The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-03-01
Faculty Meetings

GA Professor in the New Republic)
College professors and instructors good neigh
bors: they affablc and entertaining. Consc- !
quenty the generous popular supposition is that
their faculty meetings. to which the neighhors are
never invited must be model conferences. Such an
assumption seems reasonable enough, for have not
college teachers been trained in concentration and
precision? Have they not accurate and specialized
information? Arc they not scientists and experts?
Naturally supposcs that they explicit in
statements in debate and that they can dispose of
routine matters in short order before reaching the
stimulating ana alert discussion of policy. But the
facts completely destroy this good naturcd popular
legend. Faculty meetings evoke stimulating
| discussions. Even routine matters are fumbed and
puttered over in an amazingly incompetent fashion
BY all who possess any first hand knowledge of fac
uty meetings is it freely admitted that they both
dscouraginely Ineffective and intolerably dull. How
ever brilliant individual college instructors may be
In classroom casual conversation in formal fac
ulty debates they sometimes discourteous, often
irrelevant and invariably trivial When gathered
together to transact the business relating to their
own profession they lose all those social qualities
which make them, for the outsider such delightful
citizens. Affabity or any intellectual provoca-
tveness disappear. Faculty meetings become
petitions in boredom.
First among the which have contributed to
this ineffectivenss and stupidity should list the
snrreptitious fashion in which the faculty performs
it's function. There is publicity. Newspaper
reporters do not take down the proceedings Pub
licity is excellent incentive to sanity of action in
lassemblages of all sorts school board in
by city gained the habit of holding meetings not
open to the public. 1t did not, of course, frankly
avow such practice, but it met in out of the way
places and at times not announced. The action was
considered scandalous and public opinion quickly
compelled change Practically all legislative or
judicial assemblies are forced to hold sessions open
to the public, and star chamber methods con-
sdcred the ultimate reproach. In fact, is there
other body of public semi public character which
would dare to do what practically all college facial
ties do meter of course? The secrecy so in
sisted upon in faculty meetings is partly traditional
and partly due to the timidity which grows uron
teachers of all sorts There is a survival of monksh
mediaevalsm in colleges. 1t is owlshness which
loves the dark. For the public to demand and Sc
cure meetings would of itself bring about tremen-
dous lberating changes. BY their very nature fac
uy meetings constitute almost irresistible temp
taton to excess and absurdy. 1t is easy to grow
incorporate in criticism of those who will not
hear you-and cannot answer back. 1t is also hu-
man nature.
Indeed, I fear to contemplate what would be the
immediate effect of public meetings on the public
opinion of those states which support institutions
higher learning. If the derogatory not to say Sian
derous statements, commonly uttered in faculty
meetings with respect to the ability and character
of the student body published in the daily
papers, some professors would be eager to
meet their students the next day. | remember one
professor who recommended that the students who
failed should be sent to a school for imbeces. And
never during the many years have had to attend
these dreary conferences have | known defender
of the student body to be recognized other than
a traitor to his professor class have heard
1t minated that incompetent instructors might
plain the poor standing of some of the students Tho
burden for failure is invariably put the student
his previous high school teachers or his parents.
Another reason for the futity of present day fac
ulty meetings lies in their direct encouragement tc
the OK cathodra habit of speech. with criticism
other than its own absurlities pass unnoced. Dog
matizing becomes the rule; and the higher up in tn,
professional scale teacher rises the stronger seems
to become his itch to lay down the law. 1t is strange
c that men who are really concerned in working GU
problems in true scientific fashion will rattle or
e so aimlessly in faculty meetings. What is worse
there Is often downright dishonest debate Statistics
can DE manufactured out of hand and everybody il
100 pored TO chalenge them Furthermore. mucl
OF the discussions Is concerned with purely academ
Id questions. about which cares n pennv tina
+ the debaters become capricious and trifling Fuss
eNactness is accepted for scholarship and ugubriou
obscurity for erudton. Only the difference betwee
III the tweededum and the tweedledee or currcua wi
st stir up any rancor heat. For although much {
Dc the progress Of educational theory practice
due to college men, it is safe to say that disca ride
theories and practices hold sway longest in facul
gatherings. never was connected with facu
- in which majority had imbibed inkng OF mo,
m ern educational theory. The majority vote is almo
always reactionary. Formal discipline is st