
III preparation,
Scores Scholarship System
'Sixty-three and a half per cent. of
the assistant professors have received
some assistance financially in pursuing
their studies, preparatory to university
teaching" said Prof. Marx. The schol-
arshlpS are rarely enough to support the
incumbent, and he must go i'll debt, or
undertake some outside employment to
exc out his funds, taking time and
strength which otherwise would be spent
upon his university work.
One deplOrable effect of the present
scholarship system is the fact that the
debt thus incurred takes, on an average
six, eight, or ten years i'll the repaying
The manipulation of the feiiowships for
The building up OF strong or large
graduate department lies dangerously
near the immoral; aud this is dOubly true
when the fellowship carries with it bur
dens, some teaching duties which make it
but disguised, underpaid instructOrship
Nor can the practice of some professors
Of looking upon their" fellows as sort
OF intellectual valet be too strongly con-
demned.
Rise in Cost of Living,
THE rapid increase in the cost of
living III the past twenty years has made
the situation Of the assistant profess
sor acute, for there has been no general
increase Of salaries commensurate with
thiS AS a consequence these men find
themselves driven 10 Il lower and lower
standard Of living. This is grave
meuace to the efficiency of the institu-
lions, both present and future, it must
be remembered, it is from the ranks of
these that the higher positions must be
filled-the full prOfessOrships and the
heads Of colleges and institutions"
This afternoon Dean Louis L. Reber
of the University of Wisconsin extension
Division presented a paper on university
extension work, and at six the delegates
are to be entertained at dinner by the
faculty of the University of Wisconsin,
at The University club.
Noted Educators Present.
Leading educators from the greatest
universities and schools of the country
are present at the sessions, among them
being. California, Prof. Frederick Slate
Carnegie foundation, President Prtch-
cit Catholic university, DR.. G. w. Bel
ling. Chicago university, President H. p
Judson, Dean A. W. Small of graduate
school of arts; Dean Salisbury of grad
uate school of science and letters; Clark
university, Prof. Sanford: Columbia, w.
IL Carpenter, Munro Smith, T. 2. ke-
pei; Cornell, Dean Merritt; Harvard,
President a. l. Lowell. Charles II. Has
kins, Illinois, President f. J. James, AL
bert 2. Carman; Indiana, President w.
L. Bryan; Iowa, President e. G.. Mac
Lean. Carl e. Seashore; Johns Hopkins,
DR. w. w. Willoughby; Kansas, Chan
cei3or Z. Strong; Leland Stanford, Pres
,ident ID. Starr Jordan.