Evening star., 1945-06-16
Criticism Of Dr.. Byrd
By Faculty Revealed
In Letter 10 Board
BIZ the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
BALTIMORE, June 16.-Dis.
closure of past faculty criticism lev.
eled at DR.. H. G. Byrd, president
OF the University of Maryland, came
today in a Baltimore Sun story
which quoted from a letter sent to
the schools Board of Regents more
than a year ago by professor who
resigned.
The Sun said it had learned from
q member of the Board of Regents
that DR.. Byrd was permitted to
answer the letter personally and
that the matter then was dropped
because the board took the position
no formal charges had been made.
The letter as written by DR.. Carl
s. JosIyn, who told the Sun he was
making it public now at the request
of former colleagues at the univer-
sity. DR.. Joslyn formerly was head
of the schools department of sociol-
ogy. He emphasized that he was not
making charges, that he thought the
criticisms were things the regents
should know.
More recently DR.. Byrd has been
the target of criticism from students
and at least two faculty members.
A students committee developed a
battery of suggestions for admins
trative revision at the university,
held mass meeting and scheduled
a referendum on the suggestions for
Tuesday. They then are to be pre-
sented to DR.. Byrd.
DR.. Joslyn Shocked.
DR.. Joslyn was quoted by the Sun
as saying in the letter that he him
self had enjoyed freedom of action
In his own department, but that he
was shocked at the intensely bitter
and critical remarks made by some
of the faculty members" against DR..
Byrd. He wrote:
They have spoken as men who
have suffered long at his hands and
whose patience with him is at an
end. have been less shocked
and less impressed by similar re-
marks by students of mine at Col
1ege Park.
"You are entitled to know what
specifically my colleagues have been
complaining about. Those that I
recall at the moment are the fol-
lowing:
president Byrd has not made the
effort he could and should make to
retain on the faculty the more
capable men who have recently had
offers from other universities. He is
complacent and unrealistic about
the chances of making good these
losses after the war, telling depart
ment heads and deans that good
men will be a dime dozen at that
time
Says Pledges Unkept.
"He has made commitments about
salary increases to men who have
had offers from other universities or
the Government service and, when
the time came to honor these COM
mitments, he has failed to
do so.
He has failed to keep appoint
ments for interviews with candi-
dates for positions who have come
to College Park from considerable
distance and at considerable incon-
venience to themselves for the sole
purpose of having such an inter-
view.
He has authorized promotions
and salary increases without con-
sulting department heads con-
cerned; he has ordered the uni
versity engineer to remove whole
departments and at least one COL
lege from their Offices without
notifying the administrative heads
concerned and without providing |
quarters for them to move into.
Dilatory About Duties.
He is dilatory in looking after
administrative matters and outside
correspondence requiring prompt
attention; he is unstable and anna
teurish in his enthusiasms about
educational projects; he makes i'm
pulsive decisions about changes in
the curriculum and in the academic !
schedule with unpleasant conse-
quences which might have been
prevented by consulting with his ad-
ministrative board.
HE refuses to delegate RESPONSE
bilities of a routine and minor ad-
ministrative character with the re-
suit that questions of major policy
do not receive the careful study
necessary for wise decisions.
"" I became convinced that
they sprang from a common root:
President Byrd's habit OF reaching
decisions and taking action in uni
versity affairs without consulting the
persons whose interests and
sometimes whose feelings were bound
to be affected by his action.
Conviction Confirmed.
This conviction of mine was con-
firmed when President Byrd said to
me, in the presence Of Mr.. Parr then
auditor of the university and an
other administrative officer, that he
wasn't going to have any one tell
him how to run the University of
Maryland.
The heart of the trouble at the
University of Maryland lies, not
In the provisions of its charter nor
in the working of some impersonal
mechanism called the administra-
tion,' but in the personality of
President Byrd himself
Certain traits essential to the
wise administrator of a State uni
versity in a democratic country are
simply lacking in his makeup.
Primary among these traits is
the habit of treating ones fellow
men, particularly those weaker than
ones self, as persons whose feelings
and wishes are entitled to as much
respect as ones own"