New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-08
THE UNDERPAID PROFESSOR
Like the Rest of U.s. He Submits 10 Be Crushed oy ne
Bigne. and Which Controls Our Universities

,.ro,-,r, conc.rn he has probably thrown on
all vesti0e, OF that germ-cuture. For the
public tests Of the success OF university anu
by consequence Of the success OF us admin
istrators. are rapid increase In attendance
and in numbers graduated, improvements OF
the physical plant addition OF new depart
ments and courses Very few outsiders ever
innuire or comment on the matter Of the adj
dition to tho faculty Of distinguished teach
ers or scholars The general public certainly
knows much better, and apparently cares
much more for, the gridiron stars
Administrative work is more higly paid and
more highly priced than scholarship or teach-
ing ability. As the numbers roll up IN
successful" institution faster than the IN
come every college is charitable institution
in the sense that instruction per capita costs
many times the fees, it is necessary, OF
course, 70 add new instructors. Hence there
is no money 10 substantially increase salaries.
Cheap labor, in the shape Of raw Pm. DIS
and near Phi. D.'s, is added TO take care OF the
increase in classes. The institution, in order
TO keep pace with the times, must expand
horizontally by the addition OF new courses,
departments and curricula. Consequently II
cannot grow perpendicularly.
Professors themselves fail TO stand out
against these temptations OF course, they
are partially powerless, so long as the abso-
Lutte control of the institutions funds and
policies are in the hands of non-teachers and
non-scholars. But they often fail to exercise
the measure of power delegated TO them.
They are weak mortals, like the rest Of you,
and the pressure of the circumambient social
atmosphere Whose ingredients are "bigness,"
"boost," "noise," etc. is relentless and heavy.
/ cannot conceive any better stroke for
higher standards and decent salaries for the
professorate than would be made, if some
large and well known colleges and universities
should announce that hereafter they would
devote their incomes to paying substantial
salaries to men worthy of them; that they
would put no classes wholly in the hands of
untred men; that they would refuse 70 multi
ply courses and add new departments, and that
they not only would refuse to take more stu
dents until the increase In income should be
sufficient to provide we'll proven and we'll paid
teachers for them, but that moreover. In or
der 10 reduce the pedagogic burdens and in
crease the salaries of their professors, they
would actually reduce by competitive exarni-
nation the attendance and if necessary the
number of teachers.
To take this step would require unexsmpled
fortitude, perhaps superhuman virtue on the
part of trustees and administrators. But they
alone have the power. The professor has it
not and his natural meekness has not been
mitigated by poverty. II it were taken, in
stead of reading in the presidents annual re-
port the following: This year the total at
tendance has increased by 10 per cent, and
we have been forced to add ten new iHstruc-
tors, at $1,000 each, and to establish a depart
ment of melanchroc anthropology and a
school of aviation" the shocked alumnus
might read as follows: This year we have re-
duced the attendance by 10 per cent improv-
ing the quality of the work thereby; have
abolished the departments Of and Y, re-
duced the number of courses in sociology to
ten, and abolished the school of dendrology
We have thereby been enabled TO raise the
minimum salary Of full professors to $4,000
and the maximum to $4,000. We have called
Professor from the college Of b at the
maximum"
awaken with a sudden sense OF ncon-
gruity. Have | been dreaming OF a profes-
sor's millennium, of q higher educational
Kingdom of Heaven? 1t is up to the alumni
and the public to say. They are now getting a
good deal more than they are paying for.
When they pay for more they will get it in
good measure, pressed down and running
over. The professor, as know him, has the
frailties Of humankind, but he is not stingy
of time, energy or knowledge.
j. A. LEIGHTON.
The Ohio State University, Columbus. Dec.
?, 1916.