SELF- SURVEYS BY COLLEGES # UNIVERSITIES WILLIAM H. ALLEN »' EDUCATIONAL SURVEY SERIES LB A ^3 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Hr.& Mr 3. George F. Eogalskj Se "lraii{iK}!S,»fe«, colleges and olin (Iverslty Library universale 3 1924 032 496 956 1. Ml/ {it JnE"— ■" i WrytrrTTTx. 7 i i JA&—& w$mt i OAYLORD PRINTED1NU.S.A. Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032496956 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY SERIES Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities By WILLIAM H. ALLEN, Ph.D. DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE, NEW VORK CITY With a Referendum to College and University Presidents ■WW YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK WORLD BOOK COMPANY WORLD BOOK COMPANY THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson yonkers-on-hudson, new york 2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago Publishers of the following professional works: School Efficiency Series, edited by Paul H. Hanus, complete in thirteen volumes; Educational Survey Series, three volumes already issued and others projected; School Efficiency Monographs, six numbers now ready, others in active preparation Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 21. Welcome anonymous complaints. 22. Insure time necessary for writing up results. 23. Account for every part of every answer. 24. Provide a consolidated key card for answers. 25. Key each answer. 26. Review and revise tabulation plan. 27. Insure criticism of schedules and questions. 28. Record each fact separately. 29. Avoid averages. 30. Keep and check current working papers. 31. Have conference of investigators. 32. Have frequent conferences of survey staff. 33. Have question and suggestion slips for staff. 34. Supervise survey details in progress. 35. Record cumulatively errors and omissions. 36. Budget publicity plans. 37. Avoid cooperation that restricts. 38. Submit reports to surveyed before publishing. 39. Publish if at all in small doses. 40. Use graphic methods wherever possible. 14. Educational Scapegoats Being human, colleges attribute difficulties and disap- pointments to causes beyond their own control. Each col- lege has its favorite causes and points to them so frequently that they become scapegoats. Sometimes it is the elective system; or again the relaxation of the language require- ments; or the so-called practical courses; or lenient mark- ing or low entrance requirements; or poor high schools; or coeducation; or poor home background; or the alleged mistaken American doctrine that every person is entitled to as many years of instruction as he can pay for or sit through. Self-surveys will profitably ask early what the favorite scapegoats are of the faculty and officers. The list of scape- goats will suggest a number of questions which can be an- swered by analyzing conditions at the college. Having All the World Loves a Scapegoat 41 eliminated all causes for disappointment or difficulty that are college-born and are- therefore correctable by college ac- tion, surveyors will find a margin, large or small, of out-of- college scapegoats. In most instances college policy is so completely within college control that out-of-college scape- goats will give little trouble after college scapegoats have been studied and divided into removable and non-removable obstructions to efficiency. For Questions or Notes by the Reader Ill RELATION OF TRUSTEES TO PRESIDENT AND FACULTY 15. Self -Survey by Trustees THE main question here is whether trustees ask for and secure the quantity and kind of information that is necessary for them to possess if they are to act for the best interest of their college. That the only good trustee is the blind trustee has been believed by many college administrators and instructors. In fact, a cult has been growing, under the chaperonage of certain large foundations, which would relegate trustees to three tasks, — raising money, selecting carefully an execu- tive, and leaving the college management to him. Another cult has sprung up from within faculties which would take from trustees practically all functions except that of raising money. Surveyors of private colleges will as a rule not be com- missioned to ask questions about how trustees discharge their duties toward president and faculty, but any questions about how president and faculty discharge their obligations toward trustees and constituents will be permissible and wel- come. For personal help there is every reason why trustees as a body or individually should see that these questions are answered. In fact, one of the principal needs of American colleges is that trustees shall begin self-surveys of their own efficiency. 1. Are trustee agreements with president and faculty specific in writing? Yes. No. f... Are the president's understandings with faculty submitted to trustees in writing? Y... N... ?... 2. Do trustees receive a calendar far enough in advance of meetings for them to digest it ? Y . . . N . . . f. . . 3. Are digests of reports sent to trustees in advance of 42 Trustees Will Self -Survey Too 43 meetings when they are to be considered ? Y . . . N... ?... 4. Are reports to trustees condensed and graphic? Y. ■ . N... ?... President Godfrey of Drexel Institute makes his reports via crayon talks, using a graph instead of a sentence whenever possible. 5. Are the other elements of efficient reporting men- tioned later observed by the president and fac- ulty when presenting facts and policies to trustees? Y... N... ?... Or are they given " only what the president chooses to give them " ? Y . . . N. . . 6. What interim reports and significant information as to college problems, results, and successes are sent to trustees ? 7. In what ways and at what times do trustees meet the faculty, especially new faculty members? Is their talk with the faculty " small talk of a patronizing sort with weak attempts at humor "? Y . . . N. . . 8. What steps are taken to insure a sympathetic under- standing of classroom, laboratory, and seminar prob- lems by trustees ; e.g., in what ways are they encour- aged to see faculty members at work with students? Is their effort limited to " Back up the president. . . . The king can do no wrong " ? Y. . . N... 9. How easy or how difficult is it for trustees to be ig- norant of or to misunderstand the attainment of fac- ulty members in productive scholarship; in educa- tional leadership; in community service; in influence upon students? 10. Is trustee enthusiasm loaded with understanding and information before set to raising funds? Y. . . N... ?... Or do they "get information about the university in a way comparable to the way small boys learn about sex matters"? Y... N... ? . . . For state-supported colleges it is indispensable that such questions be asked by both special and current surveys. 44 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Uninformed or misinformed regents can incalculably injure student, faculty, and taxpayer. No publicly supported uni- versity is strong enough to afford regents who fail to ask questions, to require answers, and to hold themselves re- sponsible for remembering and for imparting the answers to legislators and public. 16. National Conventions for Trustees There are over 5000 trustees of colleges and universities in this country. They are responsible for $800,000,000 of property and for the annual expenditure of $120,000,000. What is more to the point, they are primarily responsible for the way higher education is headed and for the use of its opportunity. Yet never in the history of higher educa- tion has there been a gathering of these trustees or a gather- ing to which trustees have been invited, nor has any device been worked out by which they can communicate with one another, ask questions, and exchange experience. How we could have developed innumerable associations of educators, professional men, and college athletes without having found a niche for the college trustee is hard to under- stand. There must be a change. The need for it has been felt for some time and is now being expressed. On December 22, 1916, the regents of the University of Michigan took up formally the question whether they should extend to college trustees and university regents an invitation to hold a first convention at Detroit. Once having seriously considered the advantages of comparing notes, of exchanging ques- tions, of cooperatively studying policies involving funds and opportunities, the trustee group will insist upon inder pendent means of informing itself. When national conventions have been organized, a sur- veyor will do well to ask how many and how often the re- gents of any college surveyed have attended national con- ventions, and what steps they have taken to see that their own college was represented by problems to be discussed and questions to be answered, and furthermore what steps Questions or Notes 45 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 46 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities they have taken to utilize convention proceedings locally. Ex-President Trottman of the regents of the University of Wisconsin has for years urged the incongruity of the trustees' status, and compares it to the unthinkable situa- tion of railroad directors shut out of transportation con- ventions. Of a national convention for trustees, President Burton writes : " I am particularly interested in your suggestion of a conference of the regents of state universities and trustees of colleges. Surely there is genuine occasion for such conferences. I imagine it would stimulate the interest and make the problems of educational in- stitutions far more tangible and appealing to those who are responsible for our institutions if they came to- gether and discussed the problems." 17. College Organization To learn who's who and what's what about a college the shortcut is to secure a chart showing the distribution of powers and duties and the interrelations of trustees and of- ficers. This the college authorities will prepare. Don't pay surveyors to do it. Its purpose is to help the study, not to encumber the report. Except so far as legislatures or donors have prescribed distribution of powers and duties, the board of trustees is legally and morally responsible to society for the working conditions in colleges. If there is confusion or conflict of authority, if duties and powers are vague, if no one is ever unevadably accountable, if the machinery is antiquated and feeble, the trustees are at fault. Even where faculties have inadvisedly used the powers vested in them, the fault lies with the trustees. Several different forms of organization are found which express as many different beliefs about centralization and de- centralization of authority. It is not safe for surveyors to be dogmatic about forms of organization, for as Pope says, Trustees Will Study Organization 47 " Whate'er is best administered is best." If Efficiency says, " Elect the ablest man for department chairman," Democracy replies via President Mezes, " The department should be the unit and the chairman only a presiding officer and spokesman." In some colleges the business manager should be re- sponsible to the president. In others this is impossible with- out changing presidents, which may not be desirable yet. Here the deans are wisely elected by their faculties; there the deans are chosen by presidents ; elsewhere the deans are best chosen by trustees. One dogmatic statement, however, can safely be made, — that whatever the form of organization or the distribution of authority, there should be no uncertainty or duplication of accountability. 18. Written Agreements with Faculty Much unhappiness in college circles has been due to dif- fering recollections of verbal agreements. The president or dean or department head remembers that Professor A was promised nothing but " the best the college could do." Professor A remembers a definite promise of change in rank, increase in salary, only eight hours of instruction, freedom from quizzes, opportunity for research, special va- cations, etc. 1. With respect to how many agreements between offi- cers and faculty has your college been making written record ? 2. Are the invitation and its terms in writing? Y . . . N... 3. Is the acceptance in writing? Y . . . N . . . 4. Are subsequent changes of terms in writing? Y... N... 5. Which officers believe that written agreements would handicap them in making discriminations between ex- 48 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities ceptional ability and average ability or exceptional desirability and average desirability ? There have been college officers who were successful in attracting unusual ability to their colleges which would never have come if the agreements had been in writing. In other words, men attracted by hopes, inferences, and words open to double construction, would not have been attracted by cold, written, unequivocal agreements. Whether net benefit can result from such misunderstandings is an im- portant question, especially for self-surveyors. For the University of Minnesota, the president's office keeps a record of " promises, assurances of promotion, or of salary increases." Pratt Institute's instructors agree, in writing, to be avail- able for committee work or " for any work in connection with the social life or activities at the Institute." More- over, faculty members " are expected to care for their health and take such recreation as is necessary for its preserva- tion." Service is by the year and instructors may be " called upon any time during vacations." They are ex- pected to be present, prepared for work, at least one week before classes open; to carry a minimum of not less than 20 hours a week in classroom work ; and to exceed this in cases where less outside preparation is required " than it is usual to expect for classroom instruction." Instructors must teach in the evening classes if called upon, and " no instructor giving full time to the Institute is permitted to engage in any other teaching unless by special agreement with the trustees." The Institute promises to pay one month's salary in case of sickness, during which it may call upon the instructor to pay his substitute. After one month it is not bound to pay for sick leave. An incipient scandal was started against the University of Pennsylvania in 19 16 because of a letter written by the dean of the Wharton School, which required that all faculty members notify the dean of out-of -university engagements. The circular sent to the faculty read in part : Outside Work by Faculty 49 "What other establishments, private or public, are you connected with at present which have the right to a portion of your time for which you receive fee, sal- ary, or honorarium ? " What committee or commissions of a public nature are you connected with at present, with or without re- muneration ? " All members of the instruction staff are requested to understand that hereafter no relations of the sort included in the above questions shall be established, nor shall old ones be renewed, without first consulting with the dean, in order that, where necessary, the ap- proval of the provost or trustees may be requested." Morris Llewellyn Cooke intimated in a speech at Cleveland which was printed broadcast that this might prove a muz- zling device for preventing free speech; i.e., corporations might thus make it impossible for faculty members with pro- gressive ideas to keep the speaking engagements or the com- mittee connections necessary to promote such progressive ideas. I was interviewed by a Philadelphia newspaper, which told me after I had stated my position that it had ex- pected a different position from the following : The Pennsylvania order was not limited to the Wharton School. On the contrary, all deans united in issuing it. Several deans imparted the information orally which gave opportunity for discussion and promoted understanding. It seems that members of the Pennsylvania faculty had been accepting regular appointments as far away as Baltimore and New York. Some had broken down physically for no other discoverable reason except that they were trying to do too much. The university naturally felt that it had the first claim upon instructors' energy. It seemed fairer to raise the question before incompatible and too exacting engage- ments were entered into, rather than wait for a breakdown in efficiency and health, or even for minor evidences of in- jury suffered because of energy diverted from the university to other obligations. 50 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities So far as anti-social activities of faculty members are concerned, it is obvious that the public will be protected and not injured by a college requirement that the out-of -college activities of instructors shall be matter of record with the college. For the same reason that when accustoming a horse to city diversions and dangers blinders are taken off the bridle, it is safer that blinders be taken off one's col- leagues and the public with regard to out-of-college rela- tions of instructors. Infinitely more damage will result from unfounded suspicion than from recorded fact. Without written agreement another general evil will never be under control ; viz., absences by presidents, deans, directors, department heads, and favored instructors. Be- cause regulations and agreements do not specifically charge the college officer to account for his time, neither trustees nor executive officers can easily interfere when absences are overdone. Not knowing how much officers are away from duty, colleges of course cannot estimate what absences cost. Self-surveys will note these facts : i. What printed regulations say about the number of days that belong to the college. 2. What unwritten or written understandings exempt individuals from the general rules. 3. What is defined as absent for executive officer or in- structor, — whether physical absence or only failure to have a representative in charge or failure to have anticipated absence as by " making up " time. 4. How absences are notified ; e.g., in advance ? . . . ; by request? . . . ; as information? . . . ; in monthly or weekly report ? . . . ; to department head ? . . . ; to dean? . .,. 5. How absences are summarized, times, duration, ap- pointments missed for year, semester, department, in- dividuals. 6. How reasons and occasions for absence are sum- marized; i.e., departmental, college, by assignment, by request, personal. Questions or N.otes 51 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 52 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 7. How benefits and losses from absences are estimated and reported. Whether attempts to secure such information will stultify and mortify educators can be told only after attempts have been made. There is reason to believe that academic free- dom will be enhanced, not desecrated, by agreements which require all officers to record for all the extent and causes of absence. 19. By-laws and Laws College trustees not only make their own laws and regula- tions, but approve or reject procedure adopted by faculties for themselves. In cases where it is not practicable for sur- veyors to catechize or criticize the governing board, it may still be accepted as helpful if they ask the governing board to join with them in reviewing by-laws. The University of Wisconsin survey took up the by-laws and laws of regents, page by page. In the hope of inter- esting regents and officers in thinking over each step, ques- tions were submitted. Oftentimes a governing board will meet the surveyor on common ground if the latter instead of giving advice asks a question ; i.e., " Page 59, line 2 : Would it help to have a clause added to the effect that the regents' report be audited by the business manager as to correctness of statistics? " What have by-laws and other rules of procedure to do with helpful surveys? A great deal more than appears on the surface. In colleges as well as in states many ethical gains are accomplished through legislation. Inherited rules may crystallize action unfavorable to elasticity and initia- tive. New rules may foster initiative and elasticity. In many colleges present procedure divides responsibility where concentration and definite location are desirable. Ambigui- ties cause little trouble until some important issue calls for clearness. Existing organization is usually defined in existing rules. Where surveyors point out defects in or- ganization, recommend changes or additions, it is important Trustees Will Question By-laws 53 to see whether the rules permit changes and reflect the de- ficient organization. Other questions, particularly for self-surveyors, include these : i. Are the rules printed ? Yes... No... 2. Who is supposed to have them? 3. Are sections reprinted so that each group need have only those parts which affect its actions? Y... N... 4. Are rules consulted by legislative bodies? Y. . . N. . . (I once heard a board of trustees discuss for an hour a question which might have been settled in one minute if they had consulted their own regula- tions.) 5. Are there dead-letter regulations? How many? Which? 6. Do the financial sections specify " receipts and dis- bursements " or " revenues and expenses " ; i.e., re- ceipts plus accruals and expenditures plus accruals? 7. Do the rules require that committees of trustees and faculties keep minutes ? Y. . . N... ?... Would it help to require that all minutes record at least the names of movers and seconders of motions and per- sons speaking for and against them? 8. Should faculty minutes be required to record names of persons present? 9. When referring to annual reports, should rules call for classification of information ; i.e., instead of call- ing for the " number of instructors and students," should they call for the number of instructors of each grade and number of students in each group, such as lower classmen, upper classmen, graduates, and special students in each department ? 10. Is an outside audit required of financial transactions and accounts? Y. . . N... 11. Would it be worth while to require an outside audit of operation reports and educational statistics ? 54 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 12. Should requests for special meetings be required to state the purpose for which the meeting is called and subject or subjects to be considered, together with a digest of the facts which make a meeting seem neces- sary ? 13. Would it help secure definite service from trustees if the rules included among their duties that of reading official communications ? 14. Do colleges need regulations which require separation of salaries for instruction from salaries for research and for administration? 15. Should regulations stipulate a definite minimum num- ber of hours for lecture and recitation, and an equiva- lent number for laboratory or mixed laboratory and classroom work, with provision that charges be made to the right accounts? 16. When mentioning the duty of the president to make recommendations, should by-laws require that facts be submitted upon which recommendations are based ? 17. Instead of charging a president or dean with the duty to report any inefficiency that may come to his knowl- edge, should by-laws require that executive officers make the investigations necessary to ascertain where, if at all, there is inefficiency? 18. Is the line of responsibility definite so that sugges- tions and facts will come to each officer through re- sponsible subordinates? Y... N... ?... 19. Is provision made for receiving complaints, sugges- tions, and criticisms, including anonymous communi- cations? Y. . . N... ?... 20. Has the time come to have by-laws specify the min- imum essentials of annual reports, if for no other reason than to charge trustees with responsibility for receiving and reading such minimum essentials? 20. Investigations for Trustees In the early days of the University of Chicago, one of the most popular songs was entitled, The Profs Make Stu- Investigations for Trustees 55 dent Customs at the U. of C. The spirit and fact of this song might be parodied in another entitled, The Profs Make Trustee Reports in Universities. Investigations by college trustees too often result in investigations for trustees. For example, the board appoints a committee to investigate the efficiency of instruction for under classmen. Seldom does such a committee make its own investigation. Instead it calls in the president or dean, and he does the investigating ; drafts a tentative report; submits it to trustees; explains verbally why it is correct; and presto! his findings become the trustees' report. Ought this to be so? Will it always be so? Surveys will ask rather : Is it so ? What can be done about it ? When investigating for trustees — and they are in effect doing that whenever they make even routine reports — pres- ident and faculty either obey or disobey the laws of scientific investigation. Whichever they do, surveyors and self -sur- veyors should frankly answer questions like these : i. Does the investigation start with a desire to know? Is the right unit of inquiry sought ? Is the count ac- curate? Are comparisons made? Are subtractions made and differences reduced to comparable fractions or percentages? Are returns classified and sum- marized ? 2. Is the general question for investigation broken up into its various elements? 3. Is each element segregated before being studied? 4. Is the whole of each element examined or only a part ? 5. Are all the essential facts about an element examined or only a few ? 6. Are facts of record examined, or only opinions and guesses ? 7. Are the facts properly classified and summaries sub- mitted to trustees apart from recommendations and as the basis for conclusions and recommendations ? 8. Do conclusions square with the facts reported? 9. Are the findings briefly summarized ? 56 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 10. Is the report sent to trustees for perusal before the meeting which acts upon it? The minutes of college trustees will show many questions investigated for them both upon their initiative and in ad- vance of their expression of interest. As more adequate information becomes available, the number of subjects in- vestigated for trustees will greatly increase, especially in colleges where trustees are helped to take each step of an investigation rather than merely to accept faculty conclu- sions. Typical of important questions to be studied everywhere is this : How efficient is the instruction received by under classmen, especially first-year students? In answering it a noticeable difference will be found between the method fol- lowed where president or faculty want additional instructors and where they want to refute criticisms such as that fresh- men are taught by less competent instructors and see too lit- tle of the older, stronger men. Obviously the information given the trustee ought not to depend upon the motive of those who investigate. Obviously, too, a procedure like the following will be necessary : 1. The total registration of under classmen each year in each class will be given. Whether this ought to be the registration is not the question. 2. The person teaching each class will be named — again a question of fact, not of ought or ought not. 3. Registration totals will be redistributed in groups ac- cording to the titles of instructors. 4. Because titles may not express previous teaching ex- perience, the registration totals must be redistributed further according to previous teaching experience. 5. The summary will state what percentage of the total student hours for each of the two years under study are taught by instructors in each of the title groups and in each of the experience groups. 6. Because thus far we have learned the facts about under classmen only, it is necessary to compare these RESIDENCE OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 1914-1915 LIVING WITHIN 50 MILES OF MADISON 1.770 LIVING WITHIN 75 MILES OF MADISON 2.639 LIVING WITHIN 100 MILES OF MADISON 2.961 TOTAL LIVING IN WIS- CONSIN 3,644 University of Wisconsin Survey Report Show graphically whence students come Facts, not Opinions, for Trustees 57 facts with similar facts, for upper classmen to see what part of each instructor's time and each in- structor group's time is given to upper classmen ; what part to research or other duties; and further to see what part of the instruction and contact received by upper classmen is from each instructor group. With these facts in hand there still remains the most fun- damental question of all: Is the instruction received by under classmen efficient ? But because this is a fundamental question is no reason why trustees should not have an- swered for them definitely the question which starts the in- vestigation; viz., the total registration of under classmen each year in each class. Annual reports are beginning to reflect the highest type of scientific research by college officers. For example, in- stead of bewailing the poverty which compels overcrowding, a president shows how many hours in a week how many in- structors have a specified excess of students. Instead of vaguely protesting against untrue claims that instructors are underworked, presidents are beginning to report in detail the teaching loads and extra-teaching loads of faculty members. What kind of supporting information trustees received during the year preceding a survey or self-survey will be found a productive field for examination. Among investi- gations which should be currently made by and for trustees are these: Advance steps taken during the year; notable steps taken by other similar institutions and not yet tried here; benefits obtained from conventions attended; tests used and with what result, to see whether the college is ac- complishing what it aims and what it advertises to do. 21. Visitation by Alumni and Other Visitors In theory trustees are official visitors. In practice trustees are apt to confine their visits to the offices of presi- dent and deans or to those particular segments of college machinery for which they have committee responsibility. 58 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Few trustees consider themselves visitors with a roving commission to represent patron, student, and faculty. In- stead they come to feel that they represent the management. To insure some one's seeing the college " as ithers pee it," many colleges have arranged for semiofficial visitors ; i.e., of- ficially invited visitation by alumni or special board. The University of Wisconsin has such official board of visitors : one third appointed by the alumni ; one third by the gov- ernor; one third by the regents. In a short time official visitors come to know more phases of an institution than the trustees whose channels of information are practically con- fined to officers. Whether facts and suggestions from these quarters are welcomed or resented, heeded or neglected, by trustees and officers is an important survey question. In how many ways an official board may be helpful is illustrated by a list prepared by Mr. Lynn S. Pease, alumnus and lawyer, for Wisconsin's governor and legislature in 191 5, when a central board of education was being debated: 1. A course of practice as a substantial part of the cur- riculum of the law school. 2. Closer relations between the faculty and students. 3. More attention, in the employment of members of the faculty, to the personal equation and influence which will be exerted upon the students. 4. A dean of men. 5. Cooperation of the university and the state depart- ment of education with school principals and officers for the purpose of bridging the gap between high- school work and university work, and of stimulating and aiding the development of the entire public-school system. 6. The adoption of a system similar to that success- fully used in some other universities for faculty, class, fraternity, sorority, and club student advisers. 7. Instructional ability to be given as much weight as scholarship in selection of teaching members of the faculty. Questions for Official Visitors 59 8. Fraternity and sorority rushing and initiation con- trolled. 9. More attention to the physical instruction of all the students and less to the effort to build up a school of instruction in athletics. 10. The principle of probation for first offenses in cases of so-called " dishonesty in student work " ; the elim- ination of the penalty of suspension of work and substitution of the penalty of additional work, etc. 11. The elimination of undesirable pictures and reading matter in student publications. 12. Student questionnaire issued. (See Exhibit III.) 13. The separation of the men's and women's athletic ac- tivities and more attention to the needs of the women students. 14. Inefficiency of the press bulletins shown. 15. Investigations of incompetent or otherwise undesir- able members of the faculty. 16. An assistant dean of women urged. The extension of central boards of education and the iso- lation of trustees make it increasingly important that col- leges, especially state-supported institutions, utilize the offi- cial visitor to the utmost. Experience in other fields shows that official visitors quickly become absorbed in the vortex of official acquaint- ance, unless they adopt for themselves a procedure which will answer no to each of the following 30 questions, which incidentally may prove equally helpful to trustees and sur- veyors : 1. Have they stopped asking questions? Y. . . N... ?.... As soon as a visitor begins to answer questions without asking them, he becomes of little use as a vis- itor. 2. Have they accepted the post of advocate for the ad- ministration ? Y. . . N... ?... Visiting is a means of seeing whether the administration is leaving undone anything which students, public, and govern- ing board wish or need to have done. 60 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 3. Are they doing anything which administrative offi- cers ought to do? Y... N... ?... Visitors often dissipate energy by inconsequential dabbling with matters that administrative officers know about, or by doing poorly what administrative officers ought to be made to do well as soon as it becomes obvious what should be done. 4. Are they afraid to ask questions because they do not know the answer? 5. Are they afraid to make suggestions for fear they will prove unsound ? A suggestion does not need to be one hundred per cent sound in order to be helpful. 6. Do they stay on as visitors a day after they begin to feel like insiders rather than outsiders? 7. Do they fail to use students and faculty for securing information? Y... N... ?... A notable con- tribution to higher education was made by the Wis- consin board of visitors when they asked 6000 stu- dents to answer questions about their high-school and university experiences. 8. Do they jump to the defensive and become apologists the minute some unofficial visitor — student, in- structor, editor, business man, or surveyor — points out a weakness or makes a suggestion? Criticism and suggestion are valuable as criticism is true and suggestion sound, no matter what their source. 9. Do they forget that one of the principal duties of an intelligent regent is to be an efficient inside visitor? Their reports can help regents see this. 10. Do they keep institutional secrets from their client, the public, Y... N... ?..., or board of trustees, Y... N... ?.. ., or administrative officers, Y. . . N. . ., ?...! 11. Do they suppress the truth or postpone its publica- tion for fear. that some one will make improper use of it? Y. . . N... ?... The time to report is when visitors secure the information. The office of visitor will be less misused if now and then an un- Keeping Visitors' Eyes Open 61 timely fact escapes than if visitors try to decide what is the right time to report. 12. Do they fail to follow up any fact, complaint, or sug- gestion coming from student, parent, or faculty mem- ber? 13. Do they spoil criticisms or recommendations by " mushy " introduction and conclusion and qualify- ing phrases? Y. . . N... 14. Do they fail to keep complete record of what and whom they have seen and of the facts upon which they base recommendations,? Y. . . N... ?... 15. Do they lament the fact that as visitors they are visit- ing and reporting officers and not governors? 16. Do they fail to make the minority of a visiting com- mittee feel comfortable and free to express its mi- nority opinion ? 17. Do they fail to report the minority opinion together with the majority opinion? Y... N... f... 18. Do they suppress a criticism or suggestion because only a minority makes it ? 19. Do they specialize ? Visitors are most effective when they are general practitioners. There may be divi- sion of labor without specialization. 20. Do they desire reappointment ? " Once a visitor al- ways a visitor " is a denial of the very purpose of visiting. Acquaintance blunts sensibilities, displaces questions. 21. Do they fail to be specific in praise and criticism? Y... N... ?... 22. Do they fail to keep a cumulative list of questions that have been asked and answered? Y. . . N . . . ?. . . 23. Do they fail to keep a cumulative calendar of prob- lems that need future attention ? Y . . . N . . . f . . . 24. Do they fail to read current reports of faculty min- utes and of college officers and principal student papers ? 62 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 25. Are they disappointed if their reports are considered disagreeable at first and if attempt is made to smile away their facts and recommendations? 26. Do they allow themselves to be patronized by the per- sons whose work they are to observe ? Y . . . N . . . ?.. . 27. Do they let college officers write their reports? 28. Do they fail to make the asking of questions about other colleges an important part of visiting their own college? Y... N... ?... 29. Are they satisfied with general explanations or gen- eral promises in answer to specific criticisms? Y, . . N... ?... 30. Do they withdraw attention from a need before the right steps have been taken to remedy the defect or supply the deficiency? Y. . . N... ?... 22. Granting of Honorary Degrees This will strike many as a strange subject for self-sur- veys. Yet upon analysis it will be found to have an im- portant bearing upon many other college relations. A list of persons who have been given honorary degrees with rea- sons announced and unannounced will raise a number of questions : 1. How many when honored by our college already held honorary degrees from other colleges ? 2. Has our college formulated minimum essentials of personality, scholarly distinction, social service or service to the college which will establish eligibility to a degree? Y. . . N... ?... 3. Have degrees been given out by favor, ... by acci- dent, ... or by comprehensive educational pro- gram ? . . . 4. How many persons are there, men and women, be- longing to the constituency of this college whose at- tainments exceed the minimum for eligibility? 5. Is it legitimate for a college to use its degree-giving Tenure — Permanent or Limited ? 63 power as a means of binding such eligible persons to its program? Y... N... ?... A college president was asked to consider granting an honorary degree to an alumnus who had rendered distin- guished service to education. Among educators his name was more widely and favorably known than that of any person to whom this college had ever given an honorary degree or of any instructor. Degrees were later given to several former instructors as testimonials of gratitude for help in putting this college on a firm foundation. Was an opportunity lost when the college failed to recognize excep- tional work for education by one of its own products ? 23. Tenure of Office Charting college offices so as to show the actual past ten- ure and nominal future tenure of each will help faculties consider several questions that are beginning to assert them- selves : 1. Should presidents and deans be elected for life sub- ject to good behavior and efficiency, or for definite terms up to seven years ? 2. Was President Nichol's action prophetic when he re- tired from Dartmouth's presidency after seven years on the ground that he had already given his best, and that seven years of a new man would do more for his college than seven more years of him? 3. Where terms are limited — to three or five or seven years — will it often be better for presidents or deans or trustees to succeed themselves? 4. What evidence is there that officers seldom rise to new heights when permanent tenure is a substitute for limited tenure? 5. Once given a method of learning whether a college would be better off without than with an instructor, what percentage of instructors would be willing to remain if not for the good of the college? 64 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities In many instances instructors are separated from college positions for personal or financial reasons entirely apart from college welfare. A list of faculty changes with rea- sons for each will show how far curable working conditions, curable financial limitations, or curable defects of organiza- tion and personality have been defeating nominal provisions for permanent or extended tenure of instructors and officers. Permanent tenure for college teachers is a cardinal tenet of the American Association of College Professors. The same movement urges rotation for departmental chairmen and is beginning to wonder if permanent tenure for deans and presidents may not perhaps jeopardize permanence of tenure and academic freedom for teachers. In 191 5 Illi- nois' efficiency commission recommended three years for deans. Many colleges feel that department heads ought not to have more than two years unless they frankly abandon the pretense of representing their departments and accept the role of sub-executive. The best tenure for any college can best be learned by studying that college's situation when vacancies next occur. In the meantime, holdover or inveterate or permanent ex- ecutives may well help their faculties ask these questions: 1. Are departments which have had several chairmen in ten years more vital, initiative, progressive, dem- ocratic, than other departments which have had only one or two? Y. . . N... ?... 2. Are elected chairmen more representative of their faculties and less servile to dean or president than appointed chairmen? Y. . . N. . . ?... 3. Are ex officio or inevitable chairmen — i.e., where there is only one full professor — less progressive than elected chairmen? Y . . . N. . . ? . . . 4. Do departments feel compelled to reelect their senior members or other members sensitive because of self- conscious weakness or of fear that rotation would mean dissatisfaction? Y. . . N. . . f... 5. Does a new dean always effect improvements? Questions or Notes 65 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 66 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 6. Does a dean lose in scholarship or in other value to a college as his term is prolonged? If so, would a shorter term be fairer to him ? 7. If executive terms were shortened, would successful executives want for opportunities either as executives or as instructors? 24. Provision for Pensioning Professors Pension literature is growing by leaps and bounds. Ed- ucational journals are reflecting new interest. Faculties are discussing pensions as never before. Basic facts will be found in reports of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 476 Fifth Avenue, New York City. For freelance criticism faculties may well continue to look to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, editor of Science and of School and Society, Garrison, New York. So long as the Carnegie Foundation seemed under the pension load, all but a few of the larger colleges delegated responsibility for pension plans to that foundation. Now that it has announced its inability to extend its provisions ar even to continue them, and has proposed a self -insurance plan for college teachers, it behooves the beneficiaries to lo their own thinking and to scurry about for alternatives. The first skirmish in 19 16 showed that private insurance :ompanies could underbid the Carnegie Foundation's phi- anthropic terms for self -insurance. Whatever plan may be finally proved soundest for college nstructors, it will help the profession deal intelligently with his question if every college compiles for its own group he facts as to ages and years of college teaching. In ad- lition it is desirable that the number of years of teaching n institutions below college rank be stated, and that faculty :ooperation be sought to secure health facts and family facts for each instructor. State-supported institutions may find it to their advantage :o pool their facts and their interest with those of teachers n other tax-supported schools, with a view to a possible itate system of self -insurance or pension, or both. Pension Questions 67 Now that a " cooked and dried " plan under the su- zerainty of a great foundation is no longer handed to the college world, several new elements will need to be studied, particularly the advantages of combining disability features with age and service features of retirement annuities. 1. If college teachers are to contribute toward pension funds, must their contributions lapse if they retire from college teaching, or may they regain their total contributions plus legitimate interest? New York City's new pension law, 1917, provides for four per cent compound interest on teachers' contributions. 2. Will colleges make contributions compulsory? 3. If not, how can colleges prevent giving to non-sub- scribers salary rates fixed by the necessities of sub- scribers ? 4. Will colleges build up independent pension or retire- ment funds? 5. How much would it cost each college to retire all instructors who in fairness to themselves and to students ought to be retired during the next five years ? 25. Academic Vacations In addition to learning what vacations are allowed all instructors, the survey should ascertain the length of vaca- tions : 1. For clerical help and other employees detailed to instruction officers. 2. For officers and employees not engaged directly in in- struction. 3. For administrative officers, such as president, dean, department head. It is one of the anomalies of college management that responsible executives have been able to take vacations not merely of the same length, but during the same period, as the educational officers whom they supervise. 4. For instructors who work during the summer; i.e., 68 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities does it rest with the individual instructor to teach all summer if he wishes or does the college insist upon a vacation? Regardless of summer teaching some colleges are giving a sabbatical year or a half year, not as a favor, but as part of the instructor's salary. Competition will ultimately compel all but the financially weakest colleges to make such pro- vision, unless the idea of permanent tenure is abol- ished. 5. For favored faculty members or exceptional cases; i.e., are faculty members excused from attending Commencement? So long as they put in the re- quired number of class hours, may they shorten their year two weeks, four weeks, ten weeks ? If investigation shows what practice would seem to prove, — that ablest instructors can do ablest work through a 36 Dr 40 week year and at the same time do surpassing work through a 6 weeks' summer session, — colleges will begin to consider making contracts which call for years of 46 jr 48 weeks. This would mean summer session for many nore colleges and radical increases in the number of per- sons reached by these colleges. Miscellaneous questions like these must now be asked lot only for each college but for each college worker as well: 1. Where did the idea originate that a college year should be 36 weeks, and the college man's vacation 16 weeks? 2. As you know college professors, do most of them have more or less than 16 weeks' vacation? 3. What justification is there for such a long vacation? 4. Is it better for those who have it than a shorter vacation would be ? 5. Are books written in vacation time ? 6. Is work kept up in vacation time ? 7. What proportion of those having long vacations would be better off with one month than with three? Challenging Vacation Customs 69 8. Are there too many vacations during the school year ? 9. How many days of actual work has your college? 10. Would education be better off without the breaks at midyear and at Easter time ? 11. Is the long vacation one obstacle to higher salaries in educational work? 12. Would fewer high-grade men and women go into this profession if the summer vacation were to be 4 weeks instead of 10 or 14? 13. Should administrative officers either take shorter vaca- tions or take them at some other time than when the instruction staff is on vacation ? 14. Is summer or a considerable part of it needed by ad- ministrative officers for reviewing the last year's work and planning the next year's work ? 15. Do administrative officers — president, deans, depart- ment heads, directors of courses — have time now for consecutive study and planning? 16. Is there a movement in your locality for continuous school work or for a year of 4 quarters with 4 weeks' vacation ? 17. Do you consider that the 4 quarters system has been a success where tried? 18. Has it been too hard for instructors or for students? 19. Do students benefit from the long vacations? 20. Would the average student do any more work in 48 weeks than he now does in 36? 21. Wherever it is true that students benefit more from vacation than from schooling, is this an indictment of the schooling rather than a compliment to the va- cation ? 22. Does the long vacation give young people a wrong sense of the proportion of things and interfere with discipline of schooling? 23. Would it be better to have the vacations more evenly distributed among people and more evenly distributed among the weeks of the year ? 24. Does it miseducate men and women with respect to 70 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities world problems and their possible service when we inure them to vacations of from 12 to 16 weeks a year? 25. Should all other students excepting those who are going into teaching be accustomed at college to the working hours and the working year of the outside world ? 26. Outside Audit of Operation Reports Few boards of trustees are now willing to put their spend- ing officers in the position of auditing their own accounts. Sometimes trustees have a subcommittee which goes over or audits the bills ; i.e., checks money in against money out md remaining. The thoroughness of this audit by trustees varies. It is to be feared that on the whole a board of trustees having confidence in and intimate relations with is spending officers seldom asks the kinds of question that in audit should ask. To insure an impartial, thoroughgoing audit it is becom- ing customary for colleges to employ some outsider, gen- erally some certified public accountant, to audit the accounts. Obviously if this outsider asks no further questions and uses no different method from those of a voluntary com- mittee, his survey will be no better protection than the less expensive survey of a voluntary committee. What the out- side auditor is expected and paid to do should be a matter of written instruction. Whether instructions are written and definite or verbal and indefinite surveyors can quickly learn. If only for its effect upon possible givers, the exacting audit will prove a good investment. Whatever ground the auditor covers and whatever comparisons he makes should be made part of his written or printed report. To say that he has examined the accounts and cash means nothing unless it is known whether or not he has checked each bill with the amount paid out on account of it, counted the cash, and verified all financial totals and summaries. More important still is it for an auditor to ask whether a Learning to garden by gardening University of California Learning to survey by surveying Vacation field work is vacation too California Outside Audit of Annual Reports 71 businesslike procedure was employed in incurring obligations and in meeting them. Once in a great while a college treasurer defaults or a secretary loses or flagrantly wastes money. Once in a great while unauthorized bills are contracted and later or- dered paid. An outside audit that mentions these irregu- larities is a help. The great danger in college finances is not that lies will be told about finances or that money will be stolen or lost. There are two graver dangers; i.e., that financial reports will be meaningless and that educational operations and reports will be inadequate and misleading. A department may have received every dollar that is charged against it on the books. An audit to that effect is worth something. Whether the department has been losing stu- dents is an equally important fact. For a college to under- state or overstate its educational service is a far more serious matter for itself and for society than for it to charge lead- pencil cost against fuel. Two ways of auditing operation reports are suggested. One, that a representative of the trustees, whether called business manager or secretary, or any one else responsible directly to the trustees, shall review all statistics and other reports of educational undertakings and certify to their ade- quateness and correctness. Secondly, that colleges which do not employ any officer directly responsible to the trustees shall employ an outside auditor of educational reports as they are beginning to employ an outside auditor of financial accounts and reports. The reason for not asking a subordinate to audit his superior's accounts is obvious. Assuming that he felt free to point out any inaccuracy, overstatement, or misrepre- sentation by his superior officer, he would, in many instances, not be mentally free to look at his superior's work analyti- cally. For example, a college executive once wrote that the work of which he was a directing head added a million dollars a year to the economic wealth of his state. This, if true, obviously added tremendously to the appealing power of his work. Upon examination it developed that 72 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities the figure, one million, was obtained by multiplying 200 by $500, an initial error of $900,000; that the $500 was sheer assumption, unsupported by any evidence; that the 200 should have been 63. It is no use telling a subordinate that tie ought to feel perfectly free to call such discrepancies to the attention of an officer having power of life or death aver his position. It is unfair to put a subordinate in that josition. It is also unfair to put the trustee in the position af receiving an unaudited claim of this kind. It is not un- fair to have an independent audit by an insider or outsider iirectly accountable, not to those who make the report, but :o those for whom the report is made. In return for the slight cost of such an outside audit the :ollege will obtain two direct benefits: a survey as to each pear's report, and a current procedure with respect to naking operation reports which will guarantee comprehen- sive self-analysis throughout the year by all the officers re- sponsible for reporting. No officer will want to have his •eport sent back to him by an independent auditor for cor- -ection or amplification. Every officer will strive to make lis reports so complete, so readable, and so accurate, and ;he underlying records of operation so trustworthy and com- plete, that an auditor's report will be as simple as it is now with respect to well-kept financial accounts. 27. Beauty Making and Building There is probably not a college in the country which would lot like an endowed chair in the fine arts. A mere handful )f colleges are now able to teach about beauty. Every col- lege is able to practice beauty-making and civic art. Such expression of love for beauty in college surroundings will incidentally help secure the endowed chair in fine arts. Colleges should not leave it to a New York financier, Mr. Otto H. Kahn, to say convincingly: It is very far from being appreciated as yet by wealthy men that art can be as Educational as universities. No formal instruction in fine arts can offset the harm done to society and to students from such conditions as Beauty Making and Building 73 these : architectural monstrosities and incongruities ; unclean walks, yards, buildings, and rooms; defaced walls; unclean air in classrooms ; neglected toilet facilities ; abused shrubs, trees, and lawns ; inartistic photographs ; discordant colors ; inartistic and slovenly publications and programs; awk- ward handling of public occasions, such as assemblies, etc. ; disrespectful and unesthetic use of language by officers in charge of meetings ; unimaginative language in official pub- lications, such as catalogs and reports ; failure to bring out the beauty aspects of Greek or German literature, history, nature study, and Bible. Building " from hand to mouth " is profligate. Yet few colleges, needy as they are or think they are, have budgeted their building needs and resources say for ten or even five years ahead. Even repairs are in very few cases on an actuarial basis; instead of estimating a percentage for re- pairs — Miami estimates 2% — which if spent annually will keep buildings in repair, too many colleges put off repairing until the last hour. Of course they are always in disrepair and always too late to be economically repaired. Unless there is some other officer besides a regent or the president responsible for construction, maintenance, and repairs, this work will seldom be balanced, consistent, and provident. Apparently it is necessary to insure that some one person shall take a professional interest in this service. This is entirely compatible with a line of responsibility from building superintendent (a) to business manager, (b) to president, (c) to chairman of board's committee, (d) to board. 28. Academic Freedom There is no little concern felt throughout the country for the integrity of academic freedom. A number of alleged persecutions for expressing opinion have been investigated by the American Association of College Professors. The pendulum has swung so far in favor of freedom that there is more danger at present from academic license than from interference with academic freedom. Particularly is there 74 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities ianger of interference with academic trustees when trying :ven to find the minimum facts about the work and expendi- iures which they are sponsoring. It behooves every college to canvass its instructors and to secure a list of infractions or near infractions, or of con- ditions that invite infraction, of academic freedom. i. Do you know any college professor who wants and is able to teach something he is not allowed to teach ? In how many of these cases does the prohibition come from trustees rather than from faculty colleagues or college president? 2. If the university president and dean " put the kibosh " on a course in Socialism the year when the legislature meets, would you call this interference with academic freedom by the legislature ? 3. Who thinks that college instructors should be free from criticism for inefficiency, or even for clumsiness, tactlessness, indiscreet or confusion-causing speech? 4. Do you agree with a certain noted dean who says: " Our university insists upon academic freedom but we do not expect any instructor to act like a damn fool?" 5. Can a man be academically free who has no personal courage; who makes up his mind without evidence; who is so anxious for preferment that he suppresses opinion known not to be pleasing to his superior officer ; who is never asked to make suggestions ; who sees that college questions are dealt with on the basis of personalities? 6. What is interfering most with academic freedom in this country, — trustees, governors, legislatures, ad- ministrative officers, faculty sentiment, personal am- bition, lack of ambition, lack of personality, greed for preferment, distant educational leaders, educational foundations? Does not the press discussion of Co- lumbia's proposed investigation of faculty opinion in 19 1 7 prove that independence of speech is strongly buttressed even against trustees? Academic Freedom Tests 75 7. In how many colleges will it promote academic free- dom to have selection, preferment, promotion, or dismissal depend upon faculty action rather than upon administrative action or joint administrative and de- partmental action? Practically colleges will be troubled oftener and more sorely by what outsiders say or might say than by what faculty members wish to teach. Columbia University with- draws an invitation to Leo Tolstoy's son. The University of Wisconsin revokes a permit for a " Socialist " to address the students. Repression has made friends for Count Tol- stoy's " radicalism " and for " Socialism." A free rein might have frightened prospective donors or parents. Will colleges survey measurable results of local freedom and re- striction before formulating any other policy but untram- meled discussion? 29. Endowments, State Aids, and Salary Levels However active presidents may be in promoting cam- paigns for large endowments or large state aid, the trustees are responsible for the size of program to be financed. Pro- jection as well as conservation may legitimately be expected of the efficient trustee. If it has been easier to interest trus- tees in the need for new buildings, larger campuses, and addi- tions to program than in higher salary levels, it is only fair to trustees to recall that the need for higher salary levels has also been harder for educational leaders to see clearly. Harvard alumni are campaigning for a $10,000,000 en- dowment to increase salaries. Princeton is asking for $2,500,000 merely to maintain the teaching force at the present point of efficiency ; i.e., to meet partially the increased cost of living. This adds nothing to the actual salary level. Similar appeals are being made everywhere, but usually on the plea of meeting the increased living costs rather than of meeting the need for higher quality of service. Questions regarding salary levels are discussed on pages 172 ff. under Faculty Government, because the initial steps 76 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities in this campaign will be taken by instructors themselves. Proving that ssrvice is worth more is a legitimate duty of servers. Finding increased funds for better service is the unevadable duty of those served; i.e., regents and trustees representing the community. That salary levels for college instruction are not what they are — some say high, others say low — because of limited endowments is proved by the fact that our great state univer- sities and normal schools have unlimited endowments, i.e., the taxing power of rich commonwealths. When taxpayers see that college salaries should be higher, necessary funds will be voted. How shall private colleges meet this compe- tition from state universities? The assumption is that ad- ditional charges can be met only out of additional endow- ment. It is taken for granted that tuition charges are about as high as they can be. Charges for tuition and incidental fees need to be surveyed by trustees. In few instances are these charges fitted either to the value of the service or to :he ability of students to pay. Why sons of multimillionaires should pay one cent less than it costs to give them instruc- tion needs better explanation than that higher tuitions would make it impossible for many deserving young people to go to college. There are many evidences that no form of pau- perization does more harm to society than higher education's method of giving services that cost $2000 for tuitions of from $400 to $1000. Every graduate of Yale is the bene- ficiary of material relief equal to material relief given to 100 average families by city relief societies. These questions regents will profitably answer: 1. What is the total annual net cost? How much per student registered ? How much per student hour reg- istered ? 2. What is the net cost per register ? How much of this cost is met by endowments or by appropriation ? 3. How much remains each year to be met by special appeals ? 4. How much more would be needed to put instructors' Tapping Graduates' Unearned Increments 77 salaries on a level which would take care of the in- creased cost of living and recognize the value of the instructors' services after considering value of instruc- tors, working conditions including long vacations, op- portunities for research, etc.? 5. How much in addition to present receipts and endow- ments would be needed annually to put and keep the college on a business basis? 6. How much per full student course — e.g., 16 credits — ■ would this be ? 7. What reason is there for not requiring each student to pay this amount either in (a) cash in advance; (b) cash in installments during college course; (c) prom- issory note to be paid back out of future earnings ? 8. If temporarily there is insuperable objection — senti- mental, practical, or legal — against charging cost to those who most directly benefit from it, what objection is there to opening a fund for repayment and keeping the presence of this fund constantly before alumni as opportunity in all cases, and as duty in case where a student can afford to repay ? The last two questions have on several occasions been answered by the statement that higher education is con- ducted, not for the individual, but for the state, and that one man may through public service, a mechanical invention, or business efficiency repay the state a hundredfold for main- taining a university. Of course, it is just as obvious that a contributor to social welfare who has never gone to college is also worth more than the college has cost. It does not follow that a successful doctor or lawyer or minister should not definitely recognize his obligation or that private and state colleges should not provide for repayment. An enormous and continually growing endowment fund would result from such a plan. Because those who can afford to pay are required to pay is no reason why those who cannot afford to pay should not be exempted after recorded evidence of non-ability to pay. Investigation will 78 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities show that conspictious service to society is by no means synonymous with non-reward for such service ; i.e., with fi- nancial inability to pay back tuition costs. In considering the possibility of tremendously increasing college resources by tapping the unearned increments of col- lege graduates and former students, it should not be forgot- ten that elementary and high school graduates in every other respect except in ability to pay the equals, if not the su- periors, of those who go to college are doubly taxed, first, by being deprived of opportunity and secondly by having to help support their more fortunate fellows at college. Every scholarship fund has been convinced that something happens to the student when he makes a business pledge to pay back his loan for college expenses that seldom happens if those expenses are presented as a gift. Perhaps the stu- lent mortality would be lower and the character and scholar- ship product higher if every man or woman who goes to col- lege were made to feel that his way is being fully paid. Yale's alumni had up to 1916 given directly, — i.e., not :ounting parents' and friends' legacies, — $1,600,000 to the ifale University Fund Association which was organized ' so that no graduate need feel excluded from giving because \e could not afford to give largely." The handling of endowments is too often unimaginative. Because wildcat speculation is questionable financially and norally is no reason why colleges should hide their talents n a napkin or even in a savings bank. It is often much letter to spend an unrestricted legacy in doing some new service that will win new friends than to invest it at four or six per cent. To make investments in living students more jroductive than in savings-bank accounts requires that trus- ses be watchful in testing results. Experience proves that endowments are more apt to enervate and blind than to nvigorate, wherever trustees think of endowments as assets •ather than as obligations. Therefore it is important that :fustees have built up for them a cumulative list of services leeded, so that new endowments will mean more service •ather than less work for the same service. IV EXECUTIVE AND BUSINESS EFFICIENCY 30. Efficiency of Administration T N every college there are certain fields, processes, and jobs ■■■ that are called administrative. An imaginary line like the equator is drawn between administration and education. Faculties appreciate the necessity for administration but regret its frequent intrusions. Whatever any college group calls administration it will admit is subject to the same laws and tests that apply to administration elsewhere. Within this narrow field the principle of so-called scientific management will therefore be welcomed. Ostensibly the self-surveyor will find only whole-hearted cooperation when asking questions about the efficiency of routine college business. Actually it will be harder in many colleges to deal frankly with administrative processes than with educational processes, for the very rea- son that any shortcoming on the business side is without either plausible extenuation or scapegoat. Nevertheless, quick results will always follow a detailed survey or self- survey of college administration. Witness the notable ad- vances — so welcome after they are made — by new presi- dents and new deans. As in every other business, it pays to start the entering wedges with simple questions about which there is practically no difference of opinion in or out of college. 1. Is work done by hand which should be done by ma- chines? Y. .. N... ?... 2. Are circular letters typed several times when one typ- ing or mimeographing would suffice? Y . . . N . . . ? '. . . 3. Are important papers tied up in bundles for want of filing cases? Y. . . N... ?... 4. Is a stenographer employed who makes so many mis- takes and forgets so much that she reduces the ef- 79 80 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities ficiency of president, dean, and faculty, besides ac- tually costing more money than an efficient secretary? Y... N... f... 5. Is a person who asks the name of a professor sent a typewritten letter and a 200-page catalog? Y. . . N... ?... 6. Are college publications piled up and mailed without inventory or check ? Y. . . N... f... 7. Are supposedly self-supporting dormitories run at a heavy loss? Y... %... N... ?... 8. Is the bookkeeping obsolete? Y . . . N . . . ? . . . 9. Do buildings cost too much per cubic foot? Y . . . N... ?... 10. Is the college living and acting " from hand to mouth," without a budget? F. . . N... ?... So much has been written about scientific management ind business efficiency that it seems inadvisable for this handbook to restate for colleges all the earmarks of efficient landling of routine business. Instead only typical high spots will be discussed. The General Education Board, speaking from 13 years' jxperience with college appeals, mentioned the following line evidences that college management has been neglected : 1. Inaccurate financial statistics. 2. Incomplete financial statistics. 3. Improper bookkeeping. 4. Careless trusteeship, especially of permanent funds. 5. Lack of annual audit. 6. Misuse of financial terms. 7. Funds raised for endowment used to meet current ex- penses. 8. Educational and non-educational accounts kept with- out proper distinctions. 9. Cost for separate departments not kept separately. \. handbook on methods of correcting these weaknesses is jeing prepared by that board for free distribution. These two illustrations are from a city exhibit at Jackson, Michigan, prepared by a student in training for public service To compare college results will also train students Testing Administration 81 Numerous aids to the self-surveyor will be found in Rec- ord Aids in College Management, compiled of the best sug- gestions received from 54 colleges and universities by the Institute for Public Service, 51 Chambers Street, New York City. The standard for college management is as a rule set in the president's office. If this office is unbusinesslike, dila- tory, repetitious, sporadic, slovenly, inaccurate, evasive, for- getful, inconsistent, vindictive, partisan, prejudiced, inhos- pitable, or hectic, many or all of these attributes will be found in offices of business agents, deans, and department heads. Whether and how far any or all of these attributes are expressed in administration can be quickly learned. President McVey of North Dakota keeps a steering chart before him ; viz., a monthly summary showing how much has been spent for each activity thus far during the year and how much remains. A similar cumulative chart showing facts about students will keep the executive aware of spe- cial needs. President Godfrey of Drexel Institute reports to his board, probably as conservative as any in the world, via graphs. President Hughes of Miami has graphs show- ing whither recent rates of growth will bring the university in five and ten years. In many colleges the president is away so much that the tone-maker-in-chief may be either the dean who acts as president or the registrar. One test no surveyor except the president himself is apt to make; viz., the distribution of the president's year (see page 87). Yet this is one of the most important matters in college administration. Budgeting and recording the time distribution of the president and other administrative officers is quite as essential as budgeting and recording the expendi- tures of college funds. 31. Efficiency of College Executives Success as a college executive seems to be a foundling. Experience does not tell what kind of previous experience as student, teacher, or other worker best fits a man for col- 82 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities lege management. Preachers have succeeded; capitalists have succeeded; professors have succeeded. Representa- tives of each class have failed. It really matters little what in executive was if as an executive he " fills the bill." There is no safety for a college in any other test than the scientific-management test of an executive at work. Among the minimum evidences of prospective success which should be looked for in every college administrator ire these : i. An open mind. 2. An analytical mind. 3. Ability to learn from reading as well as from hearing. 4. Inability to prevaricate. 5. Ability to get results by cooperation as well as by direction; i.e., divine art of delegation. 6. Definite knowledge of secondary education through contact or supervision or both. 7. Belief in the utmost possible democracy in adminis- tration of higher education. 8. Five years as supervisor and adviser of others' work. [n addition to applying minimum essential tests for every :andidate for an administrative position in higher education, :ompetition and self-surveys will undoubtedly lead colleges to look for qualifications beyond minimum essentials which will recognize degrees and qualities of experience and attain- ment. These questions need thorough consideration : 1. What educational qualifications should a college presi- dent have? 2. What previous experience should he have ? 3. What personal qualities should he have? 4. Are qualifications the same for all presidents or do qualifications differ with each institution? 5. Should the work to be done be clearly formulated before qualifications are enumerated? 6. Should qualifications be listed and each candidate Qualifications of College Presidents 83 compared with this list, or should trustees be guided by their general impressions? 7. Where general impressions rather than definite speci- fications are used, is there a probability that different regents will have entirely different qualifications in mind? Or emphasize different qualifications? 8. Is there any danger that strong candidates will be placed at a disadvantage by substituting definite for general tests of fitness? 9. Should a college president be a highly educated man ? 10. Need he be an effective public speaker? 11. How important is the ability to get money from leg- islators or from private sources? 12. Should the president be a good mixer with his fac- ulty? 13. Should the president be a specialist? 14. For your own college would you concede that the following are minimum essentials, lacking any one of which no person would be eligible to the presidency ? a. A college graduate. b. Ten years, after graduation, of experience in the relation of teacher, whether in school or profession or business. c. Five years' experience as supervisor and tester of others' work. d. Forceful personality. e. Pleasing voice. f. Directness. g. Intellectual independence. h. Facility in and love for contact with faculty and student. i. Belief in utmost possible democracy in the ad- ministration of higher education. j. Definite knowledge of secondary education through contact and supervision. 15. How would you distribute 100 points among the fol- lowing qualifications beyond the minimum essentials either in degree or in kind ? 84 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities a. Postgraduate work, master's degree, doctor's degree, or equivalent. b. Successful specialization in research. c. Popular recognition for scholarship. d. Ability as public speaker. e. Reputation as public speaker. f. Ability to secure funds from legislators or private sources. g. Additional allowance for each twenty persons supervised. h. Additional allowance for each college or school successfully supervised. A university president upon request for his view regard- ing the selection of president made the following statement : " I find myself pretty much in agreement with what you say, but I do not agree with the proposal to limit executive service to five or seven years. I find some of the most efficient men to be those who have been in of- fice a considerable length of time. A man in a uni- versity executive office can't learn the problems in less than three years, and his greatest usefulness comes after that. To make a bald statement of limit on serv- ice without qualifications is to give over your usual at- titude of fairness. The job is too difficult and too straining to make it worth while to get ready for it on the basis you propose. In my opinion what is needed is greater permanency of position and greater careful- ness on the part of trustees in the selection of men. " As near as one can get at it, through an analysis of the selections made by boards of trustees in the last five years for executive posts in universities, the bases of selection can be placed in the following order : i. Appearance and poise in public gatherings. 2. Ability to speak. 3. Personality. 4. Orthodoxy of views, ethical and economic. Questions or Notes 85 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 86 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 5. Executive ability. 6. Executive experience. 7. Educational experience. 8. Knowledge of educational systems and methods. " A more reasonable basis would appear to be 1. Knowledge of and experience in secondary edu- cation. 2. Knowledge of and experience in college and uni- versity education. 3. Personality. 4. Love and appreciation of democracy and what it stands for in education. 5. Experience and training as an executive. 6. Ability as a speaker." Dean and department head may be substituted for presi- dent in most of the questions regarding executives. To- day's dean is to-morrow's president. To the overwhelm- ing majority of students and faculty members the dean is in loco presidentis. Whether deans possess the above eight minimum essentials and the qualities in questions 14 and 15 each dean will want to know for himself and each trustee will wisely ask. Double representation is expected of deans and depart- ment heads — they represent their faculties but also repre- sent the management. It is very difficult to reflect and con- duct light — both ways at one time and impartially. What- ever else these representative-executives do, they must " get along with " their superior officers. Tests of their efficiency in representing the management are the same as those for other executives. The main problem concerns their repre- sentation of their own faculties : I. Are deans selected by presidents, ... by trustees with- out presidential nomination, ... or by college facul- ties . . . ? Are they selected for ability as executives ... or as representative spokesmen . . . ? For their leadership ... or their lickspittling . . . ? Deans and Department Heads 87 2. Are deans responsible to trustees directly ... or only through the president . . . ? 3. In what respects may deans speak for their faculties without first referring to faculty vote? 4. Has the faculty right of recall over its deans ? Y. . . N... 5. Where matters are common to all faculties or di- visions, do faculties deal with president and trustees through deans, . . . , or through a single representative of the president, . . ., e.g., health director or dean of women ? It is absence of such questioning which has produced the condition referred to by a college professor who is cele- brated for his contributions to educational administration: " So many of these college leaders impress me as having been ruined by executive and platform work. They never read and have done no thinking for many years." The recent election of H. C. Bumpus to Tufts' presidency and of Marion L. Burton to Minnesota's presidency are in- dications that proved administrative competence will come to vie with platform competence as a qualification for promo- tion in academic management. 32. President's Working Year as President Without questioning here the use made by any president of any part of his time, it is suggested that the work of all other persons for the college will be more effective if each college president will self-survey one year's time distri- bution under the following heads: 1. To educational leadership. a. Exclusively in the interest of his college. b. In the interest of other college agencies, per- sonal aggrandizement, or general uplift. 2. To educational spokesmanship. a. Exclusively in the interest of his college. 88 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities b. In the interest of other agencies, personal ag- grandizement, or general uplift. 3. To general educational advertising. a. Exclusively in the interest of his college. b. In the interest of other agencies, personal ag- grandizement, or general uplift. 4. To being in evidence at conventions and other public meetings. a. Exclusively in the interest of his college. b. In the interest of other agencies, personal ag- grandizement, or general uplift. 5. To educational begging. 6. To educational vacationing. 7. To personal conferences. a. With trustees. b. With faculty, committees, etc. c. With students. d. With others, such as legislators, visitors, etc. 8. To observing instruction, research, field tests, etc. 9. To administrative work. a. In his own office. b. At official meetings. c. At business meetings with trustees, commit- tees, etc. d. At faculty meetings. e. In other parts of the college. 10. To just being president. Another group of facts will help each president survey his jwn opportunities; viz., time given as president or as scholar ind man to personal study; recreation, including social inter- :ourse ; business and family affairs ; etc. The heading " Administrative Work " needs to be broken ip into elements and questions : 1. How much does the president do which a clerk or other officer might better be doing? 2. Does the president act as a messenger when a 2-cent stamp or messenger would do as well ? Y . . . N . . . President's Preparedness 89 3. Does he insist upon having everything come to him in writing which can be satisfactorily and economi- cally stated . . . , or does he permit people to take up his time telling him what does not belong to him or what could be briefly written or typed . . . ? 4. Has he a current record of unfinished business re- quiring his attention? Y . . . N . . . ? . . . 5. How promptly does he know facts about registra- tion, space assignments, expenses? 6. Does information come to him summarized so that he can see at a glance what it means, . . . , or must he spend his time analyzing statements to dig out their meaning, ..., i.e., are the subtractions, additions, percentages, significant facts, and recommendations prepared to conserve his energy for consideration and discussion ? Y . . . N . . . ? . . . 7. Is record made of his promises? Y. . . N... 8. Has he invited suggestions and criticisms Y . . . N. . . ? . . . and provided for their prompt consid- eration and reference by appropriate officers ? Y . . . N... ?. .. 9. Is he carrier ... or carried . . . ? 10. Is he reached by evidence ... or by stratagem . ... ? 33. First Faculty Meeting Each Year One of the best tests of college business, particularly of the president's part in administration, is what happens at the first faculty meeting of the year. The opportunity is often partially or entirely lost by presidents and deans for the following reasons : 1. Its importance has not been appreciated — no special preparation is made ; unpreparedness is the dominant note ; standing committees are not ready to report ; the president is not ready to appoint future standing com- mittees; machinery creaks. 2. Last year's results and conditions have not been sum- marized in advance and studied for presentation at this first meeting. 9° Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 3. This year's problems, needs, and opportunities have not been thought out, listed, and explained. 4. The reciprocal relations of faculty with president and of faculty with faculty have not been denned so as to make the president seem an integral part of each man's best work; therefore he speaks as stranger to stranger. 5. The student's part in the college program is under- emphasized or too indefinitely treated. 6. Little, if any, part in this first meeting is taken by the faculty itself — in preparing for it, in contributing to it. 7. The president threshes over old straw. 8. The president talks about inspiration without seeing that only team work can be inspirational and that what fails to inspire team work tends to disintegrate. 9. Too many members stay away, — the chilling effect is not decreased where the meeting room is known to be too small for all faculty members. Non-attend- ance is taken to mean, and does mean, non-interest. 10. The president has been too little in evidence prior to the meeting; too few officers and members are con- scious when they come of being in step with him and with one another. 11. The meeting comes too late in the session. Too many bad beginnings have been made. Registration has been without spirit. Advisers have not enjoyed their work. Preparatory meetings of advisers have not been held. Students have not yet met together. 12. Educational problems common to all are sidetracked by so-called business which never ought to be brought before a whole faculty and could be attended to by mimeographed summaries. The minutes of the last meeting of the year before are read instead of a sum- mary of the year's lessons. Perhaps details of dis- cipline cases already settled are laboriously read aloud, thus furnishing an anticlimax. Presidential Reports Are Symptoms 91 In a particular college to be surveyed the minutes of this first meeting for one or several years may be profitably read and a meeting attended. If the surveyor is the president himself, it will be easy to check back, — or check forward, — to compare what he has done with what might be done. 34. President's Report — Opportunity and Index Presidential and other official reports are apt not to be included in special surveys; yet they contain invaluable in- dexes to opportunities for increasing efficiency. The date on most college reports is itself an index to serious need. With few exceptions the report comes too late for use in planning the succeeding year's work. In other words, the report is regarded as a record and not as a guide and inspiration. Questions that the self-surveyor will ask include these : 1. Does the president's report bear evidence of current analysis during the previous year? Y... N... 2. Does it show analysis of last year's summaries? Y... N... 3. Are lessons from last year condensed and applied to next year's opportunities ? Y . . . N . . . 4. Will those who furnish money and students find the report readable ? Y . . . N . . . Does it come out in sections; i.e., readable doses, . . ., or in an appalling volume . . . ? 5. Does it deal as frankly with mistakes made, short- comings discovered, and needs recognized as it does with increased numbers and need for gifts? Y. . . N... ?... 6. What evidence does it bear that the president has been studying general educational questions, includ- ing the experience of other colleges and of secondary and elementary schools? 7. What evidence is there that the president and staff have been analyzing the communities which their col- lege principally serves ? 9 2 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 8. Is the report one which will help other educators deal definitely with important problems? Y... N... The facts conveyed in a president's report are more im- portant than his interpretation. For some time to come surveyors will helpfully compare reports with certain min- imum essentials that are needed to describe the work of any college, so that trustees, faculty, and other colleges may have a basis for independent judgment regarding its stewardship. With few exceptions minimum essentials should be stated for at least two periods — the year reviewed and the preceding year. Oftentimes the fifth year preceding or the tenth should be given, in order to disclose tendencies. Wherever more than one year is compared, it will help read- srs of reports if instead of printing facts for the earlier pears only the difference between each year and the year re- viewed be stated both in amounts and percentages. Seldom does a report's audience make the subtractions necessary to understand a comparison. What item in the following tentative list of minimum essentials is unnecessary for the purpose of either comparing i president's work with his opportunities, or comparing one :ollege with another ? Student facts i. Total number of students registered in all depart- ments. a. In full courses. b. In medium courses. c. In short courses. 2. Equivalent of full-course students. President Pritch- ett of the Carnegie Foundation once wrote to a uni- versity president that the latter's method of counting short-course students the same as long-course stu- dents reminded him of a Kansas farmer who bought a farm with " thirty head of stock." Upon analysis the thirty were found to be two horses, one cow, a pig, and twenty-six hens! Minimum Essentials for Annual Reports 93 3. The number of students registered in the first semes- ter only. 4. Number registered in the second semester only. President Bumpus of Tufts College when business manager at Wisconsin showed that fifteen per cent ought to be subtracted from the usual total to allow for those registering only one semester. 5. Number dropping out during the first semester. 6. Number dropping out at the end of the first semester. 7. Number dropping out during the second semester. 8. Comparison of present number of sophomore, jun- ior, and senior classes with their freshmen enroll- ment, showing numbers that have subsequently en- rolled and those that have dropped out. These fig- ures are always available and raise helpful questions about the holding power of the college and each di- vision. 9. Reasons for dropping out. Whether dropping out is justifiable is not the question. Until it is stated how many drop out, the reasons will not be properly studied and higher education's responsibility cannot be determined. 10. Summary of what was done to anticipate or to pre- vent dropping out. 11. Number taking more or less than full work to be stated in hours of work, — twenty or over, eighteen, nineteen, sixteen to seventeen, fourteen to fifteen, twelve to thirteen, ten to eleven, six to nine, five and less. Whether thinking of cost, responsibility, or in- fluence, a student registering for six or twelve hours ought not to count the same as one registering for fourteen or eighteen hours. Publishing facts for each year will show how many exceptions there are to the rule that every student must take at least four- teen to sixteen hours. 12. Equivalent of full-time-course registrations. 13. Number receiving credits as per analysis under item 11. While it is true that it costs as much to work 94 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities with a student who fails as with one who passes, it should be possible to compare registrations with cred- its. For college managers it is important to com- pare not merely totals but registrations with credits among those who take ten hours, eighteen hours, etc. 14. Equivalent of full credits received. When compared with the full credits registered for, this will show a difference that will require examination by deans and president and perhaps by regents. 15. Number of students who fail in one, two, five sub- jects ; in two, three, five, ten credits. 16. Total number of failures. Here one student failing in three subjects would be counted as three failures and would be reason for three different investiga- tions. 17. Reasons for failures, classified. 18. Summary of what was done to anticipate and to pre- vent failures, with facts about grades and honors. Instructor facts 19. Number of instructors by rank who meet classes in recitation, quiz, lecture, or laboratory five or fewer hours weekly; six hours; seven hours; eight hours; nine to ten hours ; eleven to twelve ; thirteen to four- teen; etc. This information will be welcomed by the faculty and will help secure the money necessary to prevent overburdening younger faculty members. 20. Number of new instructors of each rank, with brief summary of previous educational and teaching experi- ence. 21. Total number of instructors by rank. 22. Total number of credits earned by students for each rank of instructor. Use-of-space facts 23. Number of rooms classified according to use — reci- tation, laboratory, lecture, department office, show- ing number of hours used — one to five ; six to ten ; Minimum Essentials for Annual Reports 95 eleven to fifteen, etc., per week; similar description of other properties used, partially used, not used. Money facts 24. Financial report which will give all the information called for by the Carnegie Foundation's uniform plan. 25. Add to the Carnegie Foundation's plan total accruals, — money owed and not yet paid, moneys due from others and not yet received. Goods used this year but paid for in preceding years should be charged against this year. Goods paid for during the year but not used should be subtracted in statement of cost and later charged to the year when used. This applies to fuel, supplies, printing, insurance, and to services as well as goods. Finally include a charge for each year's share of permanent plant — interest if buildings are paid for, installments if payments are made during the year, plus a proper charge for de- preciation. 26. Cost — gross and net — per credits registered for. 27. Cost — gross and net — for credits received. 28. Cost — gross and net — for equivalent of students re- ceiving full credits. Gross cost means total amount of money spent in giving quantity and quality of service reported upon, regardless of where the money comes from. This is the most useful comparison of college with college. Net cost is a misnomer im- properly applied by colleges to net outlay above re- ceipts from students, taxpayers, donors, and invest- ments — it really means net deficit. Miscellaneous facts 29. Number of classes and number of instructors visited by president and deans. 30. Advance steps taken — educational and administra- tive. 31. Principal lessons learned. 32. Experiments or studies under way. 96 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 33. Needs disclosed. 34. Questions raised and not yet answered. 35. Recommendations for the future. 35. Method of Appealing and Publicity Seldom will outside surveyors be asked to report upon the appeals and publicity by which a college secures moral and financial support. Wherever a publicly supported in- stitution is studied this topic cannot, in fairness to tax- payers and students, be neglected. Self-surveyors will find many opportunities here to be of prompt and provable help to their college. During one year it was my privilege to receive many visits and written appeals in behalf of colleges. For colleges and schools requests for $55,000,000 were reviewed. Since then I have read numerous appeals and every published re- port I could obtain. The most striking fact about this col- lege publicity, particularly college appealing, is its indefinite- ness and its amateurishness. In cases where foundation dis- cipline has compelled definiteness as to dollars, there often remains indefiniteness as to service, and an appalling ab- sence of reason for giving to the particular institution which appeals. How those of us who studied these appeals felt at the time is explained by the following excerpts from Modern Philanthropy: They are right who suggest to the wealthy that unlimited service can be rendered if only funds are provided. One year apart two appeals came from the same institution. The first reflected incompetence, misunderstanding, and misstatements: The second mentioned gifts of from $5000 to $25,000 from some of the best-known men and women in the country. Thus, with no change whatever on the inside, the in- competent of yesterday becomes the potential competent and influential of today. Appeals for colleges show colleges not only as they Eight weeks in real library work Wisconsin Library School Learning to serve by serving Wisconsin Library School Proof of vital work is the best publicity Appealing and Publicity 97 see themselves but as they do their best to make others see them. Perhaps this is why on the whole appealing technique is less efficient, frankness less flagrant, and definiteness less frequent than the college halo would lead one to expect. The next generation goes to col- lege ; the present generation pays its bills ; but the last generation makes the bequests, gives the endowments, and erects the buildings, — at least if the wording of appeals is a true index. Conditions of survival en- courage and tempt those who write appeals for edu- cational institutions to use the general language of motive and message rather than the specifics of present- day relations. The present syllogism reads : " Col- leges give education. Education is salvation. Who helps me gives salvation, democracy, and freedom." Speaking from a more extensive experience as receiver of begging letters, President Pritchett of the Carnegie Foun- dation wrote to us of them as follows : " Many institutions I regret to say put forth claims which are wholly fictitious and yet which are put into so alluring a form as to invite public sympathy and support. In most cases this is not done from any in- tention to deceive but generally from lack of knowl- edge of the real educational situation. The chance of doing harm is much greater than the chance of doing good unless the giver knows." For whatever field appeals are made, the uninformed and unquestioning giver fosters, as by spontaneous combus- tion, uninforming, insincere, exaggerated appeals. Also, whether we speak of private colleges or state universities, the questioning public which uses its information and seeks more information will secure analyzed, classified, inform- ing statements from colleges wishing support. Mr. A. B. Blank, Professor of Ethics, Blank University, sent in his card. Questioning developed the fact that he had never seen this university; that he therefore taught no 98 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities classes ; and that the title professor was given him to make it easier to secure access to possible givers. When asked for reasons why money should be given to his college rather than to fifty others, it developed that this itinerant appealer had no specific reason whatever except that the college needed the money and that he had been told by his presi- dent that a public man, now dead, had told the president that if this man had not died he would have been interested in that college because one of his railroads ran by it! Reasons given by state universities for extensions of serv- ice or salary increases are often quite as unconvincing and not infrequently have been as unfair to their institutions. In Modern Philanthropy I listed strong and weak points in appealing and publicity as gathered from 6000 letters of appeal and ten years' study of publicity matter. Self -sur- veyors may find it useful to check local practices against these strong and weak points. Three standards of commercial advertising should be ap- plied to college appealing and advertising : 1. Is it where people will see it? 2. Is it written so that people will read it ? 3. Does it tell the truth so that people will believe it? Perhaps the most important single test is whether pub- licity matter features concrete facts. The reasons for edu- cation have been stated over and over again; so have the reasons for the existence of a particular institution. Con- stituents upon whom a college has a claim need to be told, not ancient history, not educational philosophy, but specific needs-not-yet-met and the cost of meeting these needs. 1. How much publicity is paid for each year? 2. Does the paid-for publicity take the form of paid advertisements, bulletins, or other printed matter, or is publicity achieved by paying for work which will occasion comment in magazine and newspaper? 3. Are clippings kept to show publicity received ? Y ... N... ?... Are they analyzed to show how much Surveying Publicity Methods 99 direct publicity affects the college constituency and how much is so far away as to benefit it indirectly if at all? Y... N... ?... 4. Whose business is it to read carefully all publicity matter; to secure corrections of misstatements; to take advantage of opportunities to give information? 5. How many instructors or officers are retained pri- marily for their publicity value? Is there a paid publicity agent? Y. . . N... f... 6. Are modern publicity standards observed in prepar- ing the catalog, annual reports, and other formal statements? Y. . . N... ?... 7. Are students of English and journalism given train- ing via preparation of college publicity for local papers Y . . . N. . . ? . . . ; for their home papers Y. . . N. . . ?.,.', for magazines and for college publications? Y... N... ?... 8. Is the mailing list carefully classified according to the different interests and receptivities of each constitu- ency? Y... N... ?... 9. Is free publicity obtained by sending news to state papers, educational journals, and the college page (Saturdays) of the New York Evening Postf Y... N ... ?. . . A commendable advertising program was carried out by Adelphi College in 19 12. First it learned for itself the total number of girls in Brooklyn and Queens who were eligible for higher education. Then it compared the per- centage of eligibles in Manhattan, where colleges are ac- cessible, with the percentage in Brooklyn and Queens, where adequate college facilities were not accessible. Having got- ten together facts about possible registration, girls denied college opportunity, cost, etc., Adelphi put out these state- ments, one at a time, to a selected mailing list. It used postal cards instead of pamphlets. Its postal cards could be quickly read. Not too much was written at a time for understanding and retention. Brooklyn newspapers printed these items as news and commended them editori- ally. ioo Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Perhaps the best illustration of effective appealing was that by President Harper for the University of Chicago. At convocations he never failed to tell two sets of facts and he never failed to make these facts concrete. First, he listed advance steps taken by this new university. Sec- ondly, he listed, so that auditors and readers could not dodge them, several opportunities at hand for taking next steps that required additional money. He would describe the need for a science hall, tell a place on the campus where it ought to go, and close his appeal with words charged with humor and emotion : " Will not some kind friend fill in this unsightly gap ? " Advice given to public-service corporations by a "con- sulting explainer," Mr. Ivy L. Lee, contains trenchant sug- gestions and cautions for colleges: An elementary requi- site of any sound publicity must be the giving of the best possible service. . . . Sound publicity involves the adop- tion of an attitude of citizenship. . . . The being and doing are far more than the saying. 36. Analyzing College Constituency Occasionally a president is found who has analyzed the constituency from which his college may reasonably expect students and funds according to the laws of scientific ex- amination. Too generally " all people look alike " to colleges, a pos- sible donor just like a probable donor, and an improbable student just like a probable student. The consequence is that energy is wasted in trying to interest those who are not legitimate constituents and opportunity is wasted to en- list those who " rightfully belong." All persons living within 100 miles of the only college in their territory are natural constituents of a college. Every other college that enters that territory by even ten miles also makes inroads upon the reasonable constituency of stu- dents and donors. Even when a college is alone in a ter- ritory, it must recognize that many of its natural consti- tuents are also natural constituents of other colleges. Questions or Notes 101 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 102 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Analysis of the religious, professional, and personal ele- ments of a territory which is the geographical constituent to a college is the beginning of intelligent and frugal adver- tising. Whether catalogs are well placed or misplaced; whether high-school teachers and pupils have repeated rea- son to know of facilities offered by the college surveyed; whether neighbors with funds and interest to give are kept informed and interested, are questions which surveys can easily answer. Every alumnus is a constituent, whether he has children or not. Every sectarian preparatory school is a constitu- ent: first of a sectarian school of the same denomination; secondly of competing sectarian colleges; finally of non- sectarian and public colleges. Because ministers and school superintendents for 200 miles around are apt to know all boys and girls who are the subject of special worry by parents, it behooves every college which can offer special attention — e.g., supervised study — to such boys and girls to be sure that its offerings are understood by pastors and superintendents and high-school principals. Who and where are our natural constituents? What have we done to understand them ? What have we done to have them understand us ? 27- Method of Meeting Criticism Once I collected clippings of editorials and news com- ments upon a proposal of great potential consequence to education. Surprised at the predominance of criticism, I went to the persons involved with suggestions for meeting misinformation with facts and facts with remedy. When I saw that their own clipping service had preserved only favorable comments, I gave up hope of using my evidence, and never exhibited my tabulation which showed that eight out of ten editorials were hostile. Many colleges keep only favorable comments. Yet one unfavorable criticism is more important for Tomorrow than a dozen bouquets. Within the family it is worth while asking how the col- Meeting Criticism — Pique or Fact? 103 lege meets criticism. Does it frankly admit error where error exists, or does it equivocate and argue and confuse the issue ? When trustees ask for reports upon criticisms from within or without the faculty, do officers or faculty com- mittees present all the facts impersonally and draw conclu- sions which square with the facts? Every time that a college employs what in military tactics is called divertissement, it loses an opportunity to make and hold friends. In addition it loses spiritual momentum be- cause the divertissement operates forever after to reduce capacity to create and maintain friendship and support for the college. Tax-supported colleges least of all can afford to leave unsurveyed their method of meeting criticisms. 38. Statistical Organization What information a college will secure depends largely upon the ease with which information may be secured. This in turn depends largely upon the extent to which the central office relieves the instructional force of responsi- bility for statistics and reports. How far and in what ways the central office of any college is making it easy for instructors to supply and use information can be found best by surveying the statistical organization and central-office methods. Among essentials of a proper statistical organization are these : 1. The central office will ask instructors for no informa- tion which the central office might have at hand. 2. It will not ask for several writings of the same fact ; i.e., it will keep cumulative records. 3. It will reduce to a minimum the writing that must be done ; i.e., it will print on a card all known alter- natives including different degrees (as on the per- sonality chart, page 257), so that a faculty member or other officer can with the fewest possible marks supply the requested information. 4. It will do the checking, adding, etc., centrally ; and to 104 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities reduce the number of omissions and mistakes will furnish space for totals up and down and from left to right by which reporters may check their own results. 5. The results of inquiries will be furnished promptly to reporters, so that they will think about statistical work as a means of lightening their labors. 6. There will be ample files of a modern kind, self-in- dexing, with dead files for reducing the number of cards or papers to be handled. 7. There will be a mimeographing machine, so that one typing will suffice and the type matter be clear. 8. For all routine matters there will be printed or typed forms that will reduce clerical work to a minimum. 9. Files and indexes and supplies will be placed with a view to economizing energy and time necessary to use them. 10. There will be plenty of clerical workers necessary for prompt analysis of returns, — an excellent op- portunity for training students. 11. There will be adding machines, computing scales, billing machines, window envelopes; large universi- ties will find it profitable to have tabulating machines, and perhaps addressographs, and addressing and stamping machines. 12. Approved practices, helpful hints, and false-syntax lists of practices to be avoided will be codified and circulated for the purpose of giving to all collabora- tors the methods of the most efficient collaborator. 39. Elimination of Students For every college a cumulative record is needed to show students eliminated : 1. From applicants for admission. 2. From freshmen each semester. 3. From each other class, each semester. 4. From applicants for each advanced degree. Study of Dropping Out 105 Harvard's record shows courses and half courses taken one or two semesters. In addition to numbers eliminated two sets of reasons for elimination are needed : 1. Reasons assigned by instructors. 2. Reasons assigned by students. Finally, eliminations should again be grouped to distinguish 1. Those due to college initiative. 2. Those due to student initiative. 3. Those due to parents' — i.e., outside — initiative. If such records exist, surveyors will test the use made of them for testing college policy and method. Too much shame or pique is felt by many colleges be- cause of elimination. Too seldom is it recognized that those who " drop out " may be among the chief assets. Unanalyzed shame is just as unproductive as unanalyzed self-praise. More effort to learn and test reasons for elim- ination will lead to many helpful specific discoveries. A general request to students will bring general and often evasive answers. Specific requests bring specific answers. Carnegie Institute of Technology makes it easy to be spe- cific by listing on its printed form the following possible reasons and leaving space for others: Finances. Removal from city. Ill health of self. Overtime work. Ill health in family. Change of position. Dropped for scholarship. Course unsuited to needs. Dropped for conduct. President H. W. Hurt of McKendree writes a personal letter to students who fail to return which closes: Write me frankly today about this vital matter and I shall treat your letter as confidential if you so desire. For involuntary withdrawals self-study by the college is needed : 1. Has the college done its best to save this tuition io6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities payer? How much does it lose each year in tui- tions ? 2. How much does it waste each year on students who ought not to have been admitted ? 3. How has it studied the drain upon successful stu- dents and upon faculty of those who fail and the almost- failed ? 4. Is there supervised study (as at Miami) for those who show they need it? Y . . . N. . . ? . . . 5. Are first-semester failures given another chance under special investigation for causes and required to take supervised study without credit (as proposed for Northwestern, page 284) ? Y... N... ?... 6. Are students involuntarily eliminated given timely and specific warning? Y . . . N . . . ? . . . What? With what other help than warning? 7. What method is used to test the instructor's reasons ? 8. How are " dropped out " students followed up and the college investment realized upon? Do records show which went to other colleges and which treasure their college memories and training? Y . . . N. . . ?. . . 40. The Business Manager Is there a business manager? is the first question. The second is, If there is a business manager, is it the president, an instructor, or a full-time business agent? The third question is, To whom is the business manager responsible — the president or board of trustees or both ? In testing the efficiency of a manager the determining questions are those which relate to results. A business manager may have a charming personality and executive ability, and may be employing methods which on paper in- dicate efficiency, and still his results be unsatisfactory. Seldom will a self-survey or other survey be able to make a thoroughgoing study of management results. They can, however, take sample results as to promptness, prices, plan- ning, etc. They can make thorough studies of methods and Questions or Notes 107 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 108 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities procedure. If coal is bought by the ton rather than by the heat units, it is not necessary to ask a number of questions as to waste of money. If the weights of coal bought by the ton are not checked, it is not necessary to prove that the college is the loser. If the business agent is without power to prescribe the blanks on which educational officers make requisitions for supplies, it is not necessary to prove that time is wasted, inadequate investigations made, and busi- ness irregularities fostered. Details as to the manager's procedure are taken up under separate headings. Further questions are asked here as to the manager's relation to the rest of the college : 1. What is his social status? What has been his ex- perience in education? 2. Does he start with a picture of classroom needs? Does he consider his work educational? 3. What educational use is made of the business man- ager's office by students of economics, commerce, etc. ? 4. Where students are employed in college business, is it desirable to rotate their employment so that their business training shall be as thorough as possible? Y. .. N . .. f. . . 5. Is there as much reason for having a business doc- tor examine the business management of an educa- tional institution as for having a dentist examine an individual's teeth? Y. . . N... ?... 6. Is there an outside audit of accounts? Y. . . N... Is the auditor's report printed? Y. . . N... ?... What does it include beyond the ques- tion of honesty and accuracy of financial accounts? Y N ? 7. Should the business manager be held responsible for auditing the accuracy of non-financial statements af- fecting the college, including all official statements as to quantity and character of work done? Y... Business as Clinical Material 109 8. Would it promote scholarship if the business office were held responsible for reviewing the basis and character of marks given to papers; the nature of supervision given to graduate work; the analysis given to theses? Y... AT... f . . . 9. Would it be well to arrange for suggestions from each teacher as well as from alumni as to methods by which dollar facts may be compared with work facts? Y... N... ?... 10. Would a committee of alumni be willing to review business methods? Y. . . N... ?. . . 11. Would the business management of your college serve as a model for graduates going into business or a profession which presumes ability to analyze business? Y. . . N... ?... 12. Is there as much reason for having a college con- ducted as a laboratory of business efficiency as for having its classroom work a model for future teachers? Y... N... ?... 13. Should any student be given a degree from an Amer- ican college who is not familiar with the elementary principles of efficient business, of the science of or- ganization, procedure, and method, which has come to be known as " scientific management " ? Is there any walk in life where a man cannot see straighter; think more precisely and logically ; read more intelli- gently with than without a knowledge of the reasons and facts of proper business procedure? In other words, can college management everywhere be used for teaching purposes with the triple result of giving instruction; giving serviceable employment; and pre- venting waste ? Y . . . N . . . ? . . . Regarding one question there is much difference of opin- ion, i.e., whether a business agent should be responsible to the president, or to the board of trustees, or to both. This same question is puzzling city boards of education. The superintendent's deputies in Boston strongly protest i io Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities against a business manager accountable to the city superin- tendent. Their protest is criticized in American School by Editor Pearse, president of Milwaukee Normal School, who had several years' experience in Milwaukee public schools with a business manager accountable directly to the board. Denver and Minneapolis have their superintendents respon- sible for business management, with an officer called busi- ness manager responsible to them. New York City is de- bating in November, 1916, a separate business manager to be accountable to the board as advised by one survey report and objected to by another survey report. At the Uni- versity of Wisconsin the business manager is responsible to the board and the president; at Miami, to the president. For any particular college it is more important to learn first what the facts are than to worry about the ideal or- ganization. Both size and ownership affect the decision. In a small or even a large privately supported college the trustees look to the president for policy and information. They will undoubtedly continue to prefer to deal only with the president. In state-supported institutions, especially large institutions, the situation is different. Their regents are acting for the public. Numerous difficulties arise as to the amount of money needed and as to disposition of money expended. In spite of theoretical objections to having co- ordinating officers responsible to the board of regents, it is probable that for some time to come the regents will wish an independent review from the standpoint of money avail- able or of so-called business efficiency, of all proposals and reports that come to them from the educational side. For a long time to come presidents will do their best to repre- sent their faculties in dealing with trustees. They, too, will welcome an efficient business manager who has no di- rect connection with the faculty and who therefore will act as a reminder of their accountability to the public. For states having central boards of education the prob- lem is solved, because no president will expect to be a su- perior to a business manager who represents a whole system of which the president is but a part. Business Manager and President 1 1 1 Where there is a separate business manager accountable to the trustees it is of the utmost importance for self-sur- veys to ascertain whether the procedure adopted by the trustees for the president and business manager is such as to eliminate probability of friction and minimize its pos- sibility. For example: i. Does each officer work in the open with trustees ; i.e., is it made impossible for one to " short circuit " the other without discovery? Y. . . N... ?... 2. Are the recommendations of each formally recorded, with reasons for their recommendations? Y. . . N... ?... 3. Is the budget so made that the frankest and fullest suggestions are drawn from the faculty and presi- dent? Y... N... ?... 4. Must the business manager submit to the president all communications to the faculty as to business pro- cedure, in order that the president's educational ex- perience and judgment may be reflected as well as the business manager's? Y . . . N . . . ? . . . 5. Does current practice encourage faculty members and president to initiate suggestions or criticisms regard- ing college business? Y. . . N. . . t . . . Where there is a separate business manager, it should be possible at a minimum of expense to organize the clearing house for information referred to later as a division of ref- erence and research. 41. Division of Reference and Research The only thing " under the heavens, on earth, or in the waters which encompass the earth " that American colleges have not as yet felt it incumbent upon them to study is the college itself. Is it any one's business in your college to study the college; how its work compares with that of other colleges; what if any gap there is between plan and performance? ii2 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities After surveys are made faculties and students will ask more, not fewer, questions; will make more, not fewer, criticisms and constructive suggestions. Can waste of faculty insight be prevented? The only way to reservoir, conserve, and use it is to establish a reservoir and provide channels of ingress and egress. _ This can be done by a clearing house, whether called division of reference and research, or clearing house, or what not. Every college purchases every year books and magazines and receives catalogs and reports from other colleges. In addition faculty members and officers privately subscribe to magazines and professional journals, and exchange ex- periences with colleagues in other colleges. Because no one place or person has been designated as a " hopper " or " reservoir " or " clearing house " to receive suggestions, it has not been worth while saving and passing on to others the facts, questions, suggestions, or criticisms which come with printed matter, verbal exchange, and experience. Few of us want to be called " Mr. Fixit." Many smaller colleges cannot yet afford to pay a person to give time exclusively to " clearing " information and making studies. No small college, however, is without the faculty members who would gladly be detailed to this task. Spectrum-ing Facts and Suggestions 1 1 3 A short study will show for every college the need for some such continuous cumulative attention to questions that need answers; suggestions that prompt examination; crit- icisms that call for remedial action. Only through the cir- culation of suggestions and questions can faculties demo- cratically organize for cooperative service. In a short test of " high spotting " and central " clear- ing," helpful facts and suggestions from educational pub- lications, including reports from other colleges, will disclose innumerable aids like these : Columbia University is substituting personality prepared- ness for credit preparedness. Yale's report, 1914, has the best available discussion of relations between research and teaching efficiency. Smith found that analyzing and publishing faculty teach- ing loads helped secure additional instructors. Illinois Wesleyan's financial summaries are printed in July- Bowdoin's report discusses the preceptorial system, with notes as to cost and results. The University of Wisconsin's biennial report for 19 14- 1916 announces the results, following the survey, of a large faculty committee with special subcommittees to consider the improvement of the university with rela- tion to (a) undergraduate instruction; (b) research, graduate, and field work; (c) foreign-language re- quirements; (d) faculty requirements, physical plant. 1. An honor point system has been adopted to stimu- late the student who has the habit of getting a passing mark only. 2. Systematic methods for improving and correlat- ing instruction in various departments have been undertaken. 3. To facilitate and improve research work related departments of instruction have been grouped. 4. A course of study without foreign-language re- quirements has been established. ii4 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 5. Faculty organization has been simplified by the appointment (a) of a university committee; (b) of an administrative committee to take care of -routine business; and (c) of a secretary of the faculty to keep faculty records [a full professor]. 6. A new system of keeping faculty records has been installed to secure greater uniformity and economy in administration. 7. Efficient utilization of the physical plant is being studied by a special committee. Miami University drops a student from a class for three unexplained absences or for being found unprepared without acceptable excuses five times during a semester ; makes its dormitories pay 3% interest; has all but one department head teaching freshmen; reduced its classes of ten or fewer from 25 to 10% ; loans books to country normal schools; gives practice teaching in rural schools; has an executive committee of the fac- ulty for administration; permits invitations to fra- ternities at any time after matriculation; prohibits ostentatious or extravagant rushing; is considering exchange lectures within departments. Kansas State Board of Administration recommends charging a fee for all student activities, thus making more certain general participation. Harvard in 1915-1916 sent a questionnaire to graduates asking about the relative value of various methods of instruction — lectures, classroom discussion, assigned reading, reports, essays, or theses. Students' answers ascribed most value to reading next to classroom dis- cussion. " Leading business men have expressed their willingness to give summer employment to students of the graduate school of business and administration and to cooperate with the school by returning at the end of the period of employment a report of the work of the student, . . . which report is an important con- sideration in recommending students for a permanent position after graduation." High-Spotting Other Colleges 115 North Dakota conducts a series of round table discus- sions at times when regular classes are not in session, so that all may attend. University of Cincinnati requires prospective teachers to do practice work in public schools under super- vision; students of commerce must take three years of work in business and under the supervision of the faculty make a carefully planned study of the business in which they are engaged. This involves regular re- ports and conferences. Failure in business means re- fusal of degree. Similar practice work for students preparing for social service is afforded through chari- ties and social settlements. New York University announces business fellowships in commerce, — one-half time to business houses and the other half to studies. Kansas State Agricultural College has a class for boys and girls in livestock judging; extension work of project clubs in crop growing, stock feeding, garden- ing, sewing; resulting products valued at $107,000 in 1916; furnishes advice as to roads and bridges. Colgate University gives in absentia courses for master's degree to graduates " whose career since graduation gives clear evidence of earnest and successful effort toward intellectual development." Wesleyan, Conn., requires shop training via summer plan in manufacturing plants and local field work in central heating plant of the college, through power-plant tests in and near Middlebury, and by hydraulic work. Sheffield Scientific School requires eleven weeks in sum- mer field work in surveying; two weeks between the third and fourth years in railroad surveying; six weeks in making a geological map of some portion of the country ; two weeks in making a survey map of a mine. At instructor's option two-hour sessions may be substi- tuted for outside preparation to insure personal super- vision in the working of problems and drill in techni- cal manipulation. 1 1 6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities North Carolina University students conducted six moon- light schools of 300 pupils, regularly conduct Sunday schools, night schools, and Y. M. C. A. for negroes; in 191 6 ran a free lecture lyceum for several churches and schools the country round. University of California gives extension courses in the state penitentiary; president visits each infirmary once a month; department of correction of speech defects is conducted. Ohio State University offers help in city building. Oberlin : " It ought to mean something to this whole region that Oberlin College is planted right here." With these words President King explains why he raises in his annual report for 1915-1916, pages 135 ff., questions of still larger usefulness of college to com- munity; e.g., " What of still better sanitary conditions? What of a full-salaried and scientifically trained health officer? What of possibilities in the direction of the city manager plan ? " University of Montana provides movable schools for the convenience of farmers ; each school has the service of from four to six teachers one week at a time. University of Chicago gives full college credit for work of college grade done in high schools if during the first two quarters at the university student maintains an average standing of B or better ; if he drops to less than B he gets one-half credit; if he falls below C no college credit is allowed. University of Minnesota prohibits full-time members of the faculty from engaging in any outside activity " which substantially interferes with their university duties " ; two farms put in charge of two senior " agrics," degrees being given upon successful conduct of farm; cooperative housekeeping encouraged; a legal-aid bureau conducted by law students; practice teaching is done in high schools; summer camp for civil engineers ; night classes in engineering and archi- tecture; school of public health was worked out by Serving those who pay the bills University of Minnesota Learning to test corn by testing corn Minnesota Short courses for farmers are good investments High-Spotting Other Colleges 117 engineering and medical faculties; home management was tested in a 15-room house, college credit being given; established municipal reference bureau under auspices of State League of Municipalities; gives courses in sex hygiene for men ; insists " that there can be no departmental or college proprietorship in the buildings, and that space anywhere that is not absolutely needed for college or departmental purposes shall be available for general university use " ; the uni- versity declares that the high-school course " must be adapted to the needs of the great majority who cannot pursue higher education. College and university must therefore adapt themselves to the high school as a peo- ple's college." University of Nebraska has a central stenographic bureau as Ohio State University has central bureaus for each college and has effected considerable saving by center- ing all business offices; e.g., 6% on electric lamps. University of Michigan has courses for field training of men for public service, including cooperative arrange- ments with the Detroit Bureau of Governmental Re- search. University of Missouri has recently started a municipal reference bureau. Reed College is helping on examinations and with papers for the civil service department of Portland ; is giving courses at the City Hall for city employees on city time; has recently issued a report of five years' work on social hygiene in Oregon by eight faculty mem- bers with students; has extension courses organized by students at which, for example, President Foster is giving lectures at the college and about the city " on rural politics today," and business men give talks on commercial and industrial methods. North Carolina University reports the occupations and professions of students' parents; declares that $300 a year is ample for comfortable living; has introduced the plan of reading for honors by which students of n8 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities unusual ability and intellectual curiosity are given wide and independent reading and stimulated in lines of independent investigation; requires one year of resi- dence before any student may represent the university in a major sport; proposes two summer sessions of six weeks each; has made 173 community studies and pub- lished 62 booklets on countryside studies; circulates weekly 9000 copies of its newsletter; has a special course for practicing pediatrists. Smith assigns four freshmen to a junior adviser and 30 to a faculty adviser ; publishes sizes of classes " to show scientifically where additions to the teaching force are needed." Tufts publishes a report of diagrams on right-hand page and short editorial summary on the left; in last five years increased students 47% but expenses only 15%; shows by spot map the sources of students. 42. The College Budget Although the word " budget " is new in college manage- ment, the idea is old. Very few colleges ever undertake to finance the next year without having approximated costs and income. But approximating is not budgeting, and with few excep- tions colleges today want to put their business on a budget basis; i.e., on a plan carefully worked out at least a year in advance. In few instances will surveyors need to per- suade presidents and trustees that the budget method will help finance colleges. The few exceptions are colleges which thrive on unexpected deficits and hard-luck stories. Even in these cases there is more budgeting than is usually admitted and more system in the hard-luck story than is apparent. If colleges have budgets, surveyors will ask questions like these : 1. When is the budget voted? How much time is given by trustees to considering it at board meetings? Budgeting Opportunities 1 19 How long in advance of dates for consideration is the budget in the hands of individual trustees? How much time elapses between the call for budget esti- mates and the date for submitting them to the presi- dent and the date when the president submits them to trustees? 2. Does the budget initiate with the trustees . . . , with the president . . . , or with departments . . . ? 3. Is it possible for departmental estimates to be made without departmental conferences? Y... N... ?. .. 4. Is the budget based upon work estimates for next year ... or upon this year's money facts . . . ? 5. In the case of publicly supported colleges, is the bud- get considered at meetings open to the public? F... N... /... 6. Is the tentative budget shown to departmental rep- resentatives before its submission to trustees? Y... N... ?... 7. Does the tentative budget which goes to trustees show at a glance where it differs from the current year's budget Y. . . N..., which salaries are in- creased Y. . . N..., which activities extended Y. . . N. . ., with and without budgetary authoriza- tion Y . . . N . . ., which positions discontinued Y . . . N..., and why? Y. . . AT... ?... 8. Are increases separately totalled so that they are not lost by inclusion with decreases in other items . . . , or are salary increases of $1000 passed over because a $1000 vacancy or reductions aggregating $1000 leave the total the same . . . ? 9. Is the budget adhered to during the year; i.e., are expenditures in excess of allowances prohibited? Y... N... ?... 10. Is elasticity provided by permitting transfers from activities which do not need all the money voted to other activities which require more than was voted? Y. . . N... ?... Must request for such trans- 120 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities fers be made to trustees? Y. . . N... ?... Are all such transfers summarized? Y... N... ?... Does the tentative budget show where trans- fers were made last year? Y . . . N. . . ? . . . ii. How many periods are compared in the estimates — two years . . . three years . . . ? 12. How detailed are comparisons? 13. How definitely are all changes from this year's plans explained in writing; i.e., are general terms or spe- cific evidences given? Is anticipated registration justified by previous registration ? Does an increase " mainly for instructional force " include increases in salaries? 14. Are blanks furnished to all parties who take part in budget making, so as to make it easy to supply in- formation requested? Y... N... ?... 15. Are new activities considered with a view to their final cost when developed ... or is only the cost of the entering wedge . . . presented? In the case of state institutions further questions need to be asked separately with respect to the information pre- sented by trustees to the legislature: 1. Is the request printed ... or mimeographed . . . ? 2. Is it distributed to all legislators . . . and public . . . or only to legislative finance committees . . . ? 3. Are specific amounts above or below this year's ap- propriation unescapably presented? Y. . . N... ?. . . 4. When stating this year's cost, are accruals — i.e., sums provided but not used — subtracted from the budget allowances? Y. . . N... ?... Requested spending power should be compared with cost in- curred in budget allowances. On the other hand, where cost has exceeded the budget both facts should be stated, so that policy changes since last budget time will be questioned and explained. Budgeting without explaining will help colleges some- ring help build bridg University of Cincinnati Future engineers work on section gangs Cincinnati In-and-out plan reduces capital costs Budgets — Essential Steps 1 2 1 what, but only slightly. It will prevent accidental deficits, reduce hectic financing, and inure the whole college or- ganization to living within its income, trying to get the ut- most from its income, and looking before it leaps. Those colleges will benefit most from budgeting their resources and plans which use the budget-making period as a season for taking account of stock ; i.e., for challenging new proposals and existing practices. Budgets will not prevent deficits. Columbia voted for 1917 a deficit of $93,000; " this means that the normal income . . . falls far short of meeting the necessary cost of work now established and in progress." A possible deficit seen a year ahead is easier to remove than a surprise deficit already created. Few people like to " pay for dead horses." A prospective deficit is the only hard- luck story, i.e., alternative, a college is warranted in telling. To colleges which have not as yet adopted a budget the two best steps for surveyors to take are, first to cite some concrete instances of disadvantages suffered because a bud- get plan is not in use, — i.e., disagreement as to salary ; di- version of funds to meet unexpected deficits; harassing of administrative officers. Secondly, presidents and faculties can be referred to colleges already benefiting from a budget system. Record Aids in College Management reproduced blanks employed by Smith College and Kansas, Idaho, and Minnesota universities. Minimum essential steps include these : 1. A fixed date for consideration of budget estimates by trustees and earlier fixed dates for submission to trustees by the president ; for submission to president or budget committee by departments ; for distributing estimate blanks to all parties whose forecast is needed. 2. Preparation of uniform blanks by a central office which will reduce to the minimum the clerical work required of departments and will contain a maxi- mum of suggestions to departments, — i.e., will fur- nish all the classifications ; will have separate columns 122 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities for separate periods ; will have a separate column for increases ; another for decreases ; another for reasons. For example, Smith College asks departments to re- port only departures from statu quo ; the central of- fice has salaries and other facts for the existing or- ganization. Separate blanks are sent for staff changes, equipment changes, supplies, library, etc. 3. Request to all participants that estimates include what they think the college needs to have done or oppor- tunity makes it desirable to do next year, with rea- sons, leaving it to administrative officers to discover how much the college can do. Where dollars are es- timated, the numbers or extent of work to be done should be specified. 4. Departmental conferences for frank comparison of alternatives presented for each department. 5. Interdepartmental conferences; i.e., all departments of college or university for comparison of alterna- tives as they affect each group as a whole. 6. Compilation of estimates by clerks, on forms which show clearly changes, increases, or decreases, with reasons. 7. A similar procedure on separate blanks to secure es- timates of resources and income; i.e., probable amounts from tuition, fees, interest, gifts, mill tax. 8. Consideration by president or budget committee of total work program and money program expressed in composite budget estimates, and allotment of revenue among purposes according to necessity and desir- ability. 9. A permanent record of the deliberations of the budget committee and reasons for its allowances and disal- lowances. In few cases will it be impossible to have satisfactory minutes taken. In large institutions stenographic notes are desirable, especially where pub- lic funds are spent and where later stages of budget discussion are apt to involve controversies or special pleas for public support. Stenographic notes, except Budgets — Essential Steps 123 for obviously important matters, need not be tran- scribed; to have them available, however, may save a building or an appropriation. 10. Resubmission of tentative budget, with reasons, to faculty before final submission to trustees for action. This seemingly needless referendum can do no harm and will make for democracy, solidarity, and good spirit. In the few cases where hard feeling may re- sult, it will be no harder because interested parties receive information before rather than after it is too late to appeal and to present new evidence. 11. Submission of the estimate to the trustees, with rea- sons in writing why the president or budget com- mittee have recommended allowances or disallow- ances. Verbal explanations are not enough. Few minds can learn through the ear .facts necessary to follow comprehendingly a rapid verbal exposition of a year's program. Trustees should be encouraged to read understanding^ a college program before they sponsor it. Where a committee, finance or executive, of trustees has reviewed estimates, its recommenda- tions should come to the full board with unescapable comparisons and with unescapable explanations in writing — and long enough in advance so that rubber stamping its conclusions will not be easier than reading them. 12. The final consideration of the recommended budget by the full board should be made a matter of record. Where questions are asked answers should be taken from records, not hearsay. 13. The final budget as passed should be set up in com- parative form, showing increases and decreases, with reasons. 14. As part of every budget it should be provided that the budget be treated as a sailing order or working pro- gram ; that this program may not be changed without consent of the trustees or persons delegated by them, — i.e., that funds voted for extension should not 124 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities be used for increasing salaries ; that accounting head- ings should conform to budget headings; that unex- pended items should revert to the general fund under control of the trustees and not be disposed of by offi- cers without consulting trustees ; that entering wedges for new activities should not be driven without con- sulting trustees. 15. The budget as voted should be promulgated through- out the college for information, advice, and authoriza- tion to spending officers. Besides helping trustees decide how to spend assured in- come, the properly prepared budget estimate will help trus- tees raise money. Evidence of need is the best money getter. The most convincing evidence of need is the budget esti- mate, through which faculties make clear what they are not yet able to do, the least they should be able to do next year, and the maximum they should like to be authorized to do. One way to hasten proper budget making by colleges would be to require every college to teach the principles of public budget making. Instead of regretting the necessity for explaining to each legislature what higher education is trying to do, should not our state universities welcome the opportunity to make higher education part of the thinking of legislature and public? 43. Record Forms Are Educational Indexes Few people are interested in blank forms yet. Most people still find them dead, unsuggestive, boring, necessary evils. That, however, is because most people do not yet understand forms. Many surveyors are bored at the thought of looking at forms. Many college administrators are unable to read with understanding the forms through which they themselves are giving account of their own stew- ardship. Yet surveyors cannot afford to overlook the record system. Among the most interesting facts about a college are blank forms ; they tell a great deal more about its man- agement and its men than does many a catalog or report. Not yet used for instruction Carleton College An important laboratory Berea College Photographs help inform and interest trustees Surveying Record Forms 125 Because some people are so interested in questions about money and students that they forget actual students and real money is not a reflection upon the questions or the forms on which the questions are printed. Show any surveyor familiar with college management and with the ideals of higher education what forms are used by your college in describing where the money goes; who the students are; where they come from; where they go; and what is done for them while there, and he will tell you more about the human and inspirational side of your college than most of its trustees know. Show an accountant the forms used in recording expenditures, purchases, contracts, in- spections, etc., and he can tell you more about the business efficiency of your college than can an examination of months which fails to include business forms. Whatever else, therefore, is done in a survey or self- survey, a searching analysis should be made of record forms as indexes to purposes and achievements. A composite of helpful forms in use by colleges entitled Record Aids in College Management was issued in 19 16 by the Institute for Public Service, 51 Chambers Street, New York City. Any college which is found not to possess any part of the information there listed as called for by one or more colleges can be immediately helped by the discovery. While it is possible for a business to have superior methods that are not reflected in its record forms, this hap- pens seldom. Surveyors will, with few exceptions, find that any questions not found on college record forms are not being asked for purposes of administration. It is equally true that record forms may contain questions which ad- ministrators never ask. Finding questions on forms is therefore but a first step and must be followed by a study of filled-out forms and of used information. One great advantage of having forms studied at the out- set of a survey is that without waiting for the survey re- ports the whole machinery of administration may be en- listed in laying the basis for future current self-surveys. It is better to spend time in getting current and future facts 126 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities properly recorded than in unearthing and reclassifying old facts. A greater readiness will be found to admit the inadequacy of record forms than to admit the inadequacy of the work these forms describe. When, therefore, information begins to come currently, it is more comfortable for officers to correct unfavorable conditions disclosed than to keep facing any unfavorable story that may be told by proper records. i. What records " clear " through the central office? 2. What records are currently kept by university and college, college departments, instructors, and commit- tees that have not heretofore been sent to or inter- preted for the central office? 3. How easy is it for officers wishing forms to secure them? 4. Are files and indexes provided ? Y. . . N... 5. Is the college liberal ... or skimpy . . . with the cler- ical aid necessary to make record keeping easy? 6. Are forms themselves devised to minimize clerical work? Y... N... 7. Do those who fill out forms feel that the information recorded is helpfully used . . . ; is obstructively used . . . ; is neglected . . . ? It is not enough that financial reports comply with the technical requirements of the General Education Board, Car- negie Foundation, or stock-exchange practice. There are other friends to be made and informed besides great founda- tions. With few exceptions colleges will continue to de- pend for support and growth upon men and women not able to be interested or informed t>y a certified-public-account- ant type of financial statement. The idea underlying technical financial statements is par- tially to impart information and partially to prevent misrep- resentation. It is important that colleges shall not treat en- dowments as current contributions and that they shall not classify repairs as permanent improvements or bills owed as bills paid. But in preventing misrepresentation and im- Humanising Financial Reports 127 proper business procedure proper accounting has not in mind making it impossible to convey information to those who receive the report. If a financial statement is uninteresting, it fails to convey information. It has no reason for exist- ing except to transmit certain facts from the college to the minds of donors, possible donors, managers, interested and critical public. The kind of information which colleges want to transmit is information about college service and not merely about dollars spent. Any audience worth reaching with a financial statement is too important to be left uninterested in the human reasons for which money was received and spent. In answer to questions with regard to a financial report which one university president asked us to analyze, the pres- ident replied in part as follows: " I must say you have made some very valuable sug- gestions. I think with you that human interest facts would help among the people who have but a slight in- terest in financial reports." A few of the questions referred to may prove helpful to self-surveyors : 1. Is it not true that large possible donors, including the General Education Board, are susceptible to the hu- man appeal even if they do not prescribe it? Is it not desirable, therefore, in financial statements iso- lated from educational reports to indicate the number of students involved and to give other human interest facts ? 2. Is not your success in getting out a financial state- ment by June 5 an asset worth specially noting, per- haps in the auditing committee's report? 3. Is it not important also to have an audit of report of service rendered as to accuracy of service statement? Since the auditors are board members, would it not be worth while to indicate the amount of time which they give to this important service ? [28 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 4. While complying with financial requirements, is it not desirable also for a college which has a deficit and needs further endowment not to let even a page or two intervene between the first statement of a fact and the interpretation of it? In other words, after the accountant's statement, would it help get money if you printed explanatory phrases that would make informing and interesting reading to your constitu- ency? For example, may not the phrase " subject to life estates " be so defined as to encourage people to give you other similarly restricted estates ? Is it not true that the words " special endowment " will fail to make any personal appeal, whereas a descriptive phrase or two added might make several of your read- ers want to add to this fund ? 5. As you are one of the very few colleges in the coun- try which report unpaid bills and accounts receivable, would it not be worth while making a point of this in the auditing committee's report? 6. Can you not, with a few additional words after each item, make this a very human page and add chiefly to your appealing power ? For me to read of a Blank fund of $1000 stirs no impulse to give, whereas a Blank fund for helping a high-school girl to college, etc., etc., might make a thousand dollars seem small compared with what it could buy. 7. Is there not many a possible patron who will wonder why, if you get 5>4% or 6% in a dozen cases, you cannot do it in 30? Will an explanation help which would meet the foregoing question and at the same time answer some conservatives who may feel that a 6% loan must be unsafe? 8. Would not your people be interested in the number of pledges received and the number of persons? 9. May not the campaign-expense table do you harm if it is not made clear that the large sums expended brought in the campaign receipts mentioned earlier? Reading Is Not Always Understanding 129 44. Character of Financial Reports Minimum essentials of financial reporting have been set up by the Carnegie Foundation. Several colleges have gone beyond these minimum essentials. Any college which is able to report its financial transactions under the heads listed on page 131 may consider itself reasonably up to date. How much further subclassification should be carried depends upon the volume and variety of business. One fact about financial reporting is universally over- looked ; viz., that a small fraction of the persons who receive financial reports know how, or care to know how, to see the educational forces reflected by a technically correct finan- cial statement. Yet to have technically correct financial statements is becoming more and more essential. Upon them depends the ability of colleges to serve students and patrons. Unless a way is found to combine flesh-and-blood background with financial statements, many of our colleges will discover that their earnest efforts to deserve support will cause them to lose support. Surveyors can help materially. They can show where financial statements because of length or technicalities chill the reader's interest in work for students. Secondly, they can suggest points at which the financial statement itself, in- cluding the most technical of its technicalities, can be inter- lined, interpolated, and explained so that every patron can understand. For Carleton College and for a special committee of the Association of American Colleges, President D. J. Cowling has been studying principles and practices of report making. For his own report for June 30, 1916, he uses the general divisions given on page 131. The distinctions between four kinds of receipts — i.e., (a) current income, (b) income for additions to assets, (c) assets reduced, and (d) debt increased — are important to notice and follow. Similarly, on the expenditure side it is important to dis- tinguish between expenses for current purposes and what 130 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities President Cowling calls income for additions to assets. Be- cause many financial statements fail to make these distinc- tions, unnecessary and expensive confusion is caused in the minds of college supporters, especially when legislatures stand as representatives of supporters. One question of President Cowling's letter will interest college fiscal officers ; namely, should receipts from scholar- ship funds appear once to explain source of funds or shall it, in accordance with the practices of private business, appear four times? For example, in the report for Carle- ton College $1280 appears first as a receipt for scholarship purposes; on the expenditure side this same $1280 appears as a charge for scholarship aid; thus the books balance. A third time, without being segregated, this $1280 appears as tuition received from students. Still a fourth time it ap- pears without segregation as part of salaries and wages or other current expenses. President Cowling asks if there is not unnecessary book- keeping plus an overstatement of operations involved in this method of showing the transactions arising out of interest from scholarship funds. Another practice which President Cowling questions is that of reporting on both sides of the financial statement the total receipts and total expenditures for what are here later called revolving funds. In his own report he pub- lishes the net receipts for the boarding department and the net deficits of two rooming houses. If lectures bring in more than they cost, the net profit only would be reported ; e.g., last year only the net deficit of $360 was reported. The General Education Board, 61 Broadway, New York City, will soon issue for circulation upon request a hand- book on college accounting, which has been two years in preparation and will be based upon visits to many colleges. (Application to the above address will bring you all publica- tions of this foundation.) A Helpful Outline 131 •O Ui 2 g tu 53 w O .& m £ S 3 3 « 3 c E !" « c2" 5 »■> UCQW<0 c 3 . O .3 a •o 2 v ._ J3 CO ^? g|S8 E" > e 'C rt «**• .„ •c E « c _o •3 .•a b« O en .^2 3 —"CO upu 5 O S SE-& 1? t. ?2 b rv CO u •o-o . 3 3 gg !l« o o* 4 a c-- CD UJ3 £2 £3 3 <- •« *" «? o 00 « •o c bo 2 '3 .0 a a 3 V O -S3 B O 132 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 45. Bookkeeping Methods The General Education Board announced in 19 15 its in- tention to prepare a handbook on college bookkeeping, pre- sumably for free circulation from 61 Broadway, New York City. It is undesirable to repeat here the concrete tests of bookkeeping. There is no justification for hiring outside surveyors to report on the bookkeeping methods of any col- lege. There are certified public accountants in every state within easy reach of every college. There are numerous handbooks on bookkeeping. Many colleges are themselves teaching bookkeeping. Alumni know modern methods. Once decided that bookkeeping methods must be put on a modern basis, it is easy to secure within a week a statement as to where bookkeeping methods are not up to date. Surveyors, however, must not fail to look early at book- keeping methods. Any inadequateness will be easily dis- closed. While the survey is progressing in other directions, the bookkeeping methods can be reorganized. Among questions as to bookkeeping that vitally affect education are these: 1. Is a separate account kept for each main activity, so that the high cost of one subject will not be lost in an average which contains the low cost of other subjects? Y N ? 2. Are job and unit costs shown for educational jobs and units as well as for construction units and repair units ; i.e., do accounts show how much is spent for re- search Y. . . N. . ., for particular investigations Y ... N. .., for each student hour in each subject Y... N...? 3. Is total cost shown rather than only that part of cost for which money has been paid out ; i.e., are supplies bought the preceding year but used this year included in this year's cost? Y... N... Are supplies bought and used but not paid for this year included in this year's cost? Y... N... Are supplies bought this year but not used excluded from this Bookkeeping Tests 133 year's cost? Y . . . N. . . Is insurance distributed over all the years for which it is paid instead of being charged to the year when paid? Y... N... Is depreciation charged to provide for replacement of equipment and buildings? Y... N... Are moneys due but not yet received credited to the year when they should have been received ? Y . .. N . . . Is the cost of each dormitory kept separate and are different elements of dormitory and dining-hall cost recorded separately? Y. . . N. . . Are dormitory costs excluded from statements of educational cost; i.e., are strictly business items, revolving funds, etc., accounted for separately so as not to misrepresent management costs? Y . . . N. . . Is there a care- ful separation of costs for current operation from costs for permanent improvement? Y. . . N... ? . . . 4. Are trust funds used only for the purposes for which given? Y. .. N... ?... 5. Are costs charged only under the right heads ? Y. . . N. . . ? . . . For instance, is the bookkeeper pro- hibited from charging to " educational conventions " money spent in looking about for teachers? 6. Is an automatic classification used ; i.e., do the record forms call for entering each charge under the proper head each and every time it is entered instead of en- tering all charged under one head and then requiring a special sifting for monthly or annual reports? 7. Is a cumulative summary reported each month Y. . . N . . . and compared both with the program for the year . . . and with last year's experience . . . ? 8. Is a balance sheet possible from the books as kept? Y . . . N . . . Is a balance sheet actually made up . . . and submitted to the trustees and public? Y. . . N... ?... 9. Do the books give the minimum of requirements listed in reports of the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- vancement of Teaching? Y. . . N... ?.,. 134 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 10. In what ways is financial bookkeeping correlated with educational bookkeeping so that each phase of col- lege work is studied with reference to its educational significance and its cost? How does college book- keeping compare with the methods thought to be es- sential in college classes? How far is college book- keeping used as clinical opportunity for students of bookkeeping ? Does the college exact as high a stand- ard from its official bookkeeping as it exacts from its student activities' bookkeeping? Y . . . N ... 46. Purchasing Methods The main losses in college purchasing are due to failure to centralize facts about it; i.e., to make it some one officer's business to foresee the year's probable purchases; to study market possibilities ; to secure lowest possible prices for low- est reasonable quantities ; to take care and keep account of goods purchased, as cashiers do of cash. A survey of dates, quantities, and prices of purchases will not take long and will usually show many opportunities to make money go farther. There is only so much money available for purchasing. Additional needs can be more easily provided for out of savings than out of additional appropriations. 1. Is there a central storehouse? Y... N... ?... May any one go and take supplies out of it ... or must supplies be requisitioned on business forms 2. Is a laboratory fitted out by consulting a catalog . . . or by listing the needs of particular courses . . . and by having these listed, reviewed, and certified by a department . . . and again checked by a central pur- chasing agent . . . responsible for securing what de- partments consider adequate at the lowest possible price ? 3. How far are major supplies bought by competition? HAS REED COLLEGE REACHED TOUR HOME ? Study this map flake inquiries fed circles locate Extension Courses of previous years ▲ Yellow Irianqles locate Courses now beinp given • Dlack circles locate community services of Reed students •:• Dlack crosses show . where l&ed teachers have made addresses Green circles locate homes of Reed students Reed College and its City- Wide Campus Educational bookkeeping needs illustrations Purchasing Methods — Tests 135 4. Is coal bought by the British thermal unit ... or by the unanalyzed ton . . . ? 5. Are staple supplies bought from hand to mouth at retail prices ... or in advance for a year ... at the seasons of lowest wholesale prices? 6. Are the record blanks, letterheads, etc., of economical sizes? Y... N... ?... 7. Does the central office make it easy for every person having to do with articles purchased to employ the best modern procedure ; i.e., are there blanks for esti- mate requests, description of use, etc. ? Y... N... ? . . . 8. Is the energy which instructors, deans, and presidents need to give to purchasing reduced to a minimum by purchasing methods ? Y... N... ?,.. 9. Are laboratory supplies safeguarded as carefully as if the college rather than the students paid for them? Y ... N ...?.. . 47. Unit Costs of Other than Instructional Service Long before educational measurements were worked out, the business world had standardized the cost of building; of repairs; of dietaries; and of road making. To find out whether a building is economically constructed the architect asks how much it cost per cubic foot. If a builder estimates 25 cents a cubic foot, the architect does not take up in detail all the estimate, because he knows that in a given locality the construction cost should not exceed 18 cents per cubic foot. He never loses sight of his unit. The business caterer never loses sight of the catering unit ; viz., the portion served per meal per person. Well-managed college dormitories have worked out units of service by which they can tell from week to week whether in their use of sugar, fruits, flour, coal, and attendants they are living within the budget made possible by their charges to students. See Miami report 19 16, page 206. Are coal prices in terms of British thermal units, and fuel costs in terms of cubic feet? Piling up questions will not 136 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities help. The minute an administrator admits that he has no unit costs, and that he is not trying to find them but would like to find them, the accounting technique necessary to record and disclose them already exists in numerous ac- counting textbooks. The surveyor's problem is to interest colleges in the cer- tainty that money will go farther if, at slight cost, mere ex- pense keeping is supplemented by cost keeping and unit-cost or job-cost accounting. I was once secretary of the New York Committee on Hospital Needs and Hospital Finances. When it was suggested that unit costs be kept for surgical supplies, many distinguished hospital officers scouted the idea. Yet the president of Bellevue and Allied Hospitals had only to raise the question with his supervisor of nurses in order to interest her in the test. Instead of giving physi- cians all the gauze they wanted, she had bandages of dif- ferent sizes rolled for different kinds of operations. With what result? They saved $150 a week or $7800 a year on linen bandages alone ! Not only were the surgeons unaware that they had used less gauze, but they were pleased because it came to them in units most useful to them. Likewise, watching college units of expense will release funds and energy for increasing units of service. 48. Revolving Funds Comparisons of college expenses are usually unfair to colleges which have not adopted proper systems of account- ing, because numerous expenses that have no direct connec- tion with cost of instruction appear in the same total with salaries and other instructional costs. Many colleges report even student organizations' receipts and disbursements in the total receipts and disbursements for the college. This raises the advertised per capita cost and also encourages an unfair presumption that salaries are adequate. The fact that both debit and credit sides show the same amounts does not reduce the misrepresentation. Whether the inclusion of non-educational costs and strictly business transactions results in overstating or under- Revolving Funds — Kept Separate 137 stating instructional costs, it always makes work harder than necessary for college managers. That dormitories should stand on their own feet finan- cially is expected. It will help them stand there and free energies now diverted from educational work if the amounts spent and received for dormitories are treated as business capital going out and coming back; i.e., are set up as re- volving funds. The legislature of 19 15 made a revolving fund out of the working balance in the University of Wisconsin's treasury ; i.e., the amount was appropriated to the university to be used between the beginning of the year and the first returns from students, but to be paid back again to this working capital after student payments came in. The money was advanced, not given. The university could use it as a loan, not as an appropriation as formerly ; after being paid back it must be kept there as capital for future advances and not used for increasing salaries or undertaking new work. Small colleges have need for revolving funds. They do not need to ask contributions for dormitory expenses that they charge against individual students. They do need authorization to stock up with supplies and to assume re- sponsibility for running the dormitory a year. They must have budget appropriations to cover these obligations. To make clear that these appropriations are capital advanced to be refunded out of later business transactions, these funds are not given but are voted with a string tied to them; that is, they are college capital to be refunded out of college earnings and kept in a revolving fund. It is an easy matter to run over a college financial state- ment and to take out of the costs for instruction and build- ing maintenance those items that depend upon business cus- tomers; i.e., upon pay-as-you-go admissions. Deans must be paid whether there are 200 or 400 students. Food sup- plies will not be used for 400 students unless 400 students pay their board bills in advance. Separate accounting for revolving funds will make it easier to tell whether pay-as- you-enter or pay-as-you-use business is charged enough to 138 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities pay-as-it-goes. The treasurer will account for all moneys handled but will keep revolving funds entirely separate in all statements. As above stated, President Cowling of Carleton College feels strongly that in financial statements that are going to supporters only net deficits or net profits should appear. This suggestion would apply, of course, only to those insti- tutions which fail to keep revolving funds entirely separate. 49. Use and Non-Use of College Space Most colleges are either " building poor " or " student poor; " i.e., they have more building space than they need or can pay for, or else they have more students than they can care for satisfactorily. Building poor today, student poor tomorrow, is the usual story. In but a few instances have colleges taken the position that they will stop accepting or trying to secure students in excess of their present space ca- pacity. Too many students mean increased appealing power — more buildings — room for more students — more students — too many students — and round the circle again. There will be many surveys and self -surveys where no questions will be asked about buildings. Sooner or later, however, every college will become interested in its use of space. Has it enough space — indoors, outdoors? Is it making enough use of present space ? How can it prove its needs for more space? How can it interest possible donors in providing more space ? As part of an inventory which every college ought to have immediately available is a list of its properties, with a statement showing for what purpose and for how many and which hours of the week and year each portion of this space is used. Secondly, a forecast should be always on hand showing what the space conditions ought to be ten years ahead, provided the present rate of growth continues or projected extensions are consummated. Only by having and studying such evidence can colleges be foresighted, thrifty, and statesmanlike in the use of their opportunity. Smith Advertises Non-Use of Space 139 SXELYB HALL | COLLEGE HALL |§| Lfl. |§|^| U.1 a 11 a 2 1 | «| 1 |7 | * |u|nll3|l3|u|l7imn|3l|J3|x| M |27|29i»|3lll3lM| 5 | t 1 T D ■ 10 mamm u u ■ ■ ■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ i i*i > ■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■■ 4 ■ ■■■■ ■ ■ s ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ T. < II II U > ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■■ ■ ■ ■■ ■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ > ■ ■ ■ ■ 4 ■ ■ _*l_Ld i ! ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ I ■■ ■ ■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■ ■D ■ ■n m ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ 1 ■ ■ ■■ ■ inai ■■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■■■■■" ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■oa ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■D B MB ■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■ ■ 4 ft 8. » It II U ■ ■ ■ ■ ■'■"-.■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ " Our buildings are not as crowded at all hours of the day as some per- sons have imagined." From Annual Report of President Burton of Smith College, for 1916. 140 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities In addition to listing facts properly classified as to space, purpose, use, partial use, and non-use, colleges need current graphic exhibits of these facts. Three different ways of showing the use of a room are given on the opposite page, borrowed from Record Aids in College Management. Imaginative use of college property is just beginning. No longer are colleges satisfied with athletic grounds used only or principally for teams and intercollegiate games. Advertising in black the large percentage of time when grounds are not used will raise the question whether part of the campus should be made into tennis courts; whether gymnastics should be outdoors as well as indoors; whether tillable lands can be used for both growing vegetables and teaching agriculture, etc. Similarly, when confronted with non-use or partial use of laboratories, auditoriums, large lecture rooms, basement space, garret space, gymnasium, a college will ask whether its greatest need is for more space or for more salaries with more use of existing space. Ak- ron's municipal university found that by placing a row of lockers two feet wide between the original desks, eight feet apart, it could accommodate in instead of 48 students in the same laboratory. Several convictions that favor limited use of space are current among colleges. Many instructors sincerely be- lieve that room efficiency is incompatible with teaching efficiency ; i.e., that only by a high percentage of non-use and partial non-use of space can colleges approximate the best use of teachers. Again, regarding units in laboratories there are certain fixed practices which are believed to pro- duce best instructional results, although under-use of space is the price. So far as these convictions are based on facts, they will obviously be strengthened by submission of those facts. So far as they are contrary to fact educators will, of course, prefer to abandon convictions. For example, it is believed by many that afternoon meetings of instructor with students are not as productive as morning meetings. Instructors Three Ways of Showing Use of Rooms 141 Ho. 1 Capac- ity 48 latin 10. 4 Capac- ity 40 Bo. 5 Capac- ity 27 "So. 6 Oapee- lty 26 ■0. 7 Capac- ity 32 ttonday lit hr. 2d - sa » 4th » 5th " 6th " Bae.24 iat.23 Lat.15 Hath. 25 lat. 23 Eng.22 iat.23 Lat.22 Hath. 6 FT. 18 I*t.23 Lat.23 Hath. 27 Fr. 23 Lat.24 I&t. 6 let .23 Bath. 26 FT. 22 Iat. 7 lAt. Vassar's Method (Annual Report), Room I, capacity 48. ig. Honday Taasday Wed'day Thara'y 24/43 mjMM gj£g {gQ/*a Friday Sat 'day — yfmm lat 184/48 mm 21 22/48 20/48 22/48 20/48 22/48 mm 3d 23/48 23/48 85/48 23/48 ES/48 4th 24/48 25/48 24/48 24/48 ## : » iiiiiii iiiii ■ a 1 Hi it it ni tilir 11111 ^^^^^^^^^ ' 1T ^?'?" 'i 1111? 11 '1711J1 l 'fli?? 11 'i|ill PlWfWW! '-i-i ; §-ii:t-i : \\-i-i iiit ■■ilVi t : a'f-a'i:ii | i i j j i j i : I it mi , ^-^^l^i: Ll|.l* ■■! J 1, J.! I|> II! '?? * 1 * J? '".! |l?1i ? ?l 1 iJJ PPTTTTHflfl No. 2, for Room I. Non-use, black ; partial use, fraction. to. Monday Tuesday wed'day ThurB'y Friday Sat'day MRt^SsMMl^iK'^^ §th ^/^ff|2B/4^m/4^24/4^^ri#M##f#f###f ■ri tit 1 f iif i f { \\\v \ ri f iff j f ( 1 1 1 1 { f f 1 f 1 j { Hi ill l II il il 1 .' ..' ill IliU Jl Hi I 1 ill II i , \m\milWi) Mlim mum Hill MA&MA No. 3, Alternative of No. 2. Non-use, black ; partial use, fraction. 142 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities who prefer afternoon meetings with students insist that morning hours should be reserved by instructors for study and that afternoon recitations are equally productive for students. It is a simple matter to list the morning and after- noon hours for each student, each subject, and each instruc- tor. Such a list will show that many faculty members try to have most of their work in afternoons, while some try to crowd all of their work into two or three hours. Reasons why some instructors prefer afternoon work will, when confronted with reasons why others deplore it, leave a small degree of uncertainty as to relative benefits for students of afternoon and morning hours. This un- certainty can easily be tested by comparing different sections in the same courses and work of the same students for the two periods. Questions to older students and alumni will help. See Exhibit III. Many instructors are convinced that they work better each in his own room than by sharing rooms with other instructors. Again, many instructors believe that they work better in rooms reserved for their own subjects; i.e., that each subject has an atmosphere of its own which is more or less if not entirely destroyed when mixed with other sub- jects' atmosphere. If this belief is correct, it is uneconomi- cal even when necessary to have German and English, or physics and history, in the same room. If it is incorrect, it is wasteful even when possible to reserve a room for a subject or a man. Whether it is correct or not can be learned only by asking questions like these : i. What subjects and what instructors now share use of each room? 2. What physical inconveniences do instructors experi- ence? 3. Must instructors hurry out of rooms, so that con- ferring with students after classes is impossible ? Is there inadequate office space for conferences? 4. Are facilities lacking for filing papers and other ma- terials necessary or valuable to instruction ? N . . . Y... Wrong Way to Show Space Use 143 5. Is it so difficult to use wall space for instructional pur- poses that this asset is practically neglected; i.e., would wall maps of different courses interfere with one another? Y. . . N... 6. Must an instructor hold different classes in different rooms? Y... N... ?... 7. Do students lose interest in English if English shares rooms with other subjects, or if rooms reserved for English are widely separated from one another? Y... N... ?.,, 8. Are difficulties of departmental conferences so great that teachers of the same subject do not meet in- formally? Y... N... ?... 9. How are these disadvantages reflected concretely in student benefits and faculty spirit? 10. Is existing space properly "mobilized"? Y. . . N... ?... In comparing space use with non-use of space, an ounce of local experience is worth a ton of comparison with other colleges. When local comparison is made it behooves fac- ulty members to consider one comparison more seriously; viz., comparison between benefits that would result from more space with benefits that would result from more men and larger salary funds. Instructors can't eat their cake and have it too. There comes a time in every college where more space means harder work to secure funds for more men and more funds for each man. How not to study use and non-use of college space is brilliantly set forth by the Iowa Survey Commission re- ferred to above and a little later in the section on averages. The essence of the method is given in the following formula used by the commission, which finds average occupancy by adding its maximum and minimum and dividing by two : Aver age occupancy (20) X periods used (18) 360 Capacity (36) X periods in week (44) 1584 " 22.7 per cent occupancy time 144 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Will college managements take any room in any building, apply this formula, and see how far it helps them decide where they have non-used or only partially used space? Vassar published the capacity and number using each room. No. 32 has occupancy ranging from 1 to 56; half this sum is 28.5. Is this average occupancy? If the total use is divided by the total hours, the average is 14.7, not 28.5 ! 50. The Working Week Practically every effort which heretofore has been made to ascertain how much time college work requires of the teaching staff has been met with protests against " wrong- headed and deplorable applications of the efficiency idea." Yet regarding few aspects of academic work has there been more misunderstanding. The stock story in Wisconsin is illustrative : A legislator asked a professor how many hours he worked. The pro- fessor answered, " Eight." The legislator, whose unit was a day rather than a week, commented : " Well, eight hours is a good full day for any man." For the farmer, clerk, banker, housewife, or teacher who contributes to support a state university it is difficult to fill out the rest of the week for an instructor who has only four or seven or ten or even fifteen hours of classroom instruction during a whole week. Because definite information has been lacking to help in- quirers fill out the faculty members' week, great numbers conclude that college teaching is a " snap " compared with earning money in other ways. Nor has the misunderstand- ing been removed by saying generally that much time is required to prepare for meeting students. Of Wisconsin's faculty members 402 estimated for a typical week the number of hours given to instructional pur- poses, including time given to class work, reading students' papers, conferences with students, services as student ad- viser, and personal preparation for courses. 19 reported over 60 hours, 18 reported 16 hours or less. The details for all ranks are shown here graphically because of the questions they raise. Instructors' Working Week i45 Time given to instructional purposes — all ranks — all col- leges, University of Wisconsin (Includes time given to class work, reading students' papers, conference with students, services as student adviser, personal preparation for courses) 6 hrs. or less 7 hrs. 8 hrs. 9 hrs. 10 hrs. 1 1- 1 5 hrs. 16-20 hrs. 21-25 hrs. 26-30 hrs. 31-35 hrs. 36-40 hrs. 41-45 hrs. 46-50 hrs. 51-55 hrs. 56-60 hrs. Over 60 hrs. Members of faculty giving over 30 and 40 hours a week to students Lose than 30 hour* a «««k 30 hours or more 40 hours or mors 146 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities In Wisconsin the president stated that 15 hours a week was the total number of hours which it was expected an instructor would give to the university in the form of class- room time plus research. While private colleges have not been subject to much outspoken criticism, they are subject to much misunder- standing. Even their own trustees find it difficult to appre- ciate that presidents and deans mean what they say when they complain about overburdened instructors whose over- burdening is illustrated by saying that they have 10 or 12 or 15 hours of instruction besides clerical work, research, committee assignments, and the innumerable miscellanies of faculty work. The shortest cut to understanding and to steps which will correct inequitable assignments of work is for faculties themselves to keep such a record of their working week that successful misrepresentation will be impossible. Toledo University now asks its faculty to distribute the time given to the university under these five heads: In- struction, research for instruction, administration, extension, public — i.e., municipal — service (a) research, (b) admin- istration. It began by giving the number of hours, but the faculty protested, and now they give the time in percentages. The Wisconsin Central Board of Education asked for an accurate time record for university and normal-school in- structors. Upon protest this was changed to the percentage system. It seems curious that college faculties will resent giving accurate figures when willingly and innocently they will give the percentage distribution from which a fifth- grade arithmetic class can compute the exact amounts. The time spent in classrooms is officially recorded now. To re- port it in percentages conceals nothing, but merely fosters guesswork and compels extra figuring. Whatever objection there may be to publishing broadcast the distribution of instructors' time certainly applies not at all to the budgeting by each instructor of his own time; only slightly to the budgeting for departmental study; and not dangerously to budgeting for confidential use by deans, Purdue's Study of Working Hours 147 president, and trustees in determining standard require- ments and compensations. In the table on pages 148—149 quarter hours are called for because they reduce to a minimum the tendency of over- statement or understatement. It is not necessary that this table be filled out for every day in the year. It is neces- sary that it be filled out for a typical period, perhaps a fort- night, and special pains should be taken to indicate what, if any, exceptional circumstances obtained during the fort- night recorded. With the table once filled out it is possible to decide equitably where less work should be assigned; where more work; what adjustments should be made because of the necessity to review student papers. Purdue's annual report for 1915-1916 speaks of an ex- haustive study of teachers' working hours during the two preceding years which showed variations in the hours of work which " in a few instances reveal a situation for cor- rection." Unfortunately the details are given in averages. Even these averages, however, show suggestive differences. In arts and sciences 27.4 hours a week were given for class- room instruction; in natural sciences for classroom and laboratory instruction the total was 32.7; in practical me- chanics for mainly laboratory instruction, 39.4 hours. A " satisfactory standard of hours of duty " was officially promulgated as the result of this study, as follows : For heads of schools and departments with minimum ad- ministrative duties, ten class hours per week, equivalent to 250 student hours. For professors and instructors without administrative work, a. Giving only classroom instruction, fifteen class hours and 375 student hours. b. Purely laboratory instruction, thirty class hours and 600-700 student hours. c. Mixed classroom and laboratory instruction, twenty class hours and 500 student hours. For assistants without responsibility for class instruction, thirty to thirty-five hours per week for departmental work. 148 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities V V a •a o u 3 u CO C to a > o o 1-1 o V xn V 6 5 2 >*• 3 1 1 2 £ < •0 ->• •A S .,•» 1 s Si 1 8 ^ ^w [ Co Cs s O *• " ° » 1 ► s 1 .9 £ £ S 1 J M « g *> M 3 g g ft g O c .5 e <» « *+- -o £; 5 hi w to 4 in \o k Time Sheet for Working Week 149 « o ?! rt _■ 5 .22 •"• m « o ,.„ *+-i CO CO !- « 7; » rt S3 S £ Ji 3 =3 5 to a) ■" c ? e 3 « E * °t«oS«.G.2.t.«o u O £> 3 -2 J*> C 3 e e V to 3 >- •S S § - § ^ 5 » >■ " § .2 " >■ § „ 5 * ft ■g ? 1 5 S I 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 5 I -fi l II 1 °°' " S »' 2 ^ !? 'S t « 2 1 S S S S J S"8 « 'S ISO Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities These suggestions are inserted here at the last minute even though a few pages too early, because they give valu- able testimony and because they illustrate so well the ad- vantage of having at each college the clearing house for in- formation that is later advised. 51. Teaching Load of Instructors To learn the elements of the teaching load the first step is to secure for each person having instructional relations with students the following facts : 1. Total registrations in each class. 2. Withdrawals. 3. Net registrations. 4. Number receiving credit. 5. Number of credits received. 6. Number failed. This information is either available or easily obtainable for every faculty. Beyond this information there are several differences of opinion as to what should be counted in the teaching load. In fact, authorities disagree as to whether the load credited to each instructor should include persons who do not obtain credits ; most of the tables thus far pub- lished have excluded that part of the actual load which is represented by students who fail. Faculty members will soon protest against excluding from their load those elements which make the harness gall. The student who fails is apt to receive more attention and more worry — i.e., to be a greater load — than five students who receive credits summa cum laude. If feasible, faculties should undoubtedly demand that students who come if only for a week and drop out be counted as part of their load. For some time to come surveyors will do better to state at least the total, including all who remain through the course whether they obtain credit or not. If the blank calls for credit and non-credit students, but little clerical work is in- volved in giving both teaching loads ; i.e., with and without failures and withdrawals. The Teaching Load 151 The possibility of standardizing the load is being widely discussed. President R. M. Hughes of Miami University in his annual report suggests 240 and 275 student credit hours as reasonable limits. Whether for a particular college these limits are reasonable can more easily be decided when the factors for each instructor are compiled. (Later Presi- dent Hughes fixed upon 300 as the right average. ) Several reasons will be urged by faculties against accept- ing either credit totals or registration totals as a fair ex- pression of the teaching load ; e.g., 1. 240 credit hours or 240 registration hours in English do not represent the same drain upon a teacher as 240 hours in Latin. 2. A lecture or demonstration for which preparation must be made does not represent the same teaching load as a lecture or demonstration for which no prep- aration is required. 3. A course given for the fifth time might have the same registration or credit hours as when given the first time, yet the teaching load is appreciably diminished. 4. A laboratory course which permits faculty research while supervising students' experiments does not rep- resent the same load as a course which requires con- stant attention to students. 5. A history lecture during which the instructor tries out a new book upon his students is not equal as a load to a history lecture which reviews, condenses, and il- luminates other men's books, although it may be of superior value. 6. In spite of appearances from the number of hours and number of students taught, the teaching load of 240 credits for a young instructor does not represent the same load as 240 credits for that same instructor ten years later. 7. The instructor who knows and cares for his students has not the same load as one who never sees his stu- dents out of class and does not try to fit his work to their needs and abilities. 152 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Attempts to ascertain and equalize teaching loads will lead faculties to welcome requests and devices for recording and reporting non-teaching loads drawn for their colleges. Instead of teaching load the Iowa Survey Commission em- ployed the term student-clock-hour. It is to be regretted that such a confusing and meaningless term should have been given currency in a publication of the United States Bureau of Education over names which include two uni- versity deans, two presidents, and the Bureau of Education's specialist in higher education. The method which is cited above to illustrate the futility of averages was as follows: The instructor's teaching load was computed in terms of the time spent by students in lecture, quiz, or laboratory; i.e., student-clock-hour. Although a difference between a laboratory hour or a quiz hour or a lecture hour by an in- structor is recognized, it is treated as a detail to be ironed out in averages. Differences between undergraduate and graduate work are conceded, but are to be ironed out in averages which " perhaps may be taken as the reasonable norm." Only a morass of confusion and conflict can be con- structed out of studies of the teaching load which are based upon departmental averages, norms, and perhapses. Yet the Association of American Colleges Bulletin, Feb- ruary, 191 7, prints in its revised edition of The Efficient College an elaboration of this student-clock-hour method of computing cost. It must be conceded that if the only fact wanted is the payroll cost of student meetings with instructor, and if secondly no part of the instructor's time is to be counted except that which he spends in meeting students, the unit cost per student-clock-hour will be comparable and useful. Before extensively accepting this unmodified unit, however, colleges would well count the certainty that the cost of being ready to meet students will be in many cases grossly un- derstated by the cost of time spent with students. Of especial importance is it that the student-clock-hour shall by no one be used as the basis of equalizing salaries Teaching Load Abhors Averages 153 or loads within a faculty or of giving promotion to faculty members — for reasons stated above on page 151. As President Burton declared after a chart showing size and number of class sections for the first semester 1915-1916: " General ratios of faculty to students are of value, but the vital question concerns the actual distribution of the students in relation to the faculty. The college might boast of one in- structor to every seven or eight students, but be permitting conditions in the classroom which would be almost intolerable." 52. Distribution of Non-Teaching Load To him who carrieth it shall be given, is the rule for distributing non-teaching loads in colleges. Benjamin Franklin said that the man who has already done you a favor will be more apt to help you out of trouble than the man whom you have helped. The college version is that faculty members who have already made sacrifices by serving on committees and carrying other extra-instructional loads are the ones who will best carry the next load. Similarly, it is the man who has already taken time from recreation, study, and home in order to help students, and not the man who has evaded out-of -class claims, who will receive next week's calls from students. After making modifications to fit local conditions, self- surveyors will do well to secure periodically from all faculty members a time distribution of extra-instructional loads as per the table on page 148. 53. Record of Classes The most important single storehouse of knowledge about a college is its record of the instructor's classes; the ques- tions it asks ; the answers on it ; the date it is filled out ; the uses made of it. As to information called for surveyors will look for these : 1. Name of each study taught or directed. 2. Number of each course. 3. Days of week, scheduled hours, room number. iS4 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities For recitation. For lecture. For quiz section. For laboratory. For thesis course. For supervising student research. For administrative duties, committee work, stu- dent adviser, assigned investigation, inspection of schools, etc. 4. Total number of students — men and women, classi- fied in separate columns for graduates, seniors, jun- iors, sophomores, freshmen, specials, auditors. 5. Grand total of students — men and women. 6. Grand total of hours. 7. Withdrawals from classes between the time of the original enrollment and the time of sending in blanks. 8. Classes of students for such exceptional divisions as military drill, physical education, outdoor games, rest hour, calisthenics, music, etc. 9. Date of signing blank. 10. Date of return of blank by instructor and receipt of blank by president's office. 1 1. Date on which blank must be at president's office. 12. Degree of responsibility for courses and sections. 1 3 . Whether blank is filled out by the person whose classes are reported or by a representative. 14. Signature of instructors. In a very large number of cases the signature is apparently by the registrar's clerk, since the handwriting is the same for the ma- jority of instructors. Comparing information furnished with information called for, surveyors will note discrepancies like these : 1. Blanks not filled out for name of study, number of course, number of students, totals, recitation hours, days of week, hour, number of room and building, to- tal hours. 2. Office hours included in total instruction hours. Class Records: Discrepancies 155 3. Name of department or field written instead of name of study. 4. Errors in addition of hours. 5. Errors in addition of students. 6. Total hours stated for the semester instead of for the week. 7. No statement of work at all. 8. " Thesis course " not clearly defined to indicate whether thesis course is spoken of or the assignment of a thesis in some regular course. 9. Preparation hours included in total recitation or lab- oratory hours. 10. Hour of day written in columns for total laboratory hours. 1 1. All students in all sections reported by each instructor where large general class is divided into 5 or 10 or 20 sections. 12. .Time and place reported on a semester record in dis- agreement with the time and place on record with the committee on time and place, and with the classroom cards posted outside. 13. Semester report books, while arranged alphabetically, not divided according to letters, so that to find names involves waste of time. 14. No index by which departmental totals or totals by rank of instructors can be found. It is necessary to consult a directory, the catalog, or roster without cer- tainty that all faculty members participating in in- struction will be included there. 15. Research work disposed of by the mere word "re- search " written across the sheet, without any speci- fication as to hours or place or subject. 16. Research supervision described under such a heading as " hours arranged with each student for research." 54. Small Classes The first question to ask about small classes is not whether they ought to be, but how many there are in each subject 156 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities and under each instructor. Grouping of classes into five or fewer and six to ten is not satisfactory, for such grouping conceals significant facts about the smallest classes of one, two, three, or four students. The number of each size should be stated. Since many instructors carry individual students or small groups as a labor of love from special interest in their sub- ject, it is important to know how many other classes each instructor has who is recorded as having small classes. Some institutions prohibit by law or by agreement classes of fewer than five or fewer than ten. In such cases prac- tice should be compared with law. At what time the dean or responsible committee or presi- dent first learns of the intention to organize a small class, and whether or not facts justifying this intention are given to these officers and to trustees, are important questions for surveyors. No board of trustees should be without infor- mation as to the reasons in each case for spending what, in the absence of clear reasons, would be a disproportionate amount of energy and money on students in small classes. Why should not college catalogs declare a presumption against courses for fewer than six or ten in a class and an- nounce that only for exceptional reasons — stated and ap- proved in writing — will such classes be organized ? Operation cost is not the only cost of small classes. A class of one in a room for 56 means a heavy capital cost, particularly when this room is counted as occupied in ap- peals for new buildings. Millions of dollars are represented by conditions like these : 6 students in a room for 48. 4 students in a room for 36. 4 students in a room for 32. 4 students in a room for 50. 3 students in a room for 33. 55. Control of Faculty Research Other things being equal, the American college instruc- tor will go to the institution which talks about research, Capital Cost of Small Classes 157 puts a premium on research, promotes research, rebates teaching hours in order to permit research. Whether written, spoken, or merely " in the air," teach- ing hours and teaching methods of American faculties are being materially influenced by the research idea and re- search cult. Either colleges must control research or re- search will control colleges to the disregard of all consid- erations except research. The proposition of time that should be given to research and to instruction is matter of disagreement. Wisconsin's faculty answers ranged from one-quarter research to three- quarter research. Little headway can be made by trying to secure an agreement in theory. The first step is to secure a record such as is called for in the time record for the work- ing week, that will show how much time and energy go to what is called faculty research. Because research does not necessarily discover or produce, it is necessary to ask questions about the products of re- search and to compare these products with other time and money costs. It is not safe to trust the educational litera- ture of any researcher's field or to trust the candor of his colleagues. The institution which employs him, which credentials him, and which adjusts its program to his re- search owes it to the rest of its work to provide special audit of his research results. The effect of research upon teaching and upon college team work and atmosphere requires study by officers and trustees. Self-surveyors cannot afford to take it for granted that time spent on research means time profitably spent, nor may it be taken for granted that research success is not jeopardizing other equally important activities. If, as the research enthusiasts maintain, there cannot be efficient teaching unless the teacher is conducting research, then obviously the most effective control of research is via con- trol of teaching method and product. President Butler advises for Columbia an administrative "board of research separate and apart from the university council, but responsible to it, whose duty it would be (a) 158 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities to receive suggestions for systematic investigations from in- dividual officers and departments, (b) to review them, (c) to rank them in order of precedence in claim upon next year's budget, and (d) to discourage duplication. 56. Cost of FactUty Research With few exceptions contemporary discussions of college costs fail to recognize that faculty research has its own costs. Instead, research costs are unspecified and imbedded in instructors' salaries. Even the Iowa Survey Commis- sion's admirable plan for setting up expenditures does not mention research. Occasionally there are appeals for re- search chairs or for buildings and equipment, the annual maintenance of which will later be charged to teaching. The two nearest approaches to segregating research costs are in the biennial estimates of the University of Wiscon- sin, where for several years research cost has been esti- mated at from " one third to one fourth of the total run- ning expenses " ; and in Toledo University, where faculty members report to the president specifically on regular ten- day time sheets the proportion of time given inter alia to scientific studies and to research for the municipality. The best first step in ascertaining the dollar cost of re- search will be to fill out the time distribution card on page 148. This will show not merely a total or an average cost for research, but the detail cost in time for each instructor and each subject. Whether time cost means money cost de- pends upon whether time given to research is part of or in excess of the minimum number of hours which is expected as full-time service. Whether a college prescribes any minimum time that must be given to research or any minimum time that must be given to instruction should be learned. Few colleges as yet have any understanding as to the amount of time which must or may go to research. At Wisconsin the president expects every instructor to give a minimum of 15 hours a week to research plus teaching, and counts every hour less* than 15 hours a week as a rebate chargeable against re- Questions or Notes 159 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 160 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities search; the dean of arts and sciences considers that the rebates are due to " demand and supply " regardless of re- search; the dean of agriculture keeps a cost accounting for research. In the small colleges an instructor must do his research in his own time if at all, in addition to doing a full week's work of instruction. Even in the large colleges instruc- tors usually make their bargain for teaching hours, irrespec- tive of any obligation or inclination to do research work in other hours. To be sure, it is customary to cite opportunity for research among inducements which a college has to offer. As a rule a college wishing a particular man will offer him a maximum of ten or eight or even four hours a week, per- haps not even indirectly for the sake of promoting his re- search but for the sake of securing that particular man and his reputation or promise. For reasons stated on pages 157 and 325 ff., colleges must soon in self-defense find out what research does for and to instruction and what it costs. In his annual report for 1916 President Butler of Colum- bia asks for $6,000,000 for endowment of research in ap- plied sciences; $1,000,000 for endowment of legal research and inquiry; and $2,000,000 for research in political sci- ence, philosophy, and pure science. Yet these funds if in hand would be but beginnings. More endowment means more buildings ; more buildings and more endowments bring more students; more students mean need for more endow- ments and more buildings. President Butler suggests an enormous future cost of research when he says : " Research can only be carried on in an institution of learning that is equipped with one of the really great libraries of the world." Confronted with the two alternatives of abandoning re- search or incurring great cost for research, probably at least 100 colleges will choose the latter alternative. Those who intend to qualify for research must count the cost. Those who acknowledge inability to foster research must also count and eliminate research costs. Practical questions for sur- veyors include these: Faculty Research: Cost Questions 161 i. Is the cost of supplies, equipment, books, etc., used in research segregated, whether actual use is by the instructor or by students working upon the instruc- tor's research? Y. . . N... ?... Is this cost currently reported on time sheets, requisitions, etc.? y.... n... ?... 2. When the budget is estimated and voted, is a definite item set up for research costs Y . . . N. . . ? ..., both of supplies and equipment . . . and of salaries . . . ? 3. Do state-supported institutions estimate, if they can- not accurately report, the cost of research ? Y. . . N. . . ? . . . Is the reported cost net ... or gross . . . ; i.e., is it taken before . . ., (as it should be) or after . . . tuition fees and other revenues have been subtracted ? 4. Is research encouraged for which costs have not been provided? Y. . . N... ?... 5. What effort is made to compare costs, including di- version of energy, with benefits to instruction, to col- lege spirit, to personnel, to public welfare, to schol- arship ? V FACULTY GOVERNMENT 57. Commission Government for Faculties PRESIDENT Silas Evans of Ripon College has fur- nished the following as introduction to this section : " Faculty government is generally inadequate. Con- sistency is the hobgoblin of college faculties. They worship precedent. ' It hath been said,' by themselves is the law of action. Government by rules and through rules, and the interest of rules, cannot be easily other than pharisaic. The college faculty should be saved from police functions and kept for a mere constructive use of personal influence. " Government exclusively by deans and adminis- trative officers is inadequate. It is difficult to relate firm administration and personal influence. It is hard to give the impression of friendliness and exercise discipline. Administrative officers are apt to be placed in the position of ancient cabinet officers who were sometimes offered up to the public to save the false doctrine, ' A king can do no wrong.' " The three forms of college government above have been tried and found defective. In the nature of the case, each form is too little representative. Ripon College has tried with most gratifying results what is called the commission form of college government. The college is in the state of Wisconsin and strives to reflect in its college government the best forms of gov- ernment in the commonwealth. The Wisconsin idea involves this fact — if a law is worth passing it must be big enough and important enough, and therefore elastic enough, to command the time and the skill of some expert in its application. This is democracy with expert leadership. This is the personal element in government without the limitations of democracy. " Any leading interest of college life that needs regu- i6a Faculty Government: Commissions 163 lation and guidance is placed under the charge of some commission. These commissions cover every possible college relationship, and should any question arise which, in the mind of the dean or president, is not clearly defined within the powers of the commissions, it can easily be referred to one of them. " There are the following commissions : Athletics, college commons, forensics and publications, music, and social life. The college has certain broad policies and principles which define its central aims, and in the light of which each commission carries on its work. A commission is given full power to organize itself and carry on its work in its own way. Each commission is constituted with one local trustee member, two faculty members, and two student members, the students gen- erally holding office by virtue of office in some student organization. Faculty members and the trustee mem- ber are appointed by the president. The dean of the college and the president are ex-officio members on each committee. The genius of this form of govern- ment is almost exclusively in the selection of leadership, in the placing of responsibility, and in the continuity of policy." 58. How President and Faculty Deal with One Another The conditions of many surveys make this a delicate ques- tion, even if it is officially propounded. Surveyors run the risk of discovering in a particular college such conditions as have led to the organization of a national protective union among professors. In surveying a publicly sup- ported institution, there is only one honest way out and that is to ascertain and report the truth, whomsoever it may prove to be at fault. For private inventories it is desirable that every president frankly ask about his relations to his faculty. Since most self-surveyors will be a combination of offi- cers and faculty, it will prove expedient to confine their study of mutual relations between president and faculty to questions like these: t64 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities i. Is there a written procedure; i.e., are promises and inducements in writing? Y . . . N. . . f... Do by-laws describe the accountability of the president? y... n... r... 2. Does this procedure adequately represent the interests of both sides? Y... N... ?... 3. What, if any, changes are needed? 4. Does this procedure invite suggestion and complaint from the faculty? Y... N... ?... 5. Does it provide for automatic reference of important questions to faculty . . . , departments . . . , or com- mittees . . . ? Y. . . N... ?... 6. Does it foster the limitation of faculty contact with president to a few faculty members? Y . . . N. . . ?. . . 7. Does it insure action by the president only on the basis of provable, impersonal facts after submission to all faculty members involved ; i.e., does it guaran- tee that the president will not recommend dismissals or postponement of salary increases for other rea- sons than those made known to the faculty members involved? Y. . . N... ?... 8. If the president's recommendations mean merely transmitting departmental recommendations to en- gage, to dismiss, to promote, to postpone salary in- creases, is this fact made clear in written procedure? Y ... N... ?... Must the president act with- out learning departmental reasons Y. . . N...; or after learning these reasons may he withhold them from faculty members? Y. . . N. . . 9. Where the president acts as intermediary without ex- ercising independent judgment, must he meet pro- posed additions to the faculty before their final en- gagement? Y. . . N... 10. After discharging the fixed duties imposed upon him, how much time has the president left to use, if he and the faculty wish, for personal contact with faculty members ? Doing without a President 165 11. What practice is fixed in writing or in tradition with respect to office hours by the president, and " at homes " or special receptions to or by the faculty ? How far is it feasible or desirable for the president to meet faculty members on the basis of their prin- cipal college service; viz., their work with students? 12. What suggestions have president or faculty with re- spect to possible changes in extent and character of personal relations? In 19 16 the deans of Northwestern University, acting for their faculties, recommended that for the time at least there be no permanent president and that instead a temporary presiding and " clearing " officer be named from existing deans. It is expected that no temporary officer shall serve more than one year. This in effect is the orthodox prac- tice in Scotland. The college with this arrangement can be asked questions with less fear of embarrassment, because this year's president will be next year's faculty member. When surveying tax-supported institutions, the limita- tions above mentioned will be found by self -surveyors. The outside surveyor, however, if brought in by taxpayers via the legislature, will ask several more questions, as must now and then an outside surveyor brought in by alumni associa- tion or board of trustees to survey a private college. 1. Does evidence show that the president in his deal- ings with the faculty acts from personal motive . . . , factional promptings . . . , or comprehensive imper- sonal facts . . . ? 2. In what ways does the president make it easier or harder for faculty members to do their work? 3. How many times and under what circumstances, other than at formal group meetings, has each faculty mem- ber, especially each new faculty member, met the pres- ident this year? 4. In what ways does the president make use of the first faculty meeting of the school year and of succeeding 1 66 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities faculty meetings to establish helpful, understanding relations with faculty members ? 5. What evidences are there that faculty members con- sider the president as their agent or as their superior officer and arbiter of their fate? 59. Is Faculty Government Democratic? Self-government as practiced by faculties is a field which faculty members can survey without waiting for official ac- tion. The special surveyor will reluctantly study this ques- tion. There is danger that even self-surveyors will over- look it or deal with it philosophically rather than investi- gatingly. Before justifying any lament over the growth of bureau- cracy and autocracy, our faculties must put in order those particular houses over which they now have exclusive con- trol. Faculty meetings and departmental meetings still be- long to the members. They make the rules; they come or stay away. If they run these democratic meetings in ways to disfranchise themselves, they must blame themselves and the system they use rather than the president, dean, or trustees. As citizens, as apostles of higher education, and as self-respecting scholars faculties are under obligation to work out methods of self-government that will be at least as successful as the democracy which city, state, or nation achieves. The so-called democratic organization of our colleges is usually — and logically — the least democratic thing about them. Where there is unequal knowledge there will be un- equal opportunity, there cannot be democracy. Nothing is more undemocratic than a mass meeting where individuals act without knowing why. It is wasteful to have grown-up men with scholarly ambitions spending their time sitting around and talking and talking over some little ques- tion that their own students would settle — and settle right — in ten minutes. For two or three men to tell one hundred men what to think is not democratic. A large faculty coming together Is Faculty Government Democratic 167 without knowledge in advance of what is to come up at their meeting cannot work democratically. In many col- leges the use of methods which kill democracy is further aggravated by the actual disfranchisement of those below professorial rank. Every time a faculty member sneers at " efficiency," he is driving an additional nail into the coffin of faculty self- government. The price of more faculty democracy is more faculty in- terest in applying principles of scientific management to the management of colleges, including the part for which facul- ties alone are responsible. Faculty insistence upon faculty understanding will do more for faculty independence than will faculty control of appointments. One mistaken belief is now threatening to sweep through faculties ; viz., that it will foster faculty democracy to have faculty delegates on boards of trustees or at trustee meetings. There is no sadder fallacy than that physical presence of a faculty member is equal to faculty representation. On the contrary there can be no democracy of government before there is democracy of information. What the faculty does not know its representative cannot impart. What the repre- sentative does not know he cannot impart to the faculty. In fact, it by no means follows that a faculty member when present at faculty mass meeting is even representing him- self, because unless he has information and unless he and others discuss and vote on the basis of information the accident of debate may cause him to misrepresent his own and his department's interests. 60. Faculty Meetings, Committee Assignments, Minutes Faculty meetings must continue to be " demonstrations of inanity," as Professor A. W. Rankin dubs them, so long as meeters are in a state of inanition with respect to the busi- ness proposed. It is mobilization of knowledge vital to faculty members which will democratize college faculties. Several practices endanger and defeat, several other prac- 1 68 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities tices foster, faculty democracy. Among the earmarks of faculty paralysis the surveyor should look for these: i. Attempt to secure deliberation from a faculty too large for deliberation. What is called deliberation by those who do the speaking in large faculties is often called declamation and ennui by the much larger number who only sit and wait. 2. Attempt to secure administration from a faculty too large for administration. A faculty may be small enough for effective deliberation and still too large for administration. 3. Belief that there is democracy in physical presence of a large number. 4. A low rate of attendance for those supposed to at- tend. Mass meetings from which the mass stays away are hardly democratic. 5. Monopoly of discussion by the same few. 6. Unequitable distribution of committee assignments. Overworking the few and underworking the many means superficial work and undemocratic government. Usually it means failure to employ and develop the younger men, who because of their newness and re- cent study have much to give. 7. Failure to distribute calendar proceedings in advance. 8. Failure to send out in advance digests of reports to be considered. 9. Giving time to reading minutes aloud instead of send- ing out copies. 10. Failure to inform non-attendants of matters discussed and actions taken in their absence. 11. Failure to make a running start each new year with summaries of work accomplished the preceding year and of pending business. Where a faculty or an individual wishes to survey faculty democracy, these questions may help : 1. Are minutes in proper form . . ., appropriately paged . . . , indexed . . . , signed . . . , formally approved . . . ? Do they state the time of adjournment Y . . . N . . .; Questions or Notes 169 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 170 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities number present Y. . . N...; number voting Y... N..., persons present? Y... N... Are steno- graphic notes taken of important transactions? Y . . . N. . . Are important reports digested? Y. . . N. ... Are important questions and actions explained in min- utes without requiring reference to a separate file book ? Y . . . N . . . Is discussion digested ? Y . . . N. . . Is previous action codified so that it will not be necessary either to act on the basis of some one's memory or to postpone action until former records can be consulted ? Y . . . N . . . 2. For one year list the number of meetings; number present at each meeting; times individuals are men- tioned in minutes; times individuals are appointed to committees; votes for and against important issues; number of disciplinary administrative questions not meriting faculty action ; number of educational ques- tions justifying faculty consideration; fraction of fac- ulty not participating or not voting for policies adopted. 3. Regarding committees : Do standing committees re- port orally ... or in writing ... at the first meeting of the year ? Are new standing committees appointed at the first meeting? Y. . . N. . . How many mem- bers are on more than one standing committee; how many on none? How many members are on more than one special committee; how many on none? State for each member the number and names of standing and special committees. Are committees required to report the scope of their study Y... N. . . and the fact base of their conclusions Y ... N. . . ? What provision is there for referring back to committees all reports based upon obviously inade- quate investigations? How many important sub- jects were referred to committees without specifying time for return? How many that might have been reported upon at the first or second subsequent meet- ing were reported later or " lost in the shuffle " ? Professional Secretary for Faculty 171 At Toledo the faculty elects representatives to the faculty council. The president is chairman of all faculty meetings, so that the dean may represent the faculty on the floor. The faculty retains powers of initiative. Throughout the college work similar efforts are being made to secure a combination of efficiency, accountability, and democracy. 61. Faculty Investigations and Reports The University of Wisconsin faculty has recently ap- pointed one of its strongest members, at almost the maxi- mum professorial salary, as faculty secretary. He is to be the faculty's clearing house, central, control station, train dispatcher, continuing memory, follow-up man. This step was recommended by the faculty as a means of increasing faculty democracy. The hope was that by guar- anteeing that faculty questions, proposals, and reports would receive prompt, cumulative, scientific, representa- tive attention at one center it would become worth while for each member to make his best contribution. It is ex- pected that the university will receive numerous constructive suggestions and helpful criticisms which previous machinery did not invite. Similar steps are being taken by several faculties. The practice is growing of delegating administrative matters to one small group, educational and legislative matters to another, and reserving general meetings for debate of ques- tions vital to all. Getting acquainted with colleagues can be better accomplished through social meetings or general convocations than through faculty meetings which stumble along with administrative questions that belong to small committees or to administrative officers. Inspirational and team spirit that result from being in a group and from meeting one's colleagues would be enhanced by eliminating from such meetings all discussions and details that most fac- ulty members find dispiriting and devitalizing. Whether as investigator a faculty obeys the laws of sci- entific research can quickly and profitably be ascertained. 17 2 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Until surveyed the methods of faculty investigation and re- port are apt to be these : i. The assignment is too generally worded. 2. The committee " lets George do " most of the work and me-too's his conclusions. 3. The study is not carefully outlined. 4. Only a small fraction of the necessary facts are sought and obtained. 5. A report of opinion rather than of facts is given. Other earmarks of deficient investigation include these : 6. The faculty receives, debates, and accepts or rejects the report without having studied it in advance of dis- cussion. 7. The facts are selectively, not adequately, summarized. 8. The report does not jibe with facts reported. 9. Action does not jibe with the report. 10. The record does not jibe with action taken. 62. Faculty Salaries and Tenure This question illustrates the point made earlier, about the limitations of comparative studies. True, it may help slightly to report that salaries of College A are above or below salaries of College B, but seldom have trustees of College A fixed their salaries with reference to College B. On the contrary, the salary schedule of each college is chiefly the result of local comparisons and conditions. It is these local factors which surveyors will profitably seek first : 1. What difficulties due to salary are experienced in se- curing new faculty members of each grade ? 2. How many and which instructors have left in the last two years because of higher salaries elsewhere, either in colleges or other fields ? 3. What salaries are men of similar training and ca- pacity — equal years in and out of college, equal ex- pense for preparation — receiving in other fields in this locality? Salary Questions 173 4. How do salaries compare with teaching salaries in secondary and elementary schools, each grade ? 5. How do costs of living — in this locality, not weighted costs for the country — compare with col- lege salaries? 6. How do teaching salaries, each grade, compare with administrative salaries and clerical salaries ? 7. What, if any, deduction has heretofore been made in salaries because the college was on the accredited list of the Carnegie Foundation, or what, if any, addi- tions have been made because the college is not on the Carnegie list ? What evidence is there that positions in a college are more or less attractive because it is or is not on the Carnegie list ? 8. What local pension plan is there and how does it af- fect salary schedules and the power to hold in- structors ? The foregoing questions relate to college salaries as they are, without questioning the equity of their distribution. In many colleges difficulties are due to inequitable distri- bution rather than to inadequate totals. Such questions as these are therefore also necessary : 1. Is there a salary schedule for each grade of in- structor? Y... N... 2. Who determines whether and when increases shall come? 3. What is the fixed increment for er ch grade? 4. How many exceptions to the schedule are there ? On what are they based? Is *heir existence known to other faculty members? 5. Are exceptions due to importunities by instructors; to within-college politics; to away-from-college ad- vertising; to bona fide invitations from other col- leges with higher salaries or greater opportunities; to merit that compels recognition ? 6. Does the system overlook instructors who concen- trate upon service to the college and refuse to use 174 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities meretricious methods of attracting the attention of trustees and superior officers or tentative invitations from other colleges? Y. . . N... 7. What is the evidence that a college really loses when it lets a strong man go to a higher salary in another college ? 8. Are the instructors obtainable at the lower grades of position and salary as highly qualified as they should be for the heavy work they carry? Y ... N ... 9. Would a higher salary rate for initial positions bring forward as candidates men and women well trained academically who in addition have demonstrated their ability as trainers and scholars in secondary schools or as school superintendents? Campaigns for higher college salaries will be more ef- fective after faculties begin with facts about the quantity, quality, and social usefulness of the services they render. If for a generation not a word were said about salaries, and if faculties concerned themselves with the efficiency of their work, college salaries would increase more rapidly than via complaints that salaries are too low or campaigns for in- creased endowment. There are two salary issues regarding which action will not for some time be fitted to theory. In spite of conclu- sive evidence that special ability should be specially re- warded, faculties will protest against unequal salaries for equal titles and equal tenure. Secondly, in spite of con- clusive evidence that a college teacher is entitled to a higher salary than a hand worker, apprentice rates will be continued and frequently lowered for salaries of initial teaching in colleges and universities. The argument against salary schedules is effectively stated by President Butler in the annual report for Columbia, 1916: " All proposals to pay the same salary to men who hold the same title or who have served the same number of years are proposals to reward indifference and incompetence at the cost Explaining Salary Increases 175 of devotion and achievement. They are the usual undemo- cratic but highly popular device of leveling down, under the illusory belief that this produces equality and that such an equality is democratic. What this device really produces is inequality, and this inequality is most undemocratic. There is no more reason why all academic officers who have the same title should receive the same compensation than there is why all men of the same height or the same complexion should be paid the same wage. The man of experience and of either teaching power or genius for investigation should be advanced, both in compensation and in grade, as rapidly as possible and without any regard to the fate of others who are without his talent or capacity. Only in this way can a university be kept the home of excellence and prevented from becoming an asylum of mediocrities." Yet after conceding premises, arguments, and conclusions against salary schedules, American faculties insist that the frying pan is safer than the fire; that what sets out to be recognition of genius in scholarship, teaching, and investiga- tion quickly becomes special favor for genius in flattery, self- advertising, obsequiousness, non-instructional service, and college politics. A self-survey by all colleges of special salary recognitions would list the following as to each person advanced out of order or beyond normal for his group : 1. Length of service in this college. 2. Times and dates when advanced out of order. 3. Reasons assigned and recorded. 4. Additional reasons understood privately. 5. Steps taken before increasing salaries; i.e., who in- itiated it, — the president, a dean, a department head, a department, or the instructor himself? 6. If because of an outside offer, what steps were taken to verify the offer? Was it in writing, verbal, defi- nite, or just a nibble? 7. Did a bona fide outside offer come because of work done in and for the college or away from the college, such as attendance at educational conventions? 176 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 8. Was the feeling as to the instructor's value compared with facts as to the power to draw and hold students ; efficiency of instruction and contact; ability to work with faculty? 9. Was each proposal to advance a member out of order made the occasion of a survey or inventory to see whether it was special ability or accident that was to be recognized ? 10. What were his contributions to science and literature? 11. Are colleagues deprived of consideration for salary advances because of the accident that some other col- lege has not, for its own reasons, offered them more than they receive here? 12. Have the president and deans such information with respect to all faculty members that they are qualified to recognize special ability and to distinguish between aggressive mediocrity and modest superiority? As to initial salaries of young men, they will undoubtedly decrease as salaries of full professors increase. So obvious and so many are the opportunities for self -improvement and professional advancement offered by teaching positions in colleges and universities that with a free field and no favor men will be willing to pay for those opportunities just as promising men pay tuition to graduate schools for three years and find it a good investment. The three principal questions, therefore, have nothing to do with salary but are these: 1. Does a teaching position at our college demonstrably offer opportunities for self -improvement and pro- fessional advancement? Y... N... ?... 2. Do we advertise widely these opportunities, especially among successful teachers in secondary schools? Y. . . N. . . f. . . 3. Are our specifications and our method of selection such as to secure teaching ability? Y ... N... ? . . . Last of all may academic groups pin their faith to such Salary Averages a Snare 177 salary precepts as those that the Iowa survey commission employed : "The practice of the stronger institutions in this country indicates that the average salary for a department should be at least $2000 a year. In the judgment of the commis- sion this amount should be regarded for the time being as the reasonable minimum average in collegiate departments." Typical of Iowa extremes are these : Department Average Maximum- Minimum Botany $1517 $2500 $800 Chemistry 1430 3000 100 Education 2300 3500 900 English 1580 3500 998 Public Speaking 1325 1650 100 Geology 1900 2600 450 German 1671 3000 160 History i960 3500 800 Mathematics 1580 3000 1000 Philosophy and Psychology 2300 3500 1500 Political Economy and Sociology. .. . 2200 3000 1000 Political Science 1700 2600 1000 Mixing maximum and minimum salaries produces just as worthless a figure in averages as does mixing maximum and minimum occupancy of a schoolroom, or mixing a man who has taught 25 years with four others who have never taught to get an average of five years of previous teaching. 63. Faculty Supervision of Research and Graduate Work No one claims that college and university faculties have been hampered from without in protecting their own stand- ards of research and graduate work. Presidents, trustees, and deans have not trespassed. Democracy has been so free — and so inarticulate — that it often spells anarchy. Worse still, the " tyranny of the mob " has compelled fac- ulties to applaud unscholarly work and without investiga- tion to resent question or criticism. Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to start bureaucratic machinery for testing professional scholarship or supervision ! Whether departments or deans certify to scholarship of 178 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities instructors recommended for appointment or promotion without testing it self-surveyors can easily learn. Whether trustees, presidents, and deans accept faith-born certificates on faith can be learned. Whether departments or faculties have organized crucibles for helping via frankly and scien- tifically testing one another's products will be quickly learned. Whether they want frank testing is another matter. Graduate work from the student's point of view is re- ferred to on pages 285 ft". We speak here of faculty protec- tion of faculty against inadequate supervision of graduate work. Degrees are given in the name of the faculty, not by individual departments. Low standards in Latin hurt the prestige, at home and abroad, of history and English, high standards in mathematics benefit German. Rules for test- ing candidates are faculty-made. The examining com- mittees which question candidates and read dissertations rep- resent the whole faculty as well as their own departments or the graduate dean who asks them to serve. Any break- down in the procedure is a breakdown of faculty democracy. Efforts to improve procedure via executive order would be .resented, therefore the need for faculty surveys. 1. Are examinations for advanced degrees perfunctory? Y... N... 2. Do examiners prepare themselves? Y... N... Do they study candidate's record, including written work? Y. . . N... Do they read candidate's thesis? Y. . . N. . . Or do they take examina- tion time asking questions about studies and thesis? Y... N... 3. Are questions fundamental ... or " catch " . . . ? 4. Are minutes taken at least of questions . . ., prefer- ably of all proceedings . . . ? 5. Is the graduate dean present? Y. . . N. . . Does he ask questions ? Y . . . N . . . 6. Is the examination advertised ? Y. . . N. . . Is it really open to visitors? Y . . . N . . . Do they come? Y... N... Doctor's Theses Tested i79 7. Are examiners free and equal? Y... N... Or does the major professor dominate? Y... N... Does each examiner accept wrong or incomplete an- swers to questions asked by others? Y. . . N. . . 8. Does faculty ever wonder why so few fail in spite of rumors of weakness? How many have been ex- amined in five years, each department ? How many failed? How many failures tried again? how soon? with what result ? 9. Has faculty the power of recall or referendum to protect itself against stultifying standards in any department or actual frauds in the faculty's name? Y... N... 10. Has the faculty organized a court of appeal for students who feel aggrieved by prejudice or catch questions or vacillating standards? Y . . . N . . . Nor are these mere rhetorical questions. On the con- trary they are vitally needed. Whether faculties which give advanced degrees will answer them democratically or obsequiously, truthfully or evasively, is a test of faculty democracy. One concrete example will help self-surveyors ask questions about home practices. A doctor's thesis was approved by his major professor for content and scholarship, by the graduate dean and li- brarian for form. The major professor was chosen as ex- ecutive of a great educational opportunity largely on the strength of credentials for supervision of scholarly work. The institution which advertised his scholarship and that of the candidate here referred to attracts graduates in large numbers for widely advertised opportunity to do scholarly work. The candidate was invited to another state on the strength of scholarship alleged to be typified by his thesis. Here are some of the salient facts about this thesis as re- ported and checked by Janet R. Rankin and Walter Mat- scheck, two experienced analysts. Typical superficial errors 1. Errors in English are numerous, such as judgments is. 180 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 2. On page 83 is a table so badly typed that no proof- reader could make it out. Figures are run together, columns are not separated, commas are typed over figures, " and the whole is wildly unintelligible." 3. Section 46 of statutes cited is section 31. 4. On page 80 the summary of two tables gives all per- centages 100 times too high, the decimal point prov- ing consistently obdurate. 5. The formula on which the whole thesis depends is not only wrong but is attributed to the wrong man. Typical omissions of essential data 6. There is no table of contents. 7. There is no index. 8. There is no bibliography. 9. An important law is quoted without citation. 10. A page insert referred to is lacking; for another ref- erence the page is not filled in. 11. The basic formula is not explained until page 74, where another formula is attributed to the wrong man. 12. The questionnaire from answers to which basic data were culled is not given. Unscientific methods used 13. Method used at one point is called incorrect at an- other. 14. " Owing to a typographical error in the question- naire," author says five was written for six, which vitiated a considerable part of the replies. 15. Because 1905 figures were used instead of available 1914 figures, wrong statements were made regarding one vital fact. 16. Elements of efficiency were obtained by asking 100 persons to list what they considered the ten most im- portant elements. Thus 98 elements were named from which candidate selected the ten which had been oftenest listed — utterly regardless of inherent value of elements. Undemocratic Departments 181 17. Conclusions are forced by sometimes omitting and sometimes using relevant material and by otherwise changing bases. 18. The majority of plottings on curves are incorrect; e.g., 1.5 is plotted as 2.0; .2 as .8; .02 as .04, etc., etc. 64. Departmental Meetings and Conferences The very faculty members who protest most bitterly against administrative encroachment by dean or president will often be found most undemocratic in their manage- ment of departmental affairs. Secrets are kept by depart- ment chairmen from colleagues or perhaps by professors from professors, or by all of professorial rank from those below professorial rank. Understandings are violated; misunderstandings fostered; personalities are permitted to interfere with free suggestion and open consideration of alternatives. The nature of departmental organization and the ease and wholesomeness of its workings are important objects of study. It will be necessary in most colleges to distin- guish between what is supposed to be done and what is actually done. Regulations may say that departmental bud- gets originate with departmental groups as a result of de- partmental conferences. The facts may prove that there are no conferences and no knowledge by the group until long after the chairman has practically settled for a year to come the department's fortunes. Again, the fact that one department fails to comply with regulations does not mean that other departments are not complying. There- fore it is necessary to know both the advertised and actual procedure of each department. To insure definite memory and accurate description it is necessary to ask what steps were taken and when with re- spect to the department's last budget, or the department's last five new instructors, or the department's conferences last year upon teaching efficiency. One mistaken belief will be found generally interfering with departmental democracy; viz., that written announce- 1 82 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities ments, written catalogs, written reports, written under- standings, and written minutes foster perfunctory attitudes. On the contrary, following an agreed-upon procedure and taking each step in writing foster democracy and coopera- tion by reducing or eliminating the possibility of trouble and delay due to injection or assertion of personalities and factionalism. Is it absurd for a department with only three or five mem- bers to record its plans, agreements, proposals, and actions ? Comparison of written procedure with results will show that it is not absurd even for a department with but one person to leave a businesslike written record showing al- ternatives considered; alternatives rejected, with reasons; alternatives accepted; and projects outlined. 65. Interdepartmental Conferences The more wheels within wheels and the more cogs dove- tailing with other cogs, the more necessary is it to have a procedure for supplying interrelated faculties with com- mon purpose and common language. Not letting the right hand know what the left hand does has proved wasteful in so many ways that faculties, from college to elementary school, are now developing interde- partmental conferences. Teachers of English cannot suc- ceed without the aid of teachers of history, physics, and economics. This aid they cannot secure without first se- curing the attention of those instructors of other than Eng- lish classes to the importance of the spoken and written English that is accepted and required. Unless the eco- nomics department acquaints itself with the application of its subjects to engineering and agriculture, these other di- visions will reasonably demand special instructors in en- gineering, economics, and agricultural economics. For a given college surveyors must therefore ask : 1. What subjects naturally dovetail or should be made to dovetail; i.e., to reinforce one another? 2. In what ways is this dovetailing now recognized by Self-support and instruction Berea College Self-support and instruction Berea Cooperation, economy, instruction Berea High cost of living means fewer students Interdepartmental Cooperation 183 the departments responsible for those subjects? 3. What conferences are there among related depart- ments when planning the new year's work? When new courses are proposed? When new instructors are brought in? What agreements now exist with respect to cooperation among departments ? 4. What steps are taken to see how agreements are working ? 5. Are they trying to bring all members to meetings . . . or are departments represented by delegates . . . ? 6. How are conference conclusions made known to members not present and to deans and presidents ? 7. Are annual summaries made of advance steps due to inter-departmental cooperation? Y . . . N. . . f . . . 66. Educational Conventions State and national conventions cannot be ignored by edu- cational managements. Even if their educational contri- butions were negligible, they must be considered as clearing houses and' stepping stones for men wishing calls from other colleges or increased salaries at home. Nor can col- leges afford to ignore such recurrent drains upon college energy as conventions represent, not so much because of time required to attend them, as because of time spent in preparing for them — and in getting over them ! Whether contributions to conventions result in net gains or net losses to a particular college can be ascertained by self-surveys. Whether the benefits are distributed equally among departments and faculty members and how directly students share in them can also be ascertained by requiring such facts as these : 1. The number of state, district, and national conven- tions which deal with subjects treated at the college surveyed. 2. The number of college instructors or officers attend- ing each convention. 3. The number of persons engaged in each line who 184 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities did not attend its convention last year; the year be- fore ; the last five years. 4. The number of " rounders " or " repeaters " in the faculty who at the expense of the college or them- selves attend meetings regularly. 5. The amount of college time and college money spent upon these trips. 6. The ways in which those who do not attend con- ventions are acquainted with proceedings at conven- tions ; i.e., through written or verbal reports to fac- ulty, trustees, faculty groups, or students. Steps taken to follow up and apply locally the sug- gestions received from conventions. The number of men who have received invitations from other colleges because of visits to conventions. The number of men drawn from other colleges be- cause met at conventions. 10. Concrete evidences that instruction or management or team spirit has appreciably benefited. 11. Concrete evidences that individual subjects or de- partments or the whole college have failed to benefit either because conventions were not attended or con- vention benefits not followed up. Shortly after trustees begin to ask about college benefits received from faculty conventions, they will wish to get to- gether to compare experiences and to discuss problems peculiar to lay sponsors for the huge expenditures for higher education. VI EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS 67. Student Cost of Living, Room and Board UNFORTUNATELY no one knows how many high- school boys and girls have given up hope of going to college because they cannot afford the cost of living away from home while taking a college course. They could spare the time; they could go without earning; they could raise the tuition: they could not give time, go without earning, pay tuition, and pay for board and room. Many colleges have allowed landlords and grocerymen to absorb margins of paying power which students would have been glad to pay for higher tuition or for wider col- lege opportunities. So great have been recent increases in cost of living that colleges out of self-defense must con- sider the student's problem their own problem and will wisely begin by asking whether they themselves are doing all that might be done, first to check advance of costs, and secondly, to reduce costs. One obstacle to moderate living expenses is the leisure- class theory which Veblen breaks into three canons or re- quirements: conspicuous waste; conspicuous consumption; and conspicuous leisure. Fewer and fewer are the colleges that are proud of their low cost of living. Even state uni- versities dread what one president says would be "bar- racks " and covet what he calls " residential halls." Thus we find college dormitories running often without effort to make them entirely self-supporting and sometimes without effort to fit the charge to student ability to pay ; i.e., to stu- dent home standards. Paralleling these psychological barriers to low cost of living is another movement which demands higher sanitary- standards for rooming and boarding houses, which are in- variably used as excuses for increased prices. Cleanliness, 185 1 86 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities ventilation, light, cubic space, running water, pure foods, etc., cost money. The first step in a survey of living conditions is to an- alyze and describe them : 1. Is it known how many rooms for how many students are available outside of college dormitories? Y ... N... 2. Is a directory distributed among students giving prices and facts as to location and size of room, near- ness to toilet and bath, exposure, windows, artificial light, wardrobes? Y... N... 3. Is one college committee or officer responsible for all descriptions? Y. . . N... 4. Are students encouraged to reduce congestion and rent by walking to distant houses ? Y . . . N. . . 5. Will the college give credits toward " gym " for walking over a mile two or more times daily? Y. . . N... 6. Are restaurants and boarding houses inspected? Y. . . N. . . . How often? By whom? How defi- nitely ? 7. Are results of inspection made known to students? Y. .. N... 8. Are retail prices studied and compared with prices in near-by non-college towns of similar size? Y... N... 9. Does the college prohibit students from living or boarding in places which do not conform to minimum standards of sanitation and propriety? Y ... N... 10. Is information about living alternatives sent to stu- dents' homes so that parents and principals may help select accommodations fitted to financial ability? Y... N... 11. Are typical student budgets to show minimum possi- bilities and various grades up to the maximum per- missible included in statements to parents and pupils? Y... N... Student Expense Budgets 187 Only by answering such questions and acting in accordance with evidence obtained can colleges reduce the unearned in- crement which a few stronger forces in a college town will manage to absorb. Having college dormitories does not remove the im- portance of questions like the above. The modern idea is that every boarding and rooming place is part of the offi- cial accommodations offered by a college; it helps select and it supervises. Few colleges as yet have dormitories enough so that by competition they can compel lower and better ac- commodations outside. Laboratory use of need for in- formation regarding living costs can be made by classes in household economics, statistical method, etc. Student budgets of expenses will disclose factors that are artificially raising the cost of living. Several women's col- Student Expenses — Smith September— October cooperative study, 8^x10% Sept.— Oct. Class. No. [Student's stub 11 heads] [Total] DAY Tuition and Extra Fees Board and Room TUITION and EXTRA FEES TOTAL Other expense headings to be filled out day by day and returned, and to be summarized on the stub retained by the student, were: Clothing Laundry Traveling Expenses HEALTH Extra Food Recreation Hospitality Dues and Subscriptions Books Stamps and Stationery Church Charity Incidentals TOTALS 1 88 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities leges have for some time been having student budgets kept for information about the cost of living and particularly to train students in investigation and in budget keeping. An extensive study was made by Smith in 19 14, where each stu- dent recorded through several months, in books provided by the college, expenses as noted on the preceding page. Any advice to parents which Yale feels free to give can with dignity be duplicated by other colleges. President Hadley warns parents against allowing students too much for college expenses. What he considers moderate for Yale would be immoderate for 590 of our 600 colleges. The principle is clear, however, that unless colleges impose restrictions upon the few students who have ability to spend too much, those students will progressively force up the standard of living for all other students. It takes but a short time for a student body to change unrecognizably. Over dormitory standards the college has complete con- trol. If inquiry shows that rooms or board cost more than necessary, immediate remedy for several conditions may be possible. 1. Are payments required in advance? Y. . . N... 2. Are "bad debts" followed until collected? Y... N... 3. Is purchasing done advantageously? Y. . . N... 4. Are food portions standardized? Y... N... 5. What is done to reduce and to use table waste? Y... N... 6. Are staple supplies bought at wholesale prices? Y... N... 7. Are purchases tested for quality and quantity? Y... N... 8. Can students wait on table without social prejudice? Y... N... 9. Is the dietary balanced? Y . . . N. . . 10. Is it too restricted for the price ? Y. . . N. . . 1 1. Could a palatable, wholesome dietary be supplied at a lower price; i.e., is the present dietary unnecessarily elaborate and expensive? Y. . . N. . . Dormitory Management 189 12. When costs are counted, is a charge made to cover all overhead, including interest charges ? Y . . . N... 13. Is dormitory space economically used ; i.e., could more rooms be obtained ? Y... N... 14. Could prices be scaled down by increasing the num- ber of rooms without making rooms too small for convenience and health? Y. . . N . .. 15. Are room prices adjusted to market value of space; i.e., could the minimum be lowered by charging more for rooms with exceptional advantages? Y. . . N... 16. Is the cafeteria idea feasible so that the service cost can be reduced ? 17. Is the a la carte idea workable? 18. Is the "club meal" idea workable; e.g., may stu- dents wishing cereal and milk for breakfast buy that only? 19. What is done to interest students in food alterna- tives and to show them what many must learn later, that " Mann ist was er issn't " is truer than that " Mann ist was er isst " ? 20. What is done to encourage cooperative student hous- ing? 21. Are secret societies or other clubs supervised and pre- vented from unduly raising the standards of living for themselves and other students? Y... N... ? '. . . 22. Do the published statements about the income and ex- penses of dormitory represent the truth . . . ; or do they appear self-supporting when they lose money . . . ; or are they called self-supporting when they pay nothing toward rent . . . ? 23. Must the commissary pay for itself as it goes; i.e., are the records such as to show not merely what money has been paid out but also the value of goods consumed week by week? Y. . . N... Minne- sota's dormitories know currently whether they are 190 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities running ahead or behind, and if celebrating a foot- ball victory makes last week's cost excessive the steward cuts down on next week's desserts or meats. MIAMI UNIVERSITY BOARDING DEPARTMENT Lunch and Dinneb Breakfast DAILY REPORT BISHOP HEPBURN COMMONS TOTAL Number regular boarders for current week Number of university employees served Total number of boarders (basis for food allowance) Allowance for food supplies per day Amount requisitioned for food supplies Profit for this day Loss for this day Profit per day for current month Loss per day for current month Profit per day for corresponding month last year Profit per day for best month — current year Income from single meal tickets for current month to date Income from single meal tickets for best month — current year Actual number of meals served: Regular boarders Employees By single meal tickets Guests Total Cost per meal served Remarks: Boarding Efficiency Checks BOABDING DEPARTMENT 191 Matron's Daily Report Hall Lunch and Dinner- Breakfast Menu — As Served REMARKS Lunch (0 (2) Reasons for changes in menu if any? Was menu as served satisfac- tory? Dinner (3) What items were unsatisfactory ? (4) What foods re- turned to kitch- en uneaten? Why? What dishes were (5) poorly cooked? (6) Suggested changes if menu is used again (7) Were_ supplies re- ceived from REPORT ON SERVICE s t re-room on Names of employees reporting late: time? Instances of unsatisfactory service — by whom (number — (8) Condition of sup- Report of dishes broken in kitchen whom). General Remarks: kind, by Meats Fruits Vegetables Miscl. DO NOT WRITE Matron HERE Receipts for new dishes used, unit costs, and additional Total meals served remarks or suggestions should be given on reverse side Total cost of this sheet. Cost per meal served BOARDING DEPARTMENT Daily Report — Head Waiter Hall Date NUMBER MEALS SERVED LUNCH DINNER BREAKFAST TOTAL Regular boarders Employees Single meal tickets Guests Total (Turn in single meal and guest tickets with report) Names of waiters reporting late or absent and reason: Instances of unsatisfactory service — by whom — Report of dishes broken in dining room (number, kind, by whom) Was service prompt and satisfactory? If not indicate reason for delay, etc. In your judgment how satisfactory was menu to boarders? Check below. BREAKFAST LUNCHEON DINNER Exceptionally good Good Fair Unsatisfactory Remarks: (Signed) (1) Were meals served on sched- ule? (2) What items in menu were un- satisfactory ? (3) What foods re- turned to kitch- en uneaten? Why? (4) What dishes were poorly cooked? (5) Was there short- age in quantity of any item? (6) Gen eral appear- ance of (1) Tables (4 Food 192 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 68. Cost of High Living Were the cost of board, room, and clothes to decrease for ten years, were colleges to give free board and room, it is probable that the gross cost of living at colleges would go on increasing. College boys and girls tend to spend all their parents will afford. The reason one thousand dollars is moderate at Yale is not that New Haven's living costs are high but that there is high living among Yale men. For every fifty dollars parents are willing to add to tuition they gladly add one or two hundred toward high living. Our sons must " keep up." Were it not tragic it would be amusing that college instructors, Juno-eyed, watch the same fond parents or taxpayers refuse to keep instructors' salaries growing with growing costs of living, and lavishly finance artificially raised costs of high living among stu- dents. Among causes at work everywhere to increase high living by college students are these, all of which lend themselves readily to discovery, location, description, and control via cooperation of trustees, faculty, and student organizations: 1. The secret or other social club, accentuated when in- tercollegiate. 2. Intercollegiate athletics with practically compulsory tax for games at home and abroad. 3. Unrestrained expenditures by the few whose parents want them " to make a splash " ; specifically the auto- mobile ahd tomorrow's airship. 4. Natural social preferment by faculty as well as stu- dents of those who have money to spend. 5. Lack of community parties where the only aristoc- racy is ability to compete in singing, games, conversa- tion, entertainment. 6. Student functions which constitute practical assess- ment upon loyalty and pocketbook — Junior prom, glee club, theatrical society — and where those who can spend set the pace. 7. Faculty failure to prove interest in brain contests and Limiting Student Extravagance 193 inexpensive entertainments, annual oratorical and de- bate contests, dramatics, photography-club exhibit. 8. Failure of catalog or advisers to inform parents and students of alternatives to high living and extrava- gance. 9. Failure of private colleges to announce that profligate or extravagant students will not be allowed to re- main and thus licensed to levy taxes upon the entire student body. 69. The Out-of-State Student The state-supported college cannot legally — without leg- islation — limit home-state student expenditures. It can set such students an example in the conduct of its own dor- mitories and restaurants and in its control of student clubs and activities. It can enforce economy as well as honesty and accountability upon organized student activities. With out-of-state students it is free to repress extravagance un- relentingly 1. By exacting pledges in advance not to exceed a fixed limit and to keep accounts subject to audit. 2. By dismissing upon evidence, without refunds. 3. By refusing registration to reduce congestion and higher rents. 4. By conditioning registration upon residing outside the congested area. Wisconsin by state law gives resident students preference in dormitories. All state-supported dormitories should report non-resi- dents housed. 5. By limiting membership in student social clubs. 6. By exacting a higher standard of scholarship for reg- istration and for continuance, coupled with a lower leeway of permissible unexcused absences. It takes time to be pleasurably extravagant. 7. By requiring participation (by undergraduates) in in- tellectual or non-social activities. Every state-supported institution can easily learn for each 194 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities item of living cost what each student, resident as well as non-resident, spends. Pains must be taken to secure total costs, including money spent at home upon clothes for col- lege use, etc., as well as amount spent in the college town. The totals (obtained by the board of visitors) for non- residents at the University of Wisconsin in 1914 included these : Of 649 comparable non-residents, 409 or 64% spent over $500 and 141 or 22% spent over $700. Of 825 comparable resident students, 260 or 32% spent over $500 and 48 or less than 6% spent over $700. It would be helpful to know how those spending over $500 and over $700 are related to one another, to college politics, fraternities, society affairs, and scholarship. Such correla- tions self -surveys even by students can easily make. 70. Student Assemblies That the assembling of students promotes college spirit and liberalizes the individual is universally believed. Whether the assembling should be at chapel exercises, at athletic contests, at choral services, or so-called assemblies has become an acute problem. In many institutions of higher learning the unofficial compulsion to attend football games is more effective than official compulsion to attend chapel or assembly. For this result the unattractiveness of chapel and assembly shares responsibility with the attrac- tiveness of athletic contests. Whatever the reason, self- surveyors will want to locate it. From official records may be learned what assemblies there are ; how often ; whether compulsory or optional ; how large the estimated attendance and non-attendance; the names, number, and topics of speakers ; whether there is a whole-hearted inspiring welcome to new students the first week; whether assembly plans are fitted to out-of-college advertising or to students at college. Inquiry will disclose how definitely these meetings are planned and whether in Assemblies an Asset 19S purpose and execution they justify attendance by the stu- dent body. To learn what the faculty and students think about as- semblies will call for " scouting " or preferably for ques- tionnaires. Frank answers will be given, will indicate where assemblies have heretofore been unattractive, and may bring worthwhile suggestions like these: 1. That there be more contributions by both students and faculty, as in freshman addresses at Reed Col- lege. 2. That home talent be not displaced by foreign talent. 3. That there be special assemblies for students having common interests, for all students within a college, for all students who can meet most conveniently at four o'clock or at ten o'clock, for all students taking English courses. 4. That there be community music at all assemblies. 5. That faculty members explain advances, discoveries, or leading personalities in their field. 6. That graduate students test the value and interest of their researches. 7. That president and deans appear oftener. 8. That assembly exercises be used to correlate courses as in former days presidents used assemblies for plain talks that were really courses in civics and so- ciology ; and as President Stowe of Toledo University is now giving compulsory courses (three credits) to freshmen on (a) principles of human behavior and (b) the university and the value of education. 9. That departments as such take turns in being re- sponsible for assemblies. 10. That results of the " help-your-college complaint and suggestion box " be made part of the assembly pro- gram. Many a college in need of funds is desperately seeking friends outside of college while neglecting the opportunities and resources that proper assemblies would generate. 196 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 71. Student Self -Government Wherever efficiently tried, student self-government has reduced several kinds of waste : purpose waste, time waste, money waste. Whether a college has efficiently or ineffi- ciently tested student cooperation in effecting student self- government and student democracy or has not even tried it can quickly be learned by self-surveyors. How first steps shall be taken, or how extension shall be made or improve- ments effected in execution, will require study and discus- sion. It is reason enough for self-government that it releases faculty energy for instructional purposes. Again, it would justify itself if only it reduced student license to waste stu- dent time and opportunity. An even more important rea- son is that properly administered self-government in college is admirable field training for self-government after college. The points to be surveyed in self-government of the stu- dent organization are practically the same as those to be examined in college management. What does the self-gov- ernment association set out to do? How does it go about these duties and exercise these powers? What are the re- sults ? Obstacles to success include these : 1. Too few powers and duties are given to self-govern- ment association; i.e., it is limited to dormitories or to women's dormitories. 2. Too few students participate. 3. Fraternity or other factional politics dominate elec- tions. 4. The constitution does not provide for referendum and recall, hence lax administration brings discredit and contempt and violation of rules with impunity. 5. Often neither the individual defendant nor the stu- dent republic is protected. There is no appeal by the defendant against unreasonable harshness, or no ap- peal by the interested believer in order against a too lax judgment. 6. Often faculties instead of working through student Limits to Self -Government 197 organization overrule or disregard the student or- ganization, with the inevitable result of making stu- dents feel that self-government is a fiction. 7. Accounts of stewardship by elected officers are insuf- ficient to inform and to interest the partners. Re- ports are indefinite, meetings are called without being properly announced, planned for, or conducted. 8. Business meetings between student representatives and faculty are semi or pseudo social; i.e., wasteful; i.e., discouraging or demoralizing. 9. As difficulties or even scandals arise, faculties or ad- ministrative officers too often become revolutionists or anarchists and require curtailment of student powers and responsibilities, thereby shifting to them- selves the real blame for a breakdown of student self- government. The following caution with respect to student self-gov- ernment comes from President Evans of Ripon: " The matter of student government is an intimate part of any educational policy and practical life train- ing. Student self-government is theoretically splendid, and practically too little efficient. The self is often more prominent than government. Virtue of freedom is too often formal, and because of immaturity, inex- perience, and lack of expert consecutive and mature leadership, degenerates into a species of license. ' Think for yourself ' and ' Work out your own prob- lems ' are proverbs which flatter the pride of students while they do not, and ought not, win their best judg- ment. " College administrative officers and faculties are placed to guide in right thinking and to encourage in right doing. It is more important to think aright and do aright than it is to think and to do alone." 72. Group Relations of Students Professor R. B. Way of Beloit suggests that in addition to studying the individual student's part in student activities, 198 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities it will help to analyze group affiliations and their bearing upon living expenses and student spirit. This is a helpful reminder, because we are in danger of " not seeing the woods for the trees." Student groups have set an example so far as group honors — scholastic, athletic, social — are concerned. They conduct continuing and cumulative — and often ideal- ized — surveys of their influence and accomplishments. Their help could easily be enlisted in studies of each group's relation to the student body outside that group. Only by careful studies in this direction will colleges obtain the facts necessary to show the superior value of democratizing over snobbitizing activities, of literary over spending tests for admission to groups, of many over few groups. A first step is to secure for each group as a whole, and for each person in each group, a balance sheet of time and money spent (a) in just belonging; (b) in recreation con- nected with belonging; (c) in preparing for or performing the tests or services for which the group exists; e.g., de- bating, playing football, singing. The time and money cost imposed upon the whole student body or considerable sections of it by each group's activity should be studied also. Vicarious activity, dramatic or ath- letic, may be extravagant for the college in proportion as it is successful for the special group involved. Whether a college is attempting to understand and guide and use, or merely to police, student groups is as important as it is easy to learn. 73. Supervision of Student Activities Between no supervision and too much supervision of stu- dent activities many colleges are finding a golden mean which increases 1. The number of activities and equitability of student interest. 2. The information available to students when weighing preference for outside activities. Equalising Student Participation 199 3. The number belonging. 4. The number participating. 5. Requirements for admission and for continuing. 6. Democracy among activities. 7. Efficiency of activities. 8. Value of activities to college morale. 9. Help of activities in raising standards of scholarship and in reducing excessive drains upon student time. 10. Credit of activities with tradesmen. 11. Use of activities for instructional purposes. 12. Value to the individual student of contact and train- ing in these activities. Whether faculties are neglecting or patronizing student activities can be quickly learned. It is worth learning, too, because the worst and best features of a college are apt to be reflected in student management of student activities. The student daily, weekly, or annual publications often dis- close more accurately the restrictions and opportunities of a college than do the published utterances of trustees and officers. A student credit rating is now made by Miami University, a sort of standardized Bradstreet-Dun for the reputation of college students in paying debts, in keeping appointments, in carrying responsibility. By limiting unexcused absences to three and by an enforced study hour under supervision (page 284), Miami also indirectly curbs outside activities. Several other steps taken by colleges are listed in Record Aids in College Management. Among questions which self -surveyors will ask are these : 1. Does the application blank call for students' experi- ence in outside activities when at preparatory school ? Y... N... 2. Is a list of activities handed to students when register- ing, with the requirement that preferences be noted? Y. .. N... 3. Is a point system like Cornell's (women) used for active positions held or parts taken, so as to prevent 200 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities concentration of duties — and benefits — among too few students? F. . . N... 4. Is class work correlated with outside activities as at Dartmouth, where written composition is credited ac- cording to the rate given it by student journals — whether accepted or not? Y... N... Is work of intercollegiate debaters credited toward English or economics or history courses? Y... N... 5. Is a uniform system of accounts prescribed and au- dited? Y... N... Is the budget system en- forced? Y... N... 6. Is the auditing correlated with instruction in book- keeping? Y. . . N... 7. Is a particular faculty member charged with respon- sibility for representing the faculty with outside ac- tivities? Y... N... 8. Does the college supplement outside social activities with general college parties . . . , or with faculty en- tertainments . . . which include students who for eco- nomic or other personal reasons and difficulties are not drawn into student groups ? 9. Are there enough literary and scientific societies? Y. . . N. . . Does successful membership in them win college distinction? Y . . . N. . . 10. Must permission be received for society entertain- ments, including house parties and dances? Y. . . N . . . Is it confined with few exceptions to Friday and Saturday nights? Y . . . N . . . 11. Must chaperons be provided for all mixed parties? Y... N... Is this a mere formality ... or is chaperonage effective . . . ? Are chaperons made to enjoy their own part? Are amenities of cultured society first taught and then insisted upon? Y. . . N . . . Is the hour of closing fixed? Y. . . N. . . Is it eleven o'clock . . . , midnight . . . , or three a.m. . . . ? 12. Are fraternities or sororities prohibited ... or reg- ulated . . . ? Are pledging and rushing restricted to Pageant of the seasons Pennsylvania State College Folk dancing Pennsylvania State "' mm '« ^ " i»^ Saturday excursion Pennsylvania State Correlating work with good times Students on Outside Activities 201 certain weeks ... or limited in method at whatever time . . . ? Is control exercised in requirements of work . . . rather than prohibitions . . . ? Of 231 Wisconsin upper classmen answering, 73 or 32% said outside activities took too much time, and 33 or 13% said they took too little. Among comments were these: Freshmen are too often urged to take part in too many activities; too little attention is given to literary activities; too few occasions offer when students may meet faculty socially. Of 351 faculty members answering definitely, 274 expressed the belief that social diversions interfered with students' interest in and time for college work. 74. Health Protection and Hygiene Instruction In the stone age of health supervision, say until the early go's, a favorite bromide of higher education was: Mens sana in corpore sano. In the neo-health age of IQ17, when higher education has begun to make soundness of body a minimum essential for registration and continuance, the old Latin quotation is almost forgotten. Sic semper empty utterances, however full of truth their words. So much is now done in so many ways for promotion of health and in- struction in hygiene, that only a few earmarks and short- cuts may be mentioned here. For concrete helps readers are referred to Record Aids in College Management, pp. 40—52, which proves that few private patients, even of the wealthiest, receive physical supervision equal to that which many colleges are now aiming to make compulsory for all students. Health surveys will concern three main questions : (a) What health needs the student brings to college, (b) What health environment the student finds at college, (c) What health protection and benefits the student receives at col- lege. What health needs the student brings should be found out and is now being found out before registration is permitted. Fortunately, this requirement will help many below par 202 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities beyond those accepted. Undoubtedly the general health certificate which several colleges require will soon give way to specific surveys from the family physician plus detailed student-answered questions such as several colleges now ask their students to answer when registering, and recurrently during residence; e.g., 1. How many hours of exercise do you take a week? 2. How much time do you spend out of doors a week? 3. Do you keep your bedroom windows open wide at night; how often do you change your underclothing in summer; winter? 4. What weakness or tendency to ill health have you? 5. How often do you have a cold in the nose, throat, lungs ? Whether a college is physically fit to receive a physically fit student is a question which requires surveys of buildings and grounds, including private rooming and eating houses and places of entertainment that form part of the physical college. Apart from obvious sanitary points to be checked, experience shows the following dangers prevalent: 1. Lack of examining physician or nurse or infirmary for treatment and isolation, or provision for prompt physical health supervision and consultation at rates which students can afford, either at the college or through cooperative private physicians or town hos- pitals. 2. Inadequate living accommodations which encourage or compel congestion. 3. Traditions which encourage or practically compel stu- dents to herd in the immediate vicinity of the college. 4. Lack of gymnasium, playgrounds, tennis courts, ball grounds, hockey grounds, skating pond, inexpensive handball courts, etc. 5. False dietary standards in college dormitories. 6. Inadequate or inconveniently or improperly cared-for toilet facilities, including bathtubs and showers with Student Health 203 freedom of use in rooming houses and gymnasium. 7. Bad lighting and ventilation due to construction and equipment of college buildings and rooming houses. 8. Unesthetic construction and arrangement of build- ings and grounds, which through the eye and nervous organization materially affect student health. What colleges do to and for the student after receiving him is to be tested by results and procedure and not merely by advertisement. Students find a pleasure in " beating " gym rules comparable to that of a moralist who succeeds in " beating " a ride on a street car. A parallel idiosyncrasy is the medical department's jealousy of its prerogatives. Being an infant prodigy, it has a prodigious appetite for prestige and procedure; e.g., it is so intoxicated with the idea of rest as a substitute for violent exercise that it will require a frail girl to get out of bed and walk a mile in order to keep her rest hour at the gymnasium, or if not checked it will be so unyielding as to its required credits that it will accept a schedule of four gymnasium hours a day capped by a rest hour. It is indispensable that belief and plan be tested by analysis of actual record showing what was done to and for students. The first important question, perhaps, is whether the physical supervision is regarded primarily as only part of individual instruction in hygiene, which has the following threefold purposes enunciated by the College of the City of New York : 1. Through inspections to make the college and all its in- fluences safe and attractive to the clean, healthy stu- dent. 2. To teach the student how to secure and conserve his or her own health. 3. To lead students in their graduate years to become important factors in the advancement of the public's health and character. The second general question is whether the college itself practices in its buildings and classrooms the health habits 204 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities which it is trying to inculcate in students ; i.e., does it ven- tilate classrooms as students are taught to ventilate their own sleeping rooms? Are its dormitories, kitchens, and toilets models of sanitation? Does it require teachers to exemplify the physical fitness and vitalness which it is try- ing to secure from students? The third general question relates to the position of the health department ; i.e., has it powers and duties to enforce sanitary practices by the institution itself; to require cor- rection of unsanitary conditions of buildings; to prescribe limits and exemptions for individual students and to raise presumptions against excessive registrations or outside work by students ? The forward steps or " high spots " in health supervision by self-surveyors include these : i. Pratt Institute takes the position that any student who does not have enough regard for health require- ments to work for a commendable physical record is not entitled to go on with academic work. Many colleges give academic credit for prescribed work in hygiene, and several inexorably enforce the require- ment. 2. Students are asked when registering to indicate their interest in sports; Carnegie Institute of Technology , lists 12 different sports. 3. Cumulative records are kept showing the amount of absence due to different causes of illness. 4. Yale and Carnegie Institute are doing special work with respect to foot weaknesses, flat foot, weak arches, etc. 5. Pratt Institute has an honor system of physical effi- ciency points and proficiency points that include credit for regularity of attendance, freedom from colds, sufficient sleep, gain in weight, success in gymnastics and sport contests, dancing, etc. 6. Posture is receiving special attention in women's col- leges. 7. The use of tobacco, alcohol, tea, coffee, etc., is sue- High Spots in Health Supervision 205 cessfully discouraged by showing the relation to suc- cess in athletics and studies, — yes, by even asking students to write out how extensively they use these narcotics. 8. By substituting competitive games for non-competi- tive enforced gymnastic exercises colleges have in- terested students in the joy of vitality. 9. Enforced rest represents a desire to individualize treatment of great potential value, even if now and then ridiculously enforced. 10. By including in incidental fees a small charge, it be- comes possible to give students as a right the privi- lege of calling upon a physician for special examina- tion, consultation, and help. A visit in time often saves nine. 11. Courses in public hygiene are taught, encouraged, and made compulsory. Such courses will probably prove to be the chief survival of the war-time laws and enthusiasms for universal training. 12. Military departments are frankly admitting that there is less physical benefit from unwilling military training than from outdoor sports and gymnasium games. 13. The importance of bathing facilities is recognized by installing provisional facilities where elaborate show- ers and swimming pools are not yet possible. 14. Annual reports make the benefits from physical super- vision seem so real that alumni or other constituents with financial ability are beginning to offer facilities for physical training, sometimes too elaborate in the form of modernly equipped gymnasiums or combina- tion of gymnasium, club, restaurant, Y. M. C. A., etc. 15. Catalogs and other announcements are beginning to enlist the intelligent cooperation of parents and sec- ondary school teachers in stressing the importance of a sound body for the joy it adds to living and the efficiency it adds for study and work. 16. Carleton College treats athletics as a matter of educa- 206 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities tional administration, the same as any other phase of college management, and feels that in this way for the first time it is becoming possible to democratize sports and athletics. 75. Vocational Guidance and Supervised Study If it were not so serious, it would be amusing to find sec- ondary and higher education so enthusiastic about voca- tional guidance for pupils and students after leaving col- lege and so indifferent to vocational guidance of pupils and students when in daily contact with instructors. It is just as true of college students as of elementary- school pupils that — to quote Superintendent C. C. Hughes of Sacramento — " It is more important to know how pupils study than to know how they recite." It is infinitely more important to know how college students, from freshmen on to graduate students, study than to know how they listen or recite or answer examination questions. Many a fresh- man " of purest ray serene " is dropped simply because he does not know how to study and is ignorant of that fact. Many a senior, many a professional student, and many a Ph.D. candidate has never learned how to study. Miami University finds its supervised study for weaker freshmen saves the weak and prevents waste of time by the strong. Surveyors will learn whether colleges supervise study, ask questions about study, test student ability to study, and take time, no matter how long, to be sure that every student knows how to study. Other tests mentioned here will throw light directly and indirectly upon this need. The way students take notes and the way they answer formal and informal quizzes are indications. Usually it will be necessary to question faculty members. Department heads may not know that Instructor B does or does not ask which if any student has not yet learned how to study, or that one or more instructors have not learned how to study or how to teach students the art of studying. A discussion of this question at faculty conferences can but be a help if each member asks himself with respect to Vocational Guidance in Classroom 207 each student in his charge : " Does that student know how to study ? What concrete evidence have I seen to prove his ability or inability to study in my subject? Am I giving him a chance? " The surveyor will not forget that a stu- dent may know how to study mathematics or Latin and be quite unable to study political science, psychology, or his- tory. The first vocational guidance to confront each college in- structor should be whether the student knows how to take the particular steps involved in carrying his subject. The second is whether the college is vocationally guiding the student in the selection of his other college subjects. The third is whether the college is doing its duty toward the student in making subjects which he has properly selected for himself give to him and secure from him all that for which he takes each subject and his college course. Only when these steps have been taken can a college efficiently worry about vocational guidance for the student's next step after leaving college. One or two colleges already have vocational-guidance courses. One or two have laboratories with special super- visors to help students find their strong and weak points, their leanings and talents. Boston University announces such courses in its business school. Some colleges have not as yet gone farther than to hold vocational conferences or to have vocational talks. At the University of Wisconsin the dean of women has a series of round tables. At Bryn Mawr and several other Eastern colleges more formal con- ferences are held, at which persons familiar with different vocations discuss with students the kinds of equipment needed and the rewards of these vocations. Where students are given work that needs to be done under pressure of necessity, punctuality, and accuracy, their strong and weak points are disclosed to themselves and their supervisors, and their vocational guidance is easier. Where students have never tried themselves out and have not had contact with actual world's work, vocational guidance can obviously not amount to much. When confined to talking 208 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities to students, it naturally fails to elicit from them personal questions and expressions of interest. The personality chart shown on page 257 for teachers and the questions asked by the Wisconsin Library School and Dean Schneider in Record Aids, offer practical first steps in vocational guidance; viz., analysis of student per- sonality by teacher and guide. This test ought not to be postponed until the last month of the senior year. In- stead it should be given the first of the freshman year and repeatedly thereafter. The rewards of different vocations in terms of dollars and " durable satisfactions " — of opportunities to grow and to serve — should be placed concretely before students, again not the last month of their last year but early in their first year and repeatedly thereafter. Every school adviser, every successful instructor, is engaged in vocational guiding. Much of the present concern over vocational guidance is only belated effort to compensate a student for advisers and instructors who have failed either to under- stand him or to help him understand himself. A quest for fads in vocational guidance should be made by self-surveys. Superficial interest in vocations runs in cycles, due largely to the cycles of advertising and self- advertising. The dramatic appeals of the social settlement and of various kinds of public service and of commerce have led many university men and women away from teaching for which they were specially equipped. In what college that you know are the rewards and opportunities of teach- ing or of educational supervision or of public service pre- sented to students with facts, zest, and conviction? 76. Employment Bureau " Mr. A. B. C. informs us that he at one time worked with you. We shall be indebted if you will kindly write us about his ability. Anything you wish treated as confidential will be so regarded." The above letter written late in 19 16 by the employ- College Employment Bureaus 209 ment bureau of one of the largest Eastern universities shows : ( 1 ) The university wants to help its students realize upon the training it has sold to them. (2) An employment bureau has been organized. The opportunities and calls have been so many, too many for individual instructors and officers to handle. (3) This bureau invites students to look to it for help and employers to look to it for capable men. (4) This employment bureau is a competitor with pri- vate employment bureaus. (5) As a clearing house for men and jobs the university pledges the most up-to-date program and procedure in fitting men to jobs. Whether a particular college has taken each of the above steps can quickly be learned. Whether having taken them its employment service is efficient requires further analysis. The above letter was quoted because it typifies several weaknesses of employment bureaus in general and of col- lege employment bureaus in particular. When asked what particular questions the university would like answered re- garding the graduate-applicant, the employment bureau an- swered that it had nothing special in mind but just wanted to know what I had to say about its graduate. In other words, it presented two alternatives : 1. An unnecessary amount of time and study in order to write a helpful letter. 2. Writing a general, meaningless letter about sterling worth and pleasing personality. In striking contrast with the foregoing are practices of Vassar, Wellesley, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Columbia, described in Record Aids in College Management. Vassar's bureau records eight personality facts as to each applicant, — personality, judgment, initiative, tact, attitude toward work, appearance (voice and manner), accuracy, health. Columbia provides for 24 alternatives; i.e., four (excellent, 210 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities good, fair, poor) for each of six elements of fitness, — person- ality, physical appearance, judgment (common sense), en- ergy (initiative), promise of growth, general fitness. In its bureau for placing teachers Wellesley does not ask for a general letter of recommendation but for specific informa- tion as to quality of instruction; skill in management of pupils ; social relations with pupils ; attitude toward superior officers; general attitude toward the community; manners, dress, or any other points which are pertinent. For li- brarians and teachers two Wisconsin bureaus have gone even further in asking specific questions as to personality and performance, as shown on pages 252 and 253 and in Record Aids. The most serious single handicap of the employment bureau is its lack of first-hand information. Testimony from employers is really not enough, because employers hesi- tate to volunteer information that may make it more diffi- cult for employees to secure positions. The point of view was once expressed as follows by a state committee which was considering whether or not to publish certain facts which showed how recommendations had been given to an unworthy employee: An instructor was dismissed for indecency. Well- credentialed by the dismissing college, he applied for a position at a college for women. Rumors of his dis- missal having reached his new president, the latter tele- graphed to several college officers begging them to be frank about the new instructor's habits. Answers of reassurance were written. Within a few weeks the new president found it necessary to dismiss the man for the very offense which had caused the previous dis- missal. The committee decided that charity was more important than efficiency or even straightforwardness. As the chairman said, " Our state recently had that very thing. We had Mr. Blank on our hands. When asked about him we gladly told such-and-such city that he would be a great acquisition. They could look out for themselves, we were relieved of the embarrassment." Analysing Student Fitness for Employment 211 With this feeling so strong even in the business world, it is not unnatural for college professors to give students the benefit of the doubt so long as this can be done without provable misrepresentation. Specific questions which re- quire faculty members and others who are given as refer- ences for college students to tell how long and in what ways they have known the applicant, and which further break up each question into its elements so that qualities can be described in different degrees, will do much to secure frank- ness. A further step will be found necessary; namely, ap- plicants to college employment bureaus will be observed at work by persons interested more in protecting the employ- ment bureau's reputation for straightforwardness and help- fulness than in any one student. In other words, tests of punctuality, forcefulness, agreeableness, executive ability, and specific attainments will be made at college, or under col- lege observation, as prerequisites to college recommenda- tions. Even when employment bureaus withhold recommenda- tions it will be found advantageous to all students and pat- rons to have the utmost possible specifications of experience, personality, and proved or presumptive capacity. One ob- stacle to employment service is the willingness of college officers to accept general reports which deal with totals, ex- tremes, and averages and give the impression that the best things reported for exceptional cases are typical of service rendered to all cases. The total number of applicants is obviously a next to meaningless figure. Another meaning- less figure is average salary. Miami reports for teachers the total number placed at each salary. A mere statement of salary increases obtained through a bureau, or of oppor- tunities or increments obtained, would help secure business and would indicate need for more support or more ef- ficiency. Among the minimum essentials needed are these : 1. A single head (with or without governing and ad- visory committees) responsible not only for " clear- 212 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities ing " applications for jobs and for men but also for finding opportunities for students. 2. Cooperative relations with commercial employment bureaus and employment officers of factories, stores, and civil service commissions. 3. Publicity matter and publicity campaigns which in- sure knowledge by all students of the employment bureau's ability to serve. 4. A policy of complete frankness with candidate and employer, to include the above-mentioned field tests and personality diagnosis. 5. Vocational guidance instruction with or without credit, to include therapeutics as well as diagnosis, as through voice clinics, insistence upon operation for adenoids, correction of posture defects, etc. 6. A budget that makes possible the foregoing program, or pending success in obtaining such a budget, re- peated announcement, in reports and appeals to alumni and supporting public, that the college and its graduates are handicapped for want of such pro- vision. 7. Provision for making the bureau self-supporting out of fees both (a) flat for registering, and (b) con- tingent for securing a position, and (c) proportionate to the wages or salary of the new position, in cash or by notes to be paid out of future earnings — where large sums are involved, the bureau to share in the unearned increment. From existing records or from special studies surveyors will wish to secure the following facts : 1. How many enrolled last year (those applying from positions always being separated from those not em- ployed when applying) of (a) students in residence, (b) graduates, (c) other former students? 2. How many of each class were referred with and with- out recommendation to employers? 3. How many referred obtained positions? Tests of Employment Bureaus 213 4. How many after registering obtained positions with- out the bureau's help? 5. How many were helped more than once during the year, with reasons why they lost positions and statement of steps taken to learn these causes? 6. How many different positions of each kind and of each salary rate were obtained directly through the bureau, and how many indirectly or without the bu- reau's help ? 7. How many positions wishing students were regis- tered ? By how many employers ? How many were filled? How many of each kind and rate were not filled? 8. Extent to which alumni have cooperated with bureau by taking or recommending students or finding po- sitions and employer friends. 9. A comparison with respect to each of the foregoing facts with the preceding year or five years. 10. Steps taken to learn of openings. In placing teachers, colleges are apt to overlook the im- portance of the following : 1. The number placed where they did not teach their major subjects or combination of subjects for which they were best fitted. 2. Elements of personality and experience specified on page 252 and in Record Aids in College Management. 3. List of schools that formerly employed students and have discontinued relations. 4. A complete, preferably a graphic, list of schools now employing graduates or former students. 5. Provision for learning of prospective vacancies. 6. Facts about living conditions in towns seeking stu- dents. 7. Reasons why candidates were rejected. A college wishing to install new employment records will do well to write to one of the institutions above mentioned. In testing records it will be well to look for the following: 214 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities i. A cumulative, corrected, up-to-date record for each candidate, each employer, and each position enrolled. 2. Classified lists of positions for teachers of subjects and combinations of subjects wanted. 3. A special tag or mark for candidates or positions found difficult; i.e., provision for insuring and con- tinuing and cumulating memory, so that the office will not depend upon any one person's recollection. 4. A list, preferably a map, showing fields not yet con- quered; employers not yet interested; schools where positions have not yet been filled. 5. Helpful current summaries of employment activities, including summaries of time and money cost for each class of service. 6. Requirements that original application shall be filled out in candidate's own handwriting. 7. A follow-up plan for persons enrolled, including a pledge to report what happens after each reference and also any future changes of position. 8. Stationery in convenient form for applicants and em- ployers to use — this means all anticipated alterna- tives printed on the slips or cards, to reduce to a mini- mum the writing needed. 9. Printed instructions to applicants as to method of ap- proaching employers. It is no uncommon thing for college graduates to go to a business house or civic agency and ask for employment, without having first even ascertained what the nature of the employment is. Every city and every state needs a new kind of employ- ment bureau which will combine three functions: (a) diag- nosis or personality photography; (b) continuation or cor- rective instruction so that a candidate instead of merely be- ing connected with a job will be fitted for a better job; (c) placement work on conditions where unearned incre- ment will be shared by placement bureaus via fees propor- tionate to positions. Why should not college employment bureaus be models Alumni a Great Asset 215 and propagandists for such out-of-college employment serv- ice? "j"]. Keeping in Touch with Alumni The knowledge which colleges seem to have or to ask about their alumni is surprisingly meager, compared with higher education's assurance that the world looks to it for leaders. There are a few exceptions, and fortunately the present tendency is to regard facts about individual alumni as assets altogether too important to be neglected. The admirable record of college men teaching in the European war prison camps will encourage American efforts to trace alumni. Yale's booklet to alumni on their endowment fund begins: One graduate out of every four is now repre- sented in the Alumni fund. In the few colleges which have systematically sought to keep in touch with alumni and to account for each one, the responsibility usually rests with the alumni association rather than with college officers. Perhaps that is one rea- son why so little is known ; i.e., it has been a matter of vol- untary attention by alumni officers rather than of continuous official attention by administrative officers. Directories will answer a few questions for surveyors about alumni. For facts about alumni not there reported it is necessary to examine college records. The fundamental questions are : 1. Is each graduate or other former student definitely accounted for? Y. . . N... f... 2. What efforts have been made and are being made to account for every person ever registered? 3. What facts are being asked with respect to former students ? 4. Is this follow-up work intrusted to alumni organiza- tions ... or required of the college management . . . ? 5. In what concrete ways are the results of follow-up used for the benefit of college or alumni ? Any college wishing helpful opinion from alumni regard- 216 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities ing college practices cannot afford to leave untapped the opinions of former students who for reasons not yet un- derstood have given little or no information regarding them- selves or have failed to answer college communications. For silence or reticence there is a reason, which reason will frequently help the college put its finger on a spot which needs administrative attention. The questions sent out to former students usually ask for too little or too futile information. Blanks often make it easier to misrepresent than to represent alumni experience. Quite frequently they go to the wastebasket, because they chill alumni enthusiasm, — for example, by eternal talk about smokers and athletics and teams and yells. An illustration " hot from the platter " is furnished by my alma mater through the following notice : " There will be an informal gathering of the Eastern Alumni Association of the University of Chicago, on Sat- urday, November eighteenth, from four until six o'clock, at the Women's University Club, 106 East 52d Street, New York. Tea, twenty-five cents." Several business men in New York and vicinity received this card. Whether this informal gathering is to take the place of the annual meeting is not stated. Why it is held; why on November eighteenth; why at the Women's Uni- versity Club, is not stated. Nor is it intimated who is to be there ; what if anything will happen except general conver- sation; whether there is a reception or introduction com- mittee; whether non-members are invited as guests. The return postal card contains the name, which like the other card, fails to bear a title or any other mark to indicate that it is official for the Association rather than personal by one member. Without waiting for outside surveys colleges can mate- rially help themselves and their alumni by conducting through faculty officers and alumni officers self -surveys of the purpose and content of communications to and about alumni : Earning A lumni Support 2 1 7 1. Are appeals for money preceded by brief statements of fact? Y... N... ?... 2. Is an annual report sent to all alumni and former stu- dents? Y... TV... ?... 3. Are alumni asked to make suggestions and criticisms ? F... N... ?... 4. Are dealings with alumni direct to each member . . . or indirect through alumni committees . . . ? 5. Is the alumni organization democratic ... or is it honeycombed with the politics of cliques . . . , factions . . . , and political parties . . . ? 6. Are facts in the alumni directory so specific that con- tributors feel it is an honor to have facts about them- selves reported there ? Y. . . N... ?... For keeping in touch with alumni, President Hughes of Miami recommends an endowment of the Alumni Associa- tion. After listing attendance of 12 alumni groups in 11 cities, the report on alumni interests concludes : " I am more and more convinced, by my own experience, and by the dis- cussions of the National Association of Alumni Secretaries, that carefully directed relations between an institution like Miami and its alumni pay very large returns. Such direc- tion, however, demands a considerable outlay of time, en- ergy, and money. It is not fair to expect such relations at Miami to continue for many years without a regular appro- priation of some sort, and a reasonable compensation for services rendered. Voluntary work of this sort is of neces- sity limited work. The safest plan would appear to be the setting aside of sufficient endowment, if it could be secured, to put our alumni work on a sound permanent basis." VII COURSE OF STUDY GENEROUS criticisms in the original manuscript on the Course of Study have been given by President D. J. Cowling of Carleton College and Professor A. Duncan Yo- cum of the University of Pennsylvania. President Cowling advises strongly the abandonment of the question method in this chapter. Professor Yocum writes that the question method here " is an admirable ex- pedient, natural and almost inevitable, for the purpose you have in mind. To be definite and conclusive you cannot have fewer questions ; indeed, I am suggesting two or three more." When doctors disagree what shall patients do ? In this case both positions are stated to raise frankly with readers whether in this and other sections it would be more helpful to substitute propositions for questions. Several suggestions by Professor Yocum have been incor- porated without indicating where he strengthened or elab- orated the original manuscript. To illustrate the advantage of cooperation from first to last by those who are to be surveyed, other helps from Pro- fessor Yocum's letter are added to the paragraphs that prompted them, as per heavy black bracketed sentences end- ing A. D. Y., which will be found in this section. These additions indicate, too, how this book will look after a reader has filled in the blanks for which spaces are left. 78. The College Catalog What college catalogs are was compared with what col- lege catalogs ought to be in the eighth report of the Car- negie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, free upon application to 476 Fifth Avenue, New York City. A study of these general comparisons with many specific illus- trations may disclose opportunities to improve a particular college catalog. 218 Catalog Description of Courses 219 The purpose of a college catalog is to win new business and to facilitate business already obtained; i.e., to attract new patrons and to serve present patrons. Yet the patron is the last person apparently aimed at by several college cata- logs. Too many college catalogs have been written for other colleges rather than for the students who are to use them. Once admitting that almost the only purpose of a catalog is to help students prospective and actual to find their way among college offerings, several other admissions will be made, and it becomes worth while surveying each catalog and comparing what it does with what it might do. The recent reading of a catalog, page by page, from cover to cover (by request of a college president), prompted ques- tions which included these: Is there not too little description of the human reasons for [your college], the atmosphere of student life, success of alumni, etc. ? Since the purpose of the catalog is primarily to enlist or keep alive the interest of students and parents, is it not a pity to have them thumb over 17 pages before they come to what they think they want ? Would not a com- promise be possible, beginning general information on page 9? Is not the section on " Standards " intended rather for your own constituency? Can it not be especially adapted to your constituency by explaining the relation of each statement to student welfare? Would not a description of how very much definite help is given to men and women via medical supervision, re- assure many parents ? Is it not true that the total cost given by you does not include a number of important items which every stu- dent must meet? Why not have some typical student budgets ? Will you have the descriptive matter for English and Public Speaking courses read with respect to its Eng- lish? Other earmarks of proper catalog making include these : 220 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities i. Centering responsibility for adequacy of content, for editing, and for economy in preparation and distribu- tion. 2. Separate sections for special audiences, so that it will not be necessary to send a catalog of 300 or 800 pages to answer a question dealt with in one paragraph on one page; i.e., different sections (a) for general dis- tribution, entrance requirements, etc., wanted by pros- pective students; (b) information as to separate courses; (c) directory of faculty; (d) directory of students. [As summer school director I have proved to my- self the economy and efficiency of publishing cat- alogs in separate sections for special audiences. A. D. Y.] 3. Supplementary bulletins, form letters, or one-page cards which experience shows will answer recurrent questions. 4. A composite report from the same type for exchanges, libraries, and the limited number of college patrons who want all announcements in one volume. 5. Revision of general information each year in order to keep it up to date. 6. Application to each year's catalog of suggestions re- ceived from best catalog making by other colleges. 7. Revision each year to make sure that statements which students did not find clear the preceding year are now cleared up. 8. Summaries of departmental announcements in tabular form before each group of courses, so as to show the number, titles, credits, of whom required, who is elig- ible, and the prerequisites, — as in Minnesota's cata- log. This will help the student focus attention upon subject matter without being diverted throughout the catalog by parenthetical statements about prereq- uisites. 9. Outline of all work offered in each line before giving details of courses, plus explanation to aid students in Advantages of Courses Described 221 selecting work with reference to the things that be- long together, — and to the use he wishes to make of each part of the course and of the course as a whole, — as in Illinois' catalog. 10. More specific information as to ground covered in each course. 11. Utmost use of typographical aids to quick under- standing; i.e., differences in size and blackness of type, indentation to show organization of sections, lettering, numbering. 12. A cost record which will show costs of producing and distributing, by classes of persons reached. 13. A follow-up system which will show whether the right persons are being reached and how far the reaching is effective. 14. A mailing list of preparatory-school libraries, instead of sending a catalog to each senior. 15. Frank recognition of the non-educational reasons why students go to college and specific information for parents and principals as well as students under each of these reasons (see page 192). 16. A description of the usefulness, first, of group courses, and secondly, where possible, of individual subject courses. For instance, the Wisconsin catalog gives for the chemistry course the fields that require train- ing which this course alone can offer, the opportunities for men trained in chemistry, and the special need for women " not only in teaching chemistry in high schools and colleges but also in analytical, physiolog- ical, sanitary, and food chemistry." The culture reasons for and relations of different courses will seldom be clearly stated in catalogs until economic rea- sons and relations are clearly stated. For stating the culture value of a subject no catalog will be criticized. [The different forms of both cultural and economic train- ing should be clearly stated. A. D. Y.] The disadvantages which result from catalog deficiencies, such as lack of proper grouping, correlating, and systematiz- 222 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities ing, are not mere paper disadvantages and are not mere mat- ters of catalog arrangement. On the contrary, such disad- vantages mean immeasurable difficulties in the student's mind, — mal-arrangement, lack of correlation, inability to see himself in correct relation with the opportunities of his whole course. The instructor's mind is also reflected in catalog arrangement. Proper grouping and treatment for students' consideration first requires that the faculty group its offer- ings with reference to purposes served, and that the faculty work with regard to groups and relations where now it most often works without knowing what programs each instruc- tor's work fits or misfits. [The fundamental weakness in courses of study is often vagueness and bluff — a claim to mental training that is not definite enough to be put to the test. There should at least be distinction between aims and relationships that seek spe- cific and useful vocabulary and mental interconnection and habits. A.D.Y.] 79. Courses of Study Like the three Johns of the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, there are three courses of study : 1. The course in the catalog. 2. The course in the instructor's mind. 3. The course that reaches the student. Each of these three courses must be studied by surveyors. Regarding the courses in catalogs, the college world is agreed that the twentieth century permits and approves even where it does not require these: 1. Grouping of related subjects within a course to show relations and proper sequence. 2. Similar grouping of related courses. 3. Freedom to elect from several alternatives; i.e., sev- eral sub-courses to supplement each main course. 4. Transfer without loss from course to course. 5. Description of courses, so that the student can under- Fitting studies to state needs University of California Made and installed by students California What learning by doing does the catalog mention ? Telling Instructors' Backgrounds 223 stand what the course will contain and the permis- sions as well as the requirements. 6. Description (too infrequent) of the instructor's back- ground and foreground, so that student and his ad- visers can judge whether the instructor's mind is of the kind to see that the course in the catalog reaches the student. In many catalogs the divisions are ac- cording to the number of years a student has been at the college — lower classmen, upper classmen, un- dergraduate with graduate or graduate courses, rather than according to the purposes or field. 7. Description of the after-college values — in ability to earn and to serve and to enjoy — of all courses and subjects. For example, the elements of economics and political science are quite as important to students of commerce as is a specific subject in accounting, or as ability to enjoy literature and use English is valu- able to the physician or lawyer. Nor are disadvantages which result from the now too fre- quent lack of grouping, lack of correlating and systematizing for college courses, mere paper disadvantages or mere details of catalog arrangement. On the contrary they mean disar- rangement in the student's mind and non-arrangement or disarrangement in the instructor's mind. For catalogs to group the courses for students' consideration will first re- quire that the faculty group courses for its own considera- tion and will next require that the faculty itself work with regard to groups and relations where now it in large part must work without knowing what progress each instructor's work fits or misfits. Anarchy in announcements breeds anarchy in execution. Instructor and student alike, when unable to see portions of their work in relation to other portions, cannot take a long and balanced view of alternative opportunities. From ex- perience neither the student nor a single adviser can see the course needed for charities and philanthropic services, nor for public service nor for trade and industry. For that rea- son the University of Chicago groups its courses so that a 224 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities student led to inquiry about charities and philanthropic serv- ice can see the courses needed for each of four different services: (a) general charitable and philanthropic work, (b) preparation needed for charitable organization, (c) play- ground work, (d) social settlement work. Similarly for public service he finds the subjects related under three heads : (a) preparation for public service, general, (b) public or private service in the labor field, (c) labor or investigating commerce. The final test of a course is what reaches the student. This can be learned only by observation of classroom work, examination of student papers and field study, frank testi- mony of faculty members regarding preparation brought to them ; e.g., by medical professors as to student's preparation in chemistry. A few general questions are needed: 1. Do courses aim to fit students rather than to read well when read by competing institutions or by colleagues at home; e.g., where college grounds contain tillable land, are students of agriculture taught via use of this land or are they given the same lecture courses as in other colleges where there is no tillable land ? 2. Are results analyzed to see whether courses need mod- ification ? 3. Is student interest dissipated by breaking up a course into too many nominal subjects or titles and by taking too many titles at one time ? The Iowa Survey Com- mission advises against one and two hour subjects at the university, although it also advises against the five- hour subjects at the Teachers' College. 80. Correlation of Subjects Team work within the student's mind is quite as important as team work within a faculty. Stratification and scatter- fication have widely — temporarily — displaced correlation as a principle in education. Whether present-day specialization represents a good idea Need for Coordination by Students 225 gone to seed or a good idea fruitfully employed is but a sec- ondary question for the surveyor who must first ascertain the nature and extent of specialization and of correlation in any college. 1. Are new courses added because instructors want to give them or because there is a new need ? 2. Are new specialties started when instead students really need new illustrations in old courses? [When I asked one of my old school boys how he was enjoying his work (in a certain school) he an- swered : " Fine, except that every time one of the instructors gets a new idea he starts a new course." A. D. Y.] 3. Whose business is it to see that the student is relating his history to his economics; German language to German traditions ; mathematics to field uses of math- ematics ? 4. Which members of the faculty attempt to understand how their courses fit into the rest of a college pro- gram, whether on paper, in method of instruction, or in the student's mind ? 5. Is there need for general synthesizing courses such as college presidents used to give and such as the presi- dent of Toledo University is now giving in the two half-year compulsory courses for freshmen entitled Principles of Human Behavior and The University and the Value of Education? [General synthesizing courses would make stu- dents uncomfortably critical of the work of special- ists who cannot distinguish between scientific and educational values. A. D. Y.] At the University of Wisconsin the survey found one cele- brated coordinator, Professor L. Kahlenberg, whose chem- istry lectures were characterized by numerous digressions to such subjects as patriotism, hazing, dissipation, women's dress. Answers from alumni who were asked the effect of these digressions indicated a student demand for coordinat- 226 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities ing courses. As one alumnus put it: "These digressions led us to feel that chemistry was more to us than just a study for chemistry in a laboratory; that our whole environ- ment was one huge laboratory." Another declared that he " got more material and moral benefit out of these digres- sions than' from all the chemistry he would stuff into me in double the time." A third suggested that " If the professor were to announce a special hour for his coordinating discus- sions, there would not be a room on the campus big enough to hold students who would want to hear him." Among possible coordinators the surveyor should look for these: 1. The special coordinator who gives his entire time to seeing that students connect theory with practice, sub- ject with subject. The term comes from Cincinnati's cooperative method, which employs a special coordi- nator who visits the " co-op " students in the factory and again in university classes to see that the factory does not exploit him ; that he is applying his theory ; and that the college is answering questions prompted by his factory practice, etc. 2. The special coordinating course is given in some col- leges via popular lectures with no credit, at which dif- ferent specialties are interpreted in terms of general human experience. 3. The question-box course, in which the instructor is class or in assembly bases his message upon students' questions and suggestions. 4. The individual seminar course came from Harvard and is used in several' other colleges for graduate work. I was once given a chance to apply it in under- graduate work (page 317). Students will frankly tell when coordinating is needed, so far as they feel the need. 5. Group courses are dealt with in the section or cata- logs (pp. 219 ff.). Whether a student is compelled, advised, or helped to take a balanced diet is easily learned. Whether the assimilation is balanced and Using Industry's Laboratories 227 coordinated can be told only by observing the student. There are many ways of teaching group courses so that students will never learn what coordinating means. 6. General survey courses are splendid coordinators — for the students who take them. The present tend- ency is to increase the number of bird's-eye-view courses, not only in languages and literature but in social and natural sciences, Bible, etc. Because hear- ing or reading is not absorbing, it still remains im- portant to apply tests to student assimilation and co- ordination. 7. Instructor personality is, next to work itself, probably our best coordinator. Whether instructor personality is such that it could if it wished lead the student to coordinating a subject with the rest of his interests can and should be learned. Whether a personality is so used as to correlate is a different question which must be asked. Fairness to instructors also requires that surveys state whether or not the duties assigned to instructors ; the number of student hours for which they are held responsible ; the attitude of the faculty group toward instruction and research ; the dominant method of dealing with students, whether through lec- tures, personal conversation, quizzes, etc., make it rea- sonably easy for instructors to coordinate for them- selves and to require students to coordinate. 8. Field work that needs to be done can be made the best possible coordinator. When a student takes a task of his size that must be done on time and correctly, the elements in his own personality which are out of pro- portion; the questions in his mind which need an- swers; the suggestions and ambition which crave ex- pression, all force themselves to his attention and to that of the observant instructor. How far and in what ways work is used for coordinating every survey should ascertain. War practices are teaching the edu- cational value of field work. 228 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 81. Cooperative or Inland-Out Method Although it originated with engineers, the cooperative method has now been extended to students of sanitation, sta- tistics, commerce, etc. So far as its principle is sound, it is applicable to any course within reach of work that needs to be done. One of the best places to experiment with it is in the college business offices. In-and-Out is a substitute for cooperative, because the student is in college one week or one fortnight and out of college the next. When out of college he is in a shop and another student is out of the shop taking his place in college. For 150 opportunities the University of Cincinnati re- ceives 5000 applications a year. This extraordinary condi- tion is due to the fact that when out students receive journey- men's wages, to the desire of students " to be in the thick of things," and to the growing conviction that college work taken in conjunction with work in factories or business will be more interesting and more abidingly beneficial than col- lege work taken without the necessity for currently applying it. The term " cooperative " is used because its coiner, Dean Herman G. Schneider of the University of Cincinnati, makes a great point of the significance to education and to industry of employing industry's capital to educational ends. That every person in a supervising relation to other persons will become a teacher is one of the results expected from the ex- tension of the in-and-out method. Whether and where a college is employing the coopera- tive method can be quickly learned. Whether in its own business management, on its own farms, and in the factories, stores, and marts of its own town and near-by towns there is opportunity for the cooperative method and willingness to try it, a survey should learn. Generally it will be wiser to begin by surveying some very limited opportunity, one fac- tory, one clerical department, the president's office, or col- lege auditor's office. The two best summaries of experience are in reports by the University of Cincinnati's engineering college and New More Citizenship Courses Needed 229 York City's department of education, which is extensively experimenting with this method for high-school boys and girls. 82. Citizenship Courses The last trench of the defense against criticisms of higher education is that colleges are making for higher and nobler citizenship. That men and women are turned out who are incompetent in this or that branch of learning will be ad- mitted, but that competent or incompetent they are a more valuable citizenry is steadfastly maintained. Only recently have colleges admitted that in addition to all other services which they can render courses in citizenship itself are needed. Among questions which self-surveys will ask about the training for citizenship are these : 1. What facts are taught regarding duties and powers of present-day government of city, county, state, or na- tion? 2. Is it possible for a student to graduate with honors without having studied current events ? 3. Is citizenship taught through general lectures, as- sembly talks, debating societies, or formal instruction ? 4. What formal courses are offered? Are they offered by men and women who are familiar with the work- ings of the principles they expound? 5. Are these courses voluntary or compulsory? 6. At what time in the course do they come ; i.e., must or may freshmen take them or do only sophomores, juniors, or seniors have the chance or the necessity of taking them? [Do they definitely serve all such distinct forms of control as ideals, vocabulary, means to varied mental interconnection, habits, and conditions fav- orable to application and transfer? And do they supply the varied sorts of material and experience essential to each? A. D. Y.] 7. What observation or practice work is required of stu- dents in connection with the citizenship of the college 230 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities < 2 o 2 to O :* H M W « W M !' W > « i to a •o o o w B to O CO >< 00 PS. 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If no money is spent directly, what amount of energy (outside of budget allowances) is given by the faculty to teaching citizenship ? 11. If incorporation of citizenship courses is not immedi- ately feasible, should greater use be made of the stu- dent debating and literary societies and self-govern- ment association, with or without special credit for such work ? 83. Cultural vs. Practical. Courses The supposedly irreconcilable conflict between cultural and practical courses is being reconciled, thanks to the very simple and universal human objection to conceding either that the highest culture is not practical or that the really practical is not also cultural. It must be admitted that thus far the exponents of cultural subject instruction find it hard to grant that practical subjects are also cultural and that teachers of practical courses find it hard to admit that cul- tural subjects are practical. Neither set of exponents will admit for one minute that there is any lack of either cultural or practical in its own subjects. The Wisconsin survey tried to secure a line-up of each faculty member with respect to each of his courses. Almost unanimously instructors stated that cultural and practical were the same or were means and end. New life has been given to this controversy by three movements: (1) work- study-play plan and learning via doing propaganda, in ele- mentary and secondary education; (2) the rapid extension of professional and vocational two-year and four-year courses in colleges, including recognition by many high- grade medical and law schools of two years pre-medical and pre-law work in college; (3) the iconoclastic propaganda undertaken by the General Education Board under conditions "Cultural" vs. "Practical" Courses 233 that insure unlimited newspaper space for protests against the so-called cultural or disserviceable, and extensive maga- zine discussions pro and con. By addressing the General Education Board, 61 Broadway, New York City, the reader may secure without cost Occasional Publications, which de- cry the cultural and appeal for practical, related-to-life courses (together with numerous other educational docu- ments such as the Maryland School Survey, Gary School Survey, Annual Reports of the General Education Board, etc. ) . For condensed protest against the position taken by the General Education Board and others who decry the cul- tural courses the reader is referred to an article in the Atlantic Monthly, November, 1916, by Alfred E. Stearns of Phillips-Andover, which it is hoped the General Educa- tion Board will have reprinted with other answers to its position for equally wide distribution. What the controversy really shows is that the world in- side and outside of college wants works, not faith; wants results, not arguments, both from cultural and practical sub- jects. What President Butler says of Latin and Greek the world is beginning to say of every other subject, including social sciences and the most practical of practical subjects ; viz., that unless " they are to become museum pieces, those who teach them must catch and transmit more of the real spirit and meaning of the classics than they have been in the habit of doing." Experience is fast proving that no subject is less cultural than a cultural subject badly taught, and no subject is less practical than a practical subject badly taught; that no sub- ject is more practical than a cultural subject well taught and properly mastered, and no subject more cultural than a prac- tical subject well taught and properly mastered. Individual colleges will do well to have each instructor of each department and central committees of departments go through the curriculum step by step and state in writing 1. Why each course is there. 234 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 2. With respect to what relations during and after col- lege each course aims to be practical. 3. With respect to what relations during and after col- lege each course aims to be cultural. 4. The definiteness with which cultural and practical aims of each course are expressed in the syllabus and kept in mind by supervisors. [The thing without which all other conditions to efficiency are vain. A. D. Y.] 5. The extent to which the work of each student in each class shows that the cultural and practical aims are being realized. 6. The number of failures and of unsatisfactory grades in each subject, with evidence to show how far fail- ures were due to the cultural or practical aims and how far to method of instruction. 7. A comparison of survival, non-survival, high grades, low grades, and failures of cultural, non-utilitarian, not-related-to-life courses, with the same facts for practical, utilitarian, related-to-life courses. Each in- structor has a reason for helping this study. 8. A comparison of foregrounds and backgrounds of in- structors and a similar comparison of outside activi- ties of students in different groups, to see how far results are due to what the instructor is and has to give rather than to the paper aim, paper content, or paper method of courses. [Instructors must be convinced that other things than personality and knowledge of content are es- sential to efficiency and that many students require impressionistic instruction. A. D. Y.] 9. A similar comparison of college with college in re- spect to survival, scholarship, and failure. By defi- nition, medical, law, and agricultural colleges teach only practical subjects. Is their holding power supe- rior? Are results of their clinics, moot courts, and farm labor superior to their results from, lecture and textbook courses? Concrete Tests of Cultural Courses 235 [This is admirable. It should perhaps bring out still more clearly the fact that different methods or forms of instruction are effective for different pur- poses; e.g., the laboratory work effective for ideals and habits and the demonstration work effective for a proper centering of information. A. D. Y.] 10. Grading must be analyzed to see whether mark dif- ferences mean different standards by instructors or different interest among students. 11. The college and after-college success according to ac- cepted standards of 100 freshmen of cultural or near- cultural courses may be compared with the results of 100 freshmen equally graded in practical or near- practical courses. Colleges will make contributions to education if wherever possible they make such com- parison, not merely of 100 freshmen but of all fresh- men during a period of, say, ten years. [These studies should be more scientific, through the elimination of all other varying factors than the one investigated. For example, to infer as Nearing does that the relatively high number of successful Harvard graduates may indicate the efficiency of a general culture is unsafe, because so large a propor- tion of Harvard men come from homes giving un- usual opportunity for success in after life, quite in- dependent of type of education. A social group should be compared with itself and Harvard with Harvard, with variation in only the courses taken. A. D. Y.] 12. Alumni testimony may be sought via classified ques- tions which will help successful alumni review their own experiences before, during, and after college, in efforts to discover in what ways the cultural and prac- tical emphasis of different courses contributed to their life work. [This sort of test I believe is unsafe. (See clos- ing paragraphs of my lecture on " Sanity and Defi- 236 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities niteness in Education.")] If unsafe for concluding this study would be safe as a cue and question fur- nisher. 84. Fitting Courses to Local Needs Why, pray, should a college course be fitted to the locality where it is given? Perhaps to the majority of college in- structors the suggestion seems absurd. How can a sane man fit the French Revolution, or calculus, or Cicero, or zoology to the local needs of a Southern state university or a New England private college? Nevertheless, self-surveyors will find this an extremely helpful question to ask, because to a degree not yet suspected college instructors are doing their utmost to fit their sub- ject matter and method of treatment to local needs and ca- pacities. Student understanding of sciences is tested by ask- ing students to analyze local foods, help build local roads and bridges, draw plans for local buildings, write for local newspapers, survey local swamps, vivisect local animals, an- alyze local flowers, give the historical background for local institutions. Every time a locality is used as a laboratory instruction is related and fitted to local needs. Using local schools for observation and practice work or directed teach- ing is fitting instruction to local needs. When law students are required to take six months in a law office, agricultural students to work six months on a farm, library students to work eight weeks in public libraries, medical students to help conduct clinics, instruction is being fitted to local needs. The digressions mentioned on page 225 are interpreted by students as efforts to fit chemistry to local needs. Wherever faculties attempt to understand the localities which pay their salaries, furnish their students, and employ, their graduates, and wherever college instructors attempt to understand the human minds they are trying to instruct, they will consciously and unconsciously employ illustrations and require applications which spring from and fit local needs. Whether the instructor tries to know his own locality or whether he fails to see any difference or be himself any dif- Dayton Bureau of Research Teaching taxpayers about city government's results by ocular demonstration i*" -"". .^iBe^BiBifiBBP ~*|g™aj5B'' ■■■& '■ m Tf 7-1 1 . ■ IH fStfllr-LF '* H H 4 m? *fe"^P P ^yki 3i &Jt' : -*■ ^f|^ *~: 1 K ,TW: A '"^B . - Ji 3^^$* " 1 Dayton Field training for public service via preparing exhibits Does Compulsion Sacrifice Attraction? 237 ferent when before 30 students in North Carolina and when before 30 students in North Dakota, is a vital question for self-surveyors to answer. Universal principles lose no force from being applied and illustrated so as to fit local receptivity via local need. 85. Holding Power of Subjects, Compulsory and Elective What courses students register for when free to choose is an index to needs and inclinations of students, attractions and limitations of courses, and efficiency of instruction, which no college can afford to leave unsurveyed. For rea- sons similar to those which prompt health departments to keep pin maps of cases of transmissible diseases, it behooves colleges to keep pin maps of student preferences. For a given semester it is easy to put on a schedule dif- ferent-colored pins which will indicate 1. Those who have unqualifiedly elected a class. 2. Those who have elected that class from among several in a compulsory course. 3. Those compelled to take it because there is nothing else to choose; i.e., alternatives that are never given or are omitted this term. 4. Those who are compelled to take it because of future prescriptions; i.e., as a prerequisite for a course wanted later. Why the results of such a survey are what they are will call for many other questions. One complaint is almost universal ; viz., that courses for- merly regarded as indispensable to training and culture are now avoided by students unless compulsory requirements prevent free choice. Somehow or other compulsion has failed to increase the drawing power or holding power of these subjects. This might not be serious if students meekly accepted regulations and took what was offered them. In- stead they are leaving colleges which prescribe certain courses and going to other colleges where prescriptions are fewer or nil, or at least where prescriptions themselves seem 238 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities to fit the program which the student has selected for him- self. Recent actions by two faculties accentuate the need for nation-wide surveys of compulsory courses. Wisconsin's faculty has adopted a course that does not require foreign languages. Columbia has done away with all degrees but the B.A. and has taken the position that whatever credits are offered by a student entitle him " fairly to the possession of that degree which has historically stood for a liberal train- ing " if they have been " serious, well-organized, coherent, and catholic." What Columbia is strong enough to volun- teer every college in this country will be compelled to debate and to consider on the basis of local fact rather than tra- dition. If the contentions which have heretofore bolstered certain subjects with compulsion are sound, there are countable, de- scribable, local evidences. If no local reasons exist, perhaps a survey will show that there are local reasons either for setting up an entirely new list of compulsory subjects or for abandoning all compulsions except one ; viz., that every stu- dent shall select courses which fit one another and fit him. [As our study of education values becomes more determin- ing, it is only selected parts of subjects that will be " com- pulsory ": (1) Essential needs and methods both specific- ally and generally useful — often contributed with equal efficiency and economy by selected parts of otherwise widely different subjects. (2) Those parts that have unique value either in the sense of specific usefulness not realizable through other subjects or in their high relative efficiency or economy in the development of something that other sub- jects or parts of subjects cannot do so well. A. D. Y.] " Unless Greek and Latin are to become museum pieces, those who teach them must catch and transmit more of the real spirit and meaning of the classics than they have been in the habit of doing." These words are President Butler's. They suggest a number of questions for surveyors : 1. Is the spirit put into work by instructors who have compulsory subjects noticeably different from that Competition Is the Life of Culture 239 shown by instructors who have only elective work? 2. Is there a noticeable difference in the spirit of the same instructors when teaching compulsory subjects and when teaching elective subjects? 3. How many students now registered were compelled to take each of the alternative compulsory courses ? 4. How many students have registered for advance elec- tives in subjects in which they earlier took compulsory courses ? 5. Do similar facts for courses entirely elective indicate any difference in the holding power of elective over complete or partial compulsion ? 6. Is the student's interest in the courses which he had in mind when he took the prerequisite elementary courses noticeably different from the interest he took in the prerequisite ? 7. Is German or French better taught than Greek or Latin ? 8. What subjects are students electing in largest num- bers? 9. What evidence is there that they are electing subjects rather than instructors ? 10. What evidence is there that changes in popularity of subjects are due to changes in social and industrial conditions or to changes in the number of trained teachers sent out to preparatory schools by colleges ? 11. What subjects are being taught for no other assigned reason except that they are part of traditional learn- ing? 12. How far is pressure to retain or to expand compulsory subjects due to faculty members now teaching these subjects? Another set of questions relates to what actually happens in courses compulsorily taken. The trend of opinion might have been different as to " taking " Latin or " being ex- posed " to German had men acquired facility to feel, think, speak, or write in those languages. If all students of com- pulsory subjects obtained A-plus by both class grading and 240 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities world grading, fewer questions would be raised. It is nat- ural that questions are raised as to the value of courses com- pulsorily taken from which students secure failure, D or C, with little or nothing in memory or power to compensate for time spent and, other studies missed. Many friends of the classics, foreign languages, and other compulsory subjects, including English, mathematics, and Bible study, believe that these subjects would benefit from free competition; that they need no compulsion; and that more students will elect them and benefit from them if no students are required to take them, and if instructors are required to adapt them to present-day needs rather than to former practices. Specific testimony from a number of col- leges would help test this belief. Every subject will benefit from taking count of stock and testing its own holding power ; i.e., by comparing the num- ber taking each course with the number whose preparation makes them eligible to elect it. 86. Graduate Work Offered Since academic preferment and the giving of graduate courses are more and more closely associated in the academic mind, it is not surprising that instructors want as quickly as possible to have their names opposite graduate courses. It helps to have one's name in the catalog as giving a -grad- uate course. Who away from college or out of one's depart- ment will ask whether the course is given and how many take it, with what satisfaction? It is useless to advise that every college refuse to print offers of graduate work when it is either unable to give such work or is certain that no one will ask for it. An offer for which there is no taker may be just as sincere as the offer for which there are too many takers. Who knows but that next time one or several stu- dents will apply! Once having a demand, there is an ap- pealing power which will justify renewing the offer and will strengthen an appeal for funds to make it possible to give the work. After feeling sympathy for offers of graduate work where Mis-advertising Graduate Work 241 the wish is father to the thought, it still remains advisable for self -surveyors to look for evidences that their college is doing itself and graduate students injury 1. By advertising courses when it knows that it cannot give them, that the advertised instructor will not be present, or is already overloaded. 2. By advertising initial courses which it can give with- out making it clear that it is unable to follow up those courses with other graduate courses. 3. By encouraging students to register for graduate work when they must fill out their time with undergraduate courses or by undesired graduate courses or by thresh- ing over old straw, either in courses repeated or in sub- stantial repetitions under different names. 4. By offering as graduate work courses which are not advance work but elementary work, and so recog- nized avowedly or tacitly by admitting elementary stu- dents to them. 5. By attempting to develop graduate work equally in all departments in the face of unequal ability to give the courses. 6. By failing in advertisement and practice to make it clear that graduate work is offered to each student conditionally; i.e., only in case that he proves ability to do work of graduate — i.e., advanced — grade. 87. Professional Courses Extensive studies have been made of four professional courses — medicine, engineering, law, and agriculture — by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and may be obtained upon application to 476 Fifth Avenue, New York City. These studies were partially cooperative ; i.e., questionnaires were sent to colleges with respect to equipment, requirements, organization, etc. For law and en- gineering, college committees assisted. Any self-survey of professional courses would well begin with a study of the questionnaire and the reports of these special studies. Prob- 242 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities ably in 19 17 the Carnegie Foundation will also report upon normal-school work in Missouri and Indiana, for which pro- fessional field the results of study of eight normal schools in Wisconsin together with suggestions for self-study have been summarized in Self-Surveys by Teacher-Training Schools (Allen and Pearse). The Carnegie Foundation studies thus far published have had to do with questions of policy, organization, and equip- ment rather than with the execution of a program and equip- ment which any college actually possesses. The medical study, for example, which was far reaching in its results was made without observing medical instruction, and in a large part without testing statements of colleges for accuracy, completeness, or over-completeness. Once having established a professional course, self-survey steps here suggested in detail for various phases of college management need to be taken. The principles of scientific analysis and description are just the same whether one is sur- veying a medical school or freshman work in cultural sub- jects. Special stress is needed upon the following points : 1. Adequate equipment and organization do not mean adequate instruction and training in professional courses any more than in undergraduate courses. Therefore any survey which stops with equipment and organization may easily reach unsound conclusions. 2. The fact that three great donors to professional train- ing — Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, General Education Board, and Rockefeller Foundation — have influence in proportion to the need and cupidity of professional schools makes it urgent that the country shall take double precautions before accepting without analysis the findings of fact and of recommendation which emanate from these hoped-for donors. 3. Opposition by donors to physical separation of so- called theoretical — i.e., classroom and laboratory — instruction from so-called clinical or field instruction in professional courses should be subordinated to the Professional Courses Need Surveys 243 needs and possibilities of each professional school, its students, and its supporting locality. 4. The cooperative plan of using the laboratories of in- dustry and schools (page 228) is not more needed but is more obviously needed in professional courses. .Surprisingly little scientific study has been made by colleges of the few efforts thus far made to apply this cooperative principle. 5. Methods of elimination need special study; elimina- tion from applicants of all who do not present strong presumptive evidence of personality and capacities re- quired in the profession; elimination early in the freshman course ; fair — i.e., ruthless — elimination in later years up to the day of graduation, even though such elimination carries with it an indictment of the school's failure to have discovered earlier a student's unfitness. [Elimination of students who fall below standard is essential in professional courses but unprofitable in general training which aims to promote democracy by raising the general intellectual level. A. D. Y.] 6. The nature and extent of efforts to analyze causes of failure and weaknesses of those eliminated and of those who remain needs the same kind of study which is suggested for non-professional courses. 7. Whether minimum essentials and standard tests are currently applied to instructor, instruction, and in- structee should be shown. 8. How far slovenly professional ethics or practice is en- couraged by conduct of quizzes, by examination ques- tions, and by grading needs intensive surveying. An experience as proctor of several medical examinations made me shudder for years at the thought of accept- ing medical advice. I cannot now see a prescription without remembering a senior who graduated in spite of answers that included one of which he later ejaculated : " My God, I gave that baby enough to kill an elephant." There are certain minimum es- 244 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities sentials of every profession with respect to which the passing mark is obviously ioo and not 70. 9. How professional schools keep in touch with their alumni and whether they study and emphasize unclas- sified averages, brilliant exceptions, or the specific facts as to each graduate's progress need study. 10. Continuation instruction including field examination, in absentia questions and advice will come to be min- imum essentials. Normal-school leaders, for ex- ample, are urging that in fairness to their product and to their client, the public, normal-school supervision should continue through six months or a year or per- haps longer of actual classroom teaching or school management. [You cannot emphasize too much the responsi- bility that any institution giving professional train- ing assumes for the continued efficiency of its gradu- ates. Should there not be a legal requirement for periodic renewals of certificates entitling graduates to practice which should not be given without the approval of the institution from which they graduate or one of equal rank? A. D. Y.] 11. How the rewards, requirements, and difficulties of each profession are described in announcements and catalogs and in courses is a subject for surveyors. 12. Whether professional training is regarded as part of universal training for citizenry and for service is of first importance. The world has made up its mind that it can do without professional ability, however eminent, which fails to consider the public as its prin- cipal client against whose interest it is never free to accept a retainer of money or preferment. (See ad- dress of President Elihu Root of the American Bar Association, annual meeting, 1916.) 88. The College Library In his report for 19 16 President Butler suggests that col- lege libraries exist not for themselves or for any direct rela- Library Efficiency Tests 245 tion to students but to facilitate the work of college depart- ments. He further suggests that students might profitably be given courses in the use of libraries, — as is done by many small colleges. These suggestions prompt questions for surveyors : 1. Who determines what books shall go into the college library and on what conditions books may go out; i.e., how far are these decisions matters of initiative by faculty, of conference between librarian and fac- ulty, or of decision by the librarian alone? 2. What determines the amount of money available to the library? Of the total how much goes for current journals? How much to new books? How much for postage in order to secure matter for free distri- bution? How much for research sources? Are li- brary appropriations budgeted? Are fines enforced? 3. What proportion of the total library expenditure is for instructional purposes and what proportion for faculty or graduate research ? 4. What steps does the library take to call attention of faculties to live matter and helpful suggestions which come in current journals or in library reviews? 5. Is it permitted to clip out of magazines for topical filing any matter considered helpful by instructors ? [Owing to the necessity for permanent and un- mutilated files of periodicals, shouldn't your ques- tion take the following form: " Are extra copies of periodicals provided from which clippings may be made?" A. D. Y.] 6. What rules govern use of books and magazines by students ? Do they encourage library patronage ? Is service prompt? Is it agreeable? Is it competent? Is it happy? Is it interested? 7. Is it easy to have books come to places where students and faculty gather or must students and faculty go to a central place where books are stored? 8. In what ways is the librarian notified of respective demands for books by different courses ? 246 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 9. In what ways are librarian and staff enlisted in help- ing students learn how to study, how to use reference works, and how to digest materials ? 10. What complaints or suggestions have the faculty with respect to the central library and departmental li- braries? How complete is the file of official reports for the city and state where the college is located ; for colleges, particularly those of similar size and pro- gram; for learned societies, educational and profes- sional conventions ; for civic agencies ; for the United States Bureau of Education and other departments, etc. ; i.e., is it recognized that books are a decade or generation behind current reports? 11. Does the library equipment make efficiency easy? Are there enough bulletin boards? Are they con- veniently placed? Are they used? Is the lighting adequate? May students go to the shelves? Are documents most used that are nearest? 89. Testing Efficiency of Individual Courses Self-surveying of colleges and universities presumes self- surveying of instruction in each subject taught. Unless gen- eralizations and averages are to suffice, it is necessary to work out methods of testing the purpose, content, and in- structional method of each course. If a subject is taught only because it paves the way for a succeeding subject, that fact will appear. If a subject is expected to pay-as-it-goes, that fact will appear, with reasons. Ultimately college experience, conferences of instructors, results of self-surveys will make it possible to list for college subjects standard tests such as may now be listed for ele- mentary arithmetic, writing, composition, etc. Such a list- ing would not be possible as a mere expression of some one educator's opinion and experience. It is suggested that col- lege faculties, departments, and individual instructors ask the following questions about each term course : 1. What part of it is here because students need it ; what part because instructors wish to teach it? Why New Courses Are Given 247 2. Is its length determined by its subject matter or by the length of term ? 3. Who suggested that it be given ? 4. What college officers passed upon its plan before it was incorporated? [Does it announce and actually develop definite forms of general training and special social ends, — under such heads as ideals and incentives, vocabu- lary, associations essential to varied mental inter- connections, habits and systems of habits, and gen- eral application or transfer with the conditions favorable to it? The mere enumeration of such definite claims for a course would go far toward insuring them. A. D. Y.] 5. Have minimum essentials for it been listed? 6. In what ways is it specially fitted to its students ? 7. In what ways does it use students' experience ? 8. In what ways is it fitted to the locality's needs ? 90. Admission Requirements Standardization of admission requirements has made great headway, due largely to the requirements of the Carnegie Foundation. Few colleges now admit students to collegiate standing who do not present 14 to 15 " standard units " of preparatory credits. The gap between nominal requirements and actual prac- tice will be found considerable in most colleges. Moreover, the minimum line, 14 to 15 " standard units," has been found an inadequate protection against unprepared students. Rec- ord Aids in College Management exhibits best practices. Exceptions to the rule can be easily listed at the beginning of a self -survey. For each person admitted with fewer than the advertised standard, the reasons for the exception should be stated, and the results of it; i.e., whether he or she was able to carry the work satisfactorily and whether his or her presence subtracted from the efficiency of other students and faculty. [In some cases, because " three hours a week for thirty weeks in a year" aren't four hours for forty 248 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities weeks, they are given no credit whatever. Therefore the following : " Is partial credit given for a three-hour and thirty-week course that ought to have been a four-hour and forty- week one? " A. D. Y.] Because possession of standard credits has not meant pos- session of health, character, ability, and desire to profit from collegiate work, colleges are making two significant depar- tures: they are requiring specific evidence of character, health, and ability to do college work ; they are accepting stu- dents who present evidence of ability to do work satisfac- torily even if they lack standard credits. In other words, colleges are swinging back to their original idea that person- ality preparation, not academic preparation, is the valid test. Blanket certificates in vague general terms are giving way to specifications of work done and of personality. It is not enough to know credits earned. Colleges want to know the amount of ground covered, the number of weeks studied, and the number of recitation periods a week. Where this degree of specification is not required, three hours a week, thirty weeks in a year are credited equally with five hours a week, forty wee"ks in a year. The ground covered serves as a check against crediting time spent irrespective of benefits received. Finally, the student's rating is found important as a leverage for a preparatory school and as a qualification for college, because many colleges are frankly stating that they do not wish to bother with students who were satisfied during preparatory days with mediocre, poor work. Every college will do well to compare at once the ques- tions it asks about students applying for admission with the questions asked by Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Vassar, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Wellesley, all of which require three kinds of evidence : 1. A school report covering the entire record of subjects and grades for four years. 2. A specific character survey (detailed in Record Aids). 3. Four comprehensive written examinations. Columbia threatens to go further; other schools will dare Admission Requirements Improve 249 follow now that they are less dependent upon the Carnegie Foundation. The dean of its faculty of political science and pure science declares that limiting admissions to persons who seek degrees and who present evidence of having com- plied with the standard unit conventions cripples a university because it restricts the freedom of both student and teacher and holds it back from an opportunity ; i.e., " the great busi- ness of public instruction and of directly shaping public opinion." Dean Woodbridge recommends that admission be granted " on the most liberal conditions possible and in ac- cord with the public demand upon the university." When Columbia turns heretic, it is safe for smaller col- leges to abandon money-made or tradition-made standards for entrance requirements and to adopt vision-made stand- ards that will accept personality and ability preparedness no matter what academic preparation may have been. Before changing their standards with or without precedent and moral support, colleges and institutions should " play safe " ; i.e., analyze their own local experience, and outline and en- force a higher specific standard of personality preparedness. President Burton's report for Smith College 1915-1916 contains (pages 25 to 39) an illuminating discussion of the new admission requirements agreed upon by Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. The following nine reasons for adopting a new plan are elaborated : 1. To eliminate the evils of the certificate system — for the sake of the schools, the students, and the colleges. 2. To provide a method which would admit any student who was prepared to do college work and which would exclude the others. 3. To put emphasis where it belongs and to have entrance to college determined not by success in passing ex- aminations, not by skill in securing certificates, but by giving evidence of ability to do college work. 4. To affirm the belief that " conditions " for freshmen are an unmitigated evil. 5. To leave secondary schools entirely free to arrange 2So Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities their curricula and follow whatever sequence in stud- ies may seem to them wise. 6. To recognize the value and convenience both to schools and colleges of a uniform method of admission. 7. To learn what only the four comprehensive examina- tions can show; i.e., in English or history, in a for- eign language, in mathematics, chemistry, or physics, in groups selected by the applicant. 8. To take the next step in the solution of the far more difficult and perplexing question of the content of en- trance requirements. 9. To let the person who is most concerned, the person for whom schools and colleges actually exist, have a genuine opportunity to express herself at her best and to submit the evidence which she considers does her the fullest justice. For Notes or Questions by the Reader p VIII INSTRUCTIONAL EFFICIENCY 91. Method of Selecting Instructors RESENT instruction will not be materially benefited by asking how present instructors were selected. The quality of future instruction, however, may be appreciably raised by learning, analyzing, and reporting steps taken and standards used when selecting the most recent additions to the faculty. 1. What steps were taken to learn about a large number of persons specially fitted for each position ? 2. How many colleagues in other institutions were noti- fied? How many public-school, private-school, or normal-school teachers, qualified as to scholarship and teaching efficiency, were notified? 3. How specifically were the duties and opportunities of the new position advertised ? 4. How specifically were the qualifications of person- ality, scholarship, and teaching defined and applied when considering candidates ? 5. How specifically was a premium placed upon research reputation or promise? Yale unblushingly reports that " nothing is considered more important than ef- fective and inspiring teaching." In too many instances mere propinquity determines the selection of college instructors — as of wives and husbands. Professor A has a liking for Mr. B v who has tried hard in his courses, or gives promise of research ability. The po- sition opens ; Mr. B is there, he is likable. Without analyz- ing Mr. B's work and qualities with special reference to teaching requirements and without seeking five or twenty competitors with whom to measure him, Professor A pro- pinqs and Mr. B joins the faculty. Estimates of character are employed by Dean Elmer E. Jones of Northwestern University's School of Education. 251 252 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities The blank permits ten different shades or degrees, with remarks as to each of the following 24 character elements, originally listed by Dean F. P. Keppel of Columbia Uni- versity : Physical health Mental balance Intellect Emotions Will Quickness Intensity Breadth Energy Judgment Originality Perseverance Reasonableness Clearness Independence Cooperativeness Unselfishness Kindliness Cheerfulness Refinement Integrity Courage Efficiency Leadership Record Aids in College Management shows that when recommending students as teachers for high schools or as employees elsewhere, several colleges take pains to specify personality elements which promise success. For example, Wellesley asks in reports about Quality of instruction Skill and management of pupils Social relation with pupils Attitude toward superior officers General attitude toward community Manners, dress, etc. The University of Wisconsin reports as to five degrees (very inferior, inferior, average, superior, very superior) of 18 different personality qualifications : 1. Personal and phys- 7. Affability 14. Promptness ical fitness 8. Enthusiasm 15. Open-mindedness 2. Force of character 9. Conscientiousness 16. Judgment (com- 3. Voice 10. Originality mon sense) 4. Sympathy 11. Initiative 17. Use of English 5. Tact 12. Leadership 18. Interest in teach- 6. Vivacity 13. Capacity for work ing Again, regarding high-school teachers who wish other posi- tions, questions are asked such as all colleges will undoubt- edly come to ask about candidates for teaching positions on college faculties ; e.g., as to 1. Preparation of subject matter 2. Skill in presentation 3. Skill in questioning 4. Ability to hold attention 5. Quality of results secured 6. Skill in classroom management 10. Skill in assignment Interest in the life of the com- munity Interest in the life of the school Moral influence Specific Qualifications for Teaching 253 Two other interesting precautions are taken; viz., refer- ences are asked to indicate whether the teacher is best fitted for a small high school or a large high school, normal school, or a college as supervisor or superintendent; finally, a con- fidential statement is requested to " cover any reservation which you desire to make." Faculties with " sot " habits will seldom welcome a per- sonality camera which will analyze their physical appearance, voice, manner, etc. Few faculties, however, will fail to agree that it is desirable when adding a new person to their number to put a premium on voice, physical appearance, and reputation which express vigor, health, poise, cooperative spirit, etc. The strongest candidates will not suffer from having their personality characteristics broken into elements and each element into degrees as per the card on page 257. A question which the Wisconsin Library School has asked of librarians who have supervised practice students, suggests this for colleges: Would you employ this candidate for work in your own college similar to that of our position here ? Another helpful question is : How far do you ex- pect this candidate to rise in the profession of teaching if given opportunity? Every question listed on page 270 for testing efficiency of classroom instruction can without embarrassment be asked about the previous teaching of candidates, especially if the would-be employer goes whenever possible, as he should, to see the would-be instructor at work with students. The habit cannot long survive of college presidents going east or west to interview a candidate, not at work with students, but at a hotel or club ! Among the earmarks of inefficient instruction which with- out embarrassment can be looked for when comparing can- didates not yet on a faculty, are those mentioned and sug- gested on page 258. 92. Observation of Classroom Instruction Against survey visiting of college classes it is urged that definite tests for instruction of college grades have not been 254 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities formulated; that if formulated they would result in la- mentably one-sided instruction ; that there would be a tend- ency to apply the same test to instructors in different de- partments; that if efficiency tests were applied to each instructor even in one department or subject the result would be monotony of influence upon students ; that any test which would be satisfactory would be so complex that it would require greater discretion in the persons who applied than colleges could insure ; that by other methods than class visit- ing instruction is already better tested; that visiting would check the spontaneity of instructors; that no man under surveillance could exert the right influence upon students be- cause he could not be himself ; that a visited teacher would be more pitiable than a public speaker who is constantly followed at every performance as to thought, delivery, and personal appeal to the audience ; that a person who knows he is being tested will lose the power that comes from absorp- tion in his task ; that what his students do when they go on to advanced courses shows the instructor's ability ; that class visitation means censorship of personality more disastrous, because more insidious, than any censorship of doctrine ; that only subservient instructors with theatrical ability would show what supervisors desire ; that straightforward and in- dependent instructors would find supervision intolerable ; that men of strong personality would leave an institution where classroom visiting prevailed; that the tendency would be to apply to university teaching and college teaching the mechanical tests worked out for elementary and secondary teaching; that better teachers will develop even under administrative neglect than under administrative nag- ging. . For classroom visiting there is equally emphatic demand. President Butler of Columbia says that poor teaching in universities is due in large part to the " bad tradition which so largely prevents the inspection and supervision of the work of young teachers by their elders." Professor Barrett Wendell declares that professional standards are higher in French universities than in America and that even rectors Need for Classroom Visiting 255 of French universities are " objects of a supervision as close as that applied to their subordinates of whatever rank." This supervision, he says, is obtained " by reports supple- mented by field visits and classroom observations." Many college departments, especially in science, have young in- structors visited while at work with students in laboratory, recitation, lecture, or quiz. Checking instruction by later progress of students in other studies outside college is check- ing too late at too long range. What the catalog, syllabus, instructor, or instructor's suc- cessor says about a course will obviously present fewer op- portunities to help the instructor than will what the instruc- tor and students do while the course is being given. With- out more knowledge about work done in classrooms than is frequently possessed by departments in colleges there is little encouragement to be a first-class teacher. Absence of knowledge about classroom efficiency means failure to dis- tinguish degrees of teaching ability, — great, medium, lit- tle. This means that superiority competes with mediocrity and inferiority in the dark, with the result that superiority is not encouraged. Any college which fails to discover in- efficiency will also fail to discover and reward efficiency. Incidentally any president or dean will be greatly helped in understanding his own problems and opportunities if he goes to classrooms for the good such visiting will do himself. If helpfulness rather than appraisal is the purpose of survey or self-survey, the reasons against classroom visiting lose force and the reasons for such visiting gain force. Whatever may be possible or expedient for an outside survey, it is clear that a self-survey will include observations of classroom instruction. Colleagues will visit one another. Subordinates will visit superiors for inspiration and for credit. Older men, out of friendship or when officially dele- gated, will visit younger men. Deans will visit to keep themselves in touch and to be sure that they are backing the right man or not acting from insufficient knowledge when proposing dismissal, promotion, or salary increase. Special committees will, under instruction from the faculty, visit 256 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities classes as a means of answering questions which are agreed upon in advance as essential to discovering what and how instruction is given. Special inquiries will be made to settle controversies or to test proposals for changing educational methods. Alumni will, with consent of faculty or from out- side pressure, visit classes. For state-supported institutions the special survey will un- doubtedly find it necessary to answer questions about in- struction with facts gained by observing instruction. The presidents of three Ohio universities visited classes with Director H. L. Brittain of the Ohio survey and marked the facts observed on the survey card. Five instructors of the department of education began visiting with the University of Wisconsin survey. When classes are observed, shall surveyors report what they see or what they think about it ? Experience in supervising everywhere else answers that only when supervisors state the fact base of their judgment is their judgment accepted. On the other hand, if surveyors state what they see in class it will usually not be necessary to say what they think about it. The type of fact to be noted uniformly when visiting classes can be worked out and agreed upon in advance by surveyor and surveyed. Averages and net balances will be avoided. The com- mendable will not be balanced against the uncommendable in an effort to see which appears oftenest. Averaging ex- cellent with deficient is worse than useless, because it mis- leads responsible officers and leads to inaction where facts standing out by themselves would lead to action. A char- acteristic or habit or defect that interferes with instruction needs attention, no matter how many other habits make for successful instruction. Every weak point will be separately listed for the opportunity it presents to be of help and to remove obstruction to efficiency. Every strong point will be listed as solid ground upon which to build. Whether excellences are of personality, subject matter, method of presentation, or method of conducting classes is an important question of fact, which will be lost sight of Personality Chart for 'College Teachers 257 §1 o g £ bo »s >. n a c « a .= bo H.5 2-S- !-a fl . « 5 4- !>,>> !->,>■.:>. >. !»*■.*•. . 3 05 S 2 « " « o j w - c o c *- < CuG B -m B « w PL, On < ^ U 0J ^ y«s§ Z«oS w . . . , a j jo "< *i CI "5 w H . O ?* rt 5* U S°§5§h3S in • ■■ ■ t-l • ! u ■ ■ h : !SS: i <-> : "a "S H S CO 2'gg JgSsS 3n SrJioMHO W H ^ ^ S- U > CTC? :•!:•>: :h : : -i\ .»..■<: • a • ■ . a: . • B • • . o . ■2 -a •» : •h -2 :a : "" : S :s : •j" -R £ • ►ju ■ W q w r; ■ a. E w w u< • p a o 5 g w u « £ S * w > H t> o 3 w ^ ^- V)\0 KOO * o 258 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities where questions regarding each of these elements of class- room instruction are not analyzed separately. If the person visited is shown the report of the visit, one of three things will result: (1) The instructor will admit that the description is accurate; (2) the reporter will accept slight modifications because of facts submitted by the in- structor; (3) a further visit will be shown necessary by the instructor's refusal to admit that the statement of facts is substantially correct. Self-surveyors will always have time to make a second or third or tenth visit. Whenever possible the surveyor should report to the sur- veyed, immediately after the visit, what is observed. Many successful supervisors make carbon copies of their notations and hand or send these to teachers whose classes they observe. Where facts clearly show that an instruc- tor needs help, the sooner that help is given the better. If an instructor agrees to the facts, he will ask questions and gladly receive suggestions, oftentimes before the surveyor leaves the room. The accompanying questions furnish a nucleus. Within each subject a separate list of questions is needed. Such lists of minimum essentials will be quickly worked out after col- leges generally recognize the helpfulness of classroom visi- tation, and college instructors will soon have " high spot " hand-books of best practices and earmarks of efficiency against which to check their own material and method. While waiting for surveys by others each instructor may profitably examine his own workmanship for earmarks sug- gested by the following questions : 1. Am I heard . . . and understood ... or do I mumble . . . , talk like a whirlwind ... or befog . . . ? 2. Do I speak and require correct English . . . , inde- pendent thinking . . . , and straight reasoning . . . ? 3. Are my lectures, illustrations, questions, and labora- tory demonstrations up-to-date, leavened with current events ... or " cold mutton gravy " . . . ? 4. Do I prepare myself adequately for meeting students? Y.,. N... 25 Tests of Teaching 259 Is my plan well organized ... or do I " ram-ble, ram- ble, ram-ble round the town " . . . ? Do I make technical terms clear ... or revel in ob- scurity . . . ? Do I make dogmatic statements ... or support as- sertions with facts . . . ? Do I adapt subject matter to the purpose of my course? Y. . . N... Do I invite questions and discussion by students? Y... N... 10. Do I receive student responses sympathetically? Y . . . N. . . What is my reputation as a teacher among students ? 11. Do I address a question first to the whole class . . . or only to the particular student ... I want to an- swer it? Do I habitually . . . and needlessly . . . repeat student answers ? 12. Does my questioning lead to adequate responses ... or to monosyllables . . . ? 13. Do I fail to make instruction concrete; i.e., do I apply and have applied . . . , or just talk about . . . , the Courtis tests? 14. Do I require preparation by students . . . ? Or am I their slavey preparing predigested food for them . . . ? Am I a high ... or low . . . marker ? Am I considered thorough and exacting? Y . . . N... 15. Do I hold attention when talking and questioning Y . . . N. . . ? How many of each class go wool- gathering or give apparently forced attention ? 16. Do I use class time fully and profitably? Y. . . N... 17. Do I teach foreign languages via use; i.e., via speak- ing them and requiring students to use them? Y . . . N... 18. Do I quiz ... or lecture ... or just talk ... in quiz time? 19. Do I know my students by name ? Y. . . N... 260 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 20. Do I know enough about each student to tell whether he is benefiting from my course ? Y . . . N... 21. Is my specialization or research reflected in my in- struction? Y. . . N... 22. Do I subordinate the first personal pronoun ... or do I explain Browning in terms of my own writing . . . ? 23. Do I capitalize the student's experience; i.e., hitch or try to hitch my star to his wagon? Y... N... 24. Do I exclude irrelevant material and subjects from my own or students' discussions . . . ? Or do I re- quire disserviceable and wasteful reading and note taking like the "busy work" given to elementary pupils . . . ? 25. What specific evidences are there that students are assimilating what I give, using independently what I do, growing as the result of my work with them, do- ing their own thinking? To the foregoing list every college faculty and every de- partment will want to add several other questions. Each instructor will find that each question asked about himself prompts several other questions. The present generation of college instructors need have no fear that self-analysis will breed morbid self-conscious- ness. If in a particular college public sentiment has not yet called for a survey of instruction, the faculty may at least welcome a list such as the above for self -survey in each instructor's sanctum sanctorum. Commenting upon the foregoing section, Dean E. E. Jones of Northwestern wrote the following: " Nothing would be more profitable to university instruction than a score card of instruction which would be at least as accu- rate as the score cards used by schools of agriculture for meas- uring steers or hogs." To illustrate the disadvantages of a score card which Helping, not Scoring 261 gives numerical values rather than degrees, we reproduced in Self-Surveys by Teacher -Training Schools (pp. 84-86) the codification for teacher's efficiency formerly used by the Connecticut state board of education. Similar score cards have been tried elsewhere. Connecticut abandoned the nu- merical rating because Secretary Charles D. Hine found that supervisors and teachers alike were more concerned about the final total than they were about the specific weaknesses disclosed by the scoring. Scoring products — steers and hogs or bread and pump- kins — is scientific because the motive is to decide which is superior from the standpoint of the dollar market. Scoring methods cannot be scientific wherever it forgets that the purpose of scoring is not to discover superiority or relative ranking of several teachers but to discover specifically where, if at all, each teacher can be helped by herself and by her supervisors to improve her product via improvement in her method. That is the reason why throughout this book effort has been made to warn administrators against numerical rating of processes and persons. In addition to the elements of instruction above specified, the self -surveyor will do well to note the following facts with respect to college instruction. The first day of the semester is included to bring out the manner of introduc- ing courses and instructors to students. 1. Class opened Dismissed teacher tardy — yes. .. .no. .. . 2. Were students in class who had not registered? Yes.. (How many....) No.... What notice was taken of unregistered stu- dents 3. Did the semester's work actually start — yes no 4. Teacher's description of course — Whole course — yes. .. .no. . . . beginning. .. .yes no clear — yes. .. .no. .. .inspirational — yes. .. .no. .. . 5. Time spent in opening instrc'ns. .. .Clear — yes. . .no. ..necess'y — yes. .. .no. .. . 6. Could opening instructions have been given more economically — yes. .. .no. .. .How 7. Time spent in repetition of previous instructions — none.... min- utes 8. Would absent student be handicapped next day — yes... .no.... 9. Assignment for next lesson — yes . . . .no . . . .definite. . . .indefinite too much reasonable too little 262 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 10. Personal relations with students: Did teacher offer to help — yes. . . .no. . . .How many students asked questions during class after class 11. Was yesterday's assignment followed up — yes no adequately partially 12. At what disadvantage were students who were not present yes- terday ? 13. Type of lesson — Written — none all part Lecture — none all part Topical — none all part Question none few many too many Per cent time used by teacher ... .by students 14. Mood in which students left class — interested careless happy worried 15. Did the class get enough to pay them for the time spent — yes.... no 16. Does the size of classroom fit the size of the class — yes. .. .no. .. . Vacant seats number standing or uncomfortably seated 93. Supervision of Instruction Apart from visiting instructors while they are at work with students, there are several other methods of helping them do what their college and department expect of them. The word " supervision " has gained an unsavory repu- tation, not so much for anything that has happened in col- leges as for the conduct of certain supervisors in lower schools. On one of the visits which led to High Spots in New York Schools I was so impressed with some English work, oral and written, that I asked the principal if his dis- trict superintendent had seen it and had asked other teachers in the district to observe it. The principal took me aside so that the teacher would not hear and replied : " Now that you ask me I will tell you frankly what happened. The district superintendent saw practically what you have seen, and then lit into this teacher like a ton of brick because several of the pupils' papers had not in the upper right-hand corner, underscored, as per order, the writers' names." American colleges are afraid that supervision which goes beyond informal conferences and friendly talk will degen- erate into fault-finding, venting spite, and playing favorites. While in theory one's reputation with other instructors for whose work students are prepared constitutes a form of supervision, in fact few colleges have systematized this test. Kinds of Helpful Supervision 263 Among the many ways of helping the young instructor while protecting the college against defective planning or execution the surveyor should look for those mentioned on pages 258 ff. Other methods of supervision include these : 1. The department head goes over first draft of courses planned, raises questions, makes suggestions, and re- views the final draft. 2. Where several instructors are giving the same course to different sections, they compare notes as to plans and as to current results as reflected in examinations, term papers, attendance, etc. 3. Under the departmental system one man is held re- sponsible for the course and for ascertaining through conferences, tests, examination papers, etc., how his co-instructors are carrying out the plan they helped him make or for which he is administratively re- sponsible. 4. Where a number of instructors are guiding the read- ing and conducting the quizzes for lectures given by another instructor, conferences are held and notes compared. In a laboratory course the conductor of the course will generally inspect laboratory work. 5. Departmental lunches are held for informal discus- sion or review of plans; for correlating different courses ; for promoting team work ; for encouraging younger men, enveloping them in the spirit of the de- partment and drawing them out as to difficulties which older men or other younger men have success- fully met. 6. Much is done personally by colleagues to make the new instructor feel at home and to take up delicately with experienced instructors any difficulties which come to the attention of colleagues. 7. Instructors from different departments having com- mon problems meet to discuss them. 8. Deans learn through advisers and through failures or 264 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities complaints of students of difficulties that need atten- tion. 9. General faculty meetings consider new methods em- ployed elsewhere, as the preceptorial system at Prince- ton and Bowdoin or the cooperative system at Cincin- nati. 10. Printed instructions and syllabuses help out-of -class supervision and contain points with which to check what happens in classes. Whether these steps are definite, specific, personal, con- tinuous, and cumulative is for surveyors to answer. It is not enough to record paper plans for supervision. It is supervision that gets to the individual instructor which counts, just as it is the instruction which gets to the in- dividual student which counts. 94. Supervision of Classroom Instruction An individual who sets out to survey the efficiency of col- lege instruction takes his life in his hands. Experience proves that it is just as unpleasant to have one's teaching investigated by an insider as by an outsider. Since, how- ever, colleges exist for instruction, college surveys can hardly ignore instruction. Shall they survey the things that have to do with instruction or shall they survey instruction itself? No objection will be urged to asking questions about in- struction like these : 1. What is the course of study? Does the catalog sat- isfactorily describe it? 2. What is the range of teachers' salaries? 3. What is the reputation of the college for instruction as shown by efforts of other colleges to secure in- structors and by within-college reputation of indi- vidual instructors? 4. How are instructors selected? 5. How do departments help younger men and supervise their planning and giving of courses? Questions or Notes 265 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 266 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 6. What is the reputation of the faculty for scholarship as shown by research and books and prestige in sci- entific societies? 7. What is the success in other colleges of our students who leave after or before graduation ? 8. Is the faculty overworked? Y. . . N. . . ?... 9. Are classes too large ? Y... N... ?... 10. Do requirements for admission and continuance guarantee students able to do the work? Y. . . N... 11. Are equipment Y... N..., facilities Y... N..., and living conditions Y ... N . . ., favorable to effi- cient instruction? Every one of these questions should be answered by special surveys and self-surveys, whether or not there is classroom observation. Affirmative answers, however, will not mean that instruction is efficient or even moderately satisfactory. All the surrounding elements may be conducive to the highest grade instruction and still students get little or nothing from a given course. Whether the thing which the students get is to be observed or taken for granted is one of the major questions now before American colleges. 95. The Student Adviser Temporarily colleges are conceding that the individual in- structor cannot reasonably be expected to know either what other work his students are taking or why they limp and halt in his work, therefore the official adviser, student ad- viser, or class officer who is made a " clearing house " for all facts regarding a small group of students. For this extra service colleges usually pay nothing in dollars or in credit ; the University of Illinois pays $50. Among duties of successful advisers are found these : I. At registration time: 1. To interpret regulations and alternatives; to help stu- dents elect studies with a view to future courses as Helping Advisers Help Students 267 well as present interest; to explain how deficiencies may be made up or irregularities adjusted. 2. To prevent ill-advised electives. 3. To give information and advice as to outside activ- ities. 4. To see that registration blanks are correctly filled out. 5. To give help on purely personal matters, such as how to look for rooms; why to attend convocations; where to find information. 6. To get acquainted with new students and help them feel at home. II. Between registration times: 1. To hold regular office hours. 2. To see every advisee within a fortnight. 3. To review class cards. 4. To act promptly upon reports from instructors that work is unsatisfactory. 5. To ask instructors what the trouble is. 6. To get in touch and keep in touch with parents. 7. To ask the help of parents and high-school principals. There is many a slip 'twixt adviser's program and ad- viser's practice. Where unsupervised, the adviser system is apt to become a mere formality or nuisance to both faculty and students. Unless the weakest adviser is provided with and instructed to follow the methods employed by the strongest adviser, a college will deal quite inequitably with its students. Even where deans cannot personally see stu- dents, as Dean Keppel finds possible with over 1200 Co- lumbia College students, deans can exact from all a pro- cedure that will include minimum essentials while still pro- viding unlimited differentiation above minimum essentials. Several devices and practices are listed in Record Aids in College Management which are equally helpful to instructor and adviser. The self-surveyor will do well to see whether advisers and 268 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities instructors acting as advisers to their own students are bene- fiting from best practices. 1. May a student change his adviser for good reason? Where possible may advisee choose adviser and ad- viser choose advisees? 2. Are advisers fitted to students; i.e., are advisees given preferably to advisers with whom they have class work? Is the same adviser continued through two lower-class and two upper-class years? 3. Is the confidential information which is obtained re- garding freshmen from preparatory school or par- ents made available to and used by advisers at first registration time? Y . . . N. . . ? . . . 4. Are advisers given written instructions as to their duties ? 5. What meetings have they before or after registration ? 6. Are advisers furnished with a codification of ques- tions previously raised, with proper answers ? 7. Have the catalogs and announcements anticipated stu- dent questions, thus reducing to the minimum ques- tions left for advisers to answer ? 8. How is the way they answer questions observed ? 9. Is adviser furnished with cards for recording the minimum of information regarding each advisee, in- cluding substance and results of conferences? 10. Are teachers furnished blanks with which it is easy for them to send important information before it is too late to prevent student failure? One college sends the following questions to an instructor regard- ing a student found weak in his subject : a. Do you think student was properly prepared for your subject? b. Has he attended class regularly? c. Has he explained absence from his class ? d. Do you know whether or not he has been do- ing outside work for his support? e. Do you know whether or not he has been in- terested in outside activities? 12 Criticisms of Adviser System 269 f . Has he seemed to be interested in your subject ? g. Has he prepared work assigned to him from day to day? h. Have his recitations been satisfactory? i. Has he failed to pass most of the quizzes ? j. Does he lack ability ? k. Is he a student who should be given a chance to continue at the university ? 1. Have you any suggestions to make concerning the student ? 1 1. Are parents notified where students excel Y . . . N. . . and when students begin to stumble? Y . . . N . . . 12. Has the dean a central record which shows who are the advisers and who the advisees, thus locating the responsibility definitely and promptly? 13. How much time is given by advisers to students at first meeting? Is it enough? Does it vary with dif- ferent types of student? Y. . . N. . . 14. How is adviser work supervised and checked; i.e., who learns if adviser enforces rules regarding the early return of students to him, or how promptly, or how effectively the adviser acts upon receiving word of advisee's difficulties ? 15. Is the adviser system or adviser principle used in summer sessions ? Y . . . N . . . 16. What step is taken to codify the experience of ad- visers so that deficiencies or difficulties of catalog, an- nouncement, college discipline, living conditions, in- structor dealings with students, etc., may be made available to the college management? 17. Is the net effect of the adviser system an increase . . , or a decrease ... in the individual instructor's sense of responsibility for knowing what his students have to give and do give to his subject ? The following criticisms were made by one faculty of its adviser system. Do they apply to your college ? 1. Relations are mechanical where they should be highly personal. Y. . . N. . . ?... 270 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 2. 3 4. 5 6 7- 8 9 10 11 12, There are too many advisees for each adviser. F. . . N... ?... Too many young instructors are used. F. . . N. . . ? . . . Unsuccessful advisers are required to continue. Y... N... ?... Advisers are given students who are not in their classes. Y . . . N. . . ? . . . Advisers are ignorant of facts necessary to intelligent advice. Y. . . N... ?... Advisers' offices are too small. Advisees' right to privacy is violated. Y... N... ?... Advisers have too much other work. Y . . . N. . . ? . . . Advisers do not meet advisees often enough. Y . . . AT... .?... Too little attention is given to freshmen. Y ... N. . . ?. . . Advisers do not try to know enough of aims, grades, and activities of advisees. Y . . . N. . . ? . . . Good adviser work does not count toward promotion. F... N... ?... 96. How Classroom Instruction Was Photographed by the University of Wisconsin Survey Effort was made to have university surveyors report re- garding the same courses. The following instructions were talked over by observers and supervisors before the classes were visited. By agreement with the university, classes for training teachers were selected for visit, hence the at- tention to child background, etc. 1. Shall quality of instruction be judged by the extent to which a. The subject matter is academic, theoretical, cul- tural — studied for its own sake ? b. The recitation concerns itself with an applica- tion of principles, theories, facts of child nature Classroom Instruction: Analysis 271 and education to actual school and classroom problems ? c. The teaching has inspirational value, sets up worth-while ideals, and in such a way as to create a strong desire in students to want to observe child life, and to test and apply prin- ciples of education in actual school situations ? d. The subject matter considered and the method of treatment illuminate and explain sources and causes, showing the influence of the past on the present, making possible an intelligent com- prehension of present-day educational move- ments and problems ? e. The conduct of the recitation stimulates pupils, arouses interest, awakens emotions and respon- sive attitudes, utilizes past experience of stu- dents, results in worth-while questions, or whether the teaching is formal, mechanical, lifeless, largely reproduction of words and terms which seem to have little if any content in students' minds ? f. The teaching is worthy of emulation by stu- dents in their future work as teachers in the public schools ? g. The recitation makes good use of the time — arrives; is fairly complete, leaving certain clear, definite impressions as opposed to leav- ing questions " up in the air," vague, indefinite, and unclear ? Does the recitation " kill time " ? h. The conduct of the recitation makes necessary careful, painstaking preparation by students? Does the teacher do the reciting, leaving pu- pils passive, indifferent, bored? Note 1. Every conclusion or judgment must be supported by a fact basis; that is, the work seen should be so described as to show specific- ally what led to the conclusion stated. Note 2. All statements of fact regarding any 272 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities work seen will be submitted for verification to the one whose work is described. 2. While getting this information, is it feasible to note a. The type of recitation — extent to which it is ( i ) lecture ? (2) quiz? (3) combination lecture-quiz? (4) topical? (5) problem inductive-deductive? (6) other? b. Questions by teacher — extent to which they (1) test memory (mainly — who, what, where, type) ? (2) test judgment (thought provoking, vi- tal — how, why) ? (3) are leading — suggestive, pumping? (4) are vague, indefinite, scattering, repe- tition ? (5) are abstruse, formal, mechanical, or concrete, explicit, intelligible? c. Attitude of students — extent to which they (1) are really attentive, interested? (2) are indifferent, bored? (3) are delighted to be in the class, or re- verse ? (4) show hearty good fellowship with the instructor, or reverse? d. Class management ( 1 ) Do students choose their own seats, or are they given permanent seats ? (2) Is time taken at each meeting for roll call? (3) Do students appear to be called upon in a certain fixed order so that they know when they will recite ? (4) Is time taken up with mere mechanics of class work, as passing out papers, Classroom Instruction: Analysis 273 etc., or are these matters cared for without taking time of class? e. Responses of students — extent to which they ( I ) are ready and hearty, or slow, mechan- ical, unwilling? '(2) are fluent, coherent, definite, showing clear thinking? (3) are fragmentary, disjointed? (4) show definite, careful preparation or skillful development by instructor ? (5) appear to be guesses — " stabbing"? f . The instructor — extent to which he ( 1 ) gives evidence of thorough mastery of his subject? (2) illuminates with illustrations drawn from experience and wide observation of school work and school conditions ? Is he contributing to educational prog- ress in the state and country ? How ? (3) is resourceful in adapting his work to reactions of students, as against for- mal program, regardless of students' reactions ? (4) is ready in expression, able to use dy- namic, effective language ? (5) has a sense of humor, and is skillful in employing same in conduct of class ? (6) has dignity without formality, force and power without harshness, courtesy and sympathy without partiality ? (7) is vital, effective, a leader, or opposite? g. Lesson assignment — is it (1) definite, clear? (2) formal — from textbook? (3) Dv topics or problems? (4) hastily made at dismissal ? (5) omitted? 274 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities h. Results ( i ) What was accomplished in recitation? (2) What seemed to be the frame of mind of students when they left classroom? 97. Personality of Instructor Only a small part of the world's teaching is done in col- leges. Only an infinitesimal fraction of men are at any time in the position where they are not both giving and receiving instruction. Foremen are instructors as well as bosses. Corporation presidents are instructors as well as managers. Successful salesmanship is based upon successful instruction. It is no more true of college instruction than of any other vocation that personality is an important if not a determin- ing factor in success. What and how information reaches the student cannot be separated from the instructor's personality, but that does not mean what many collegians assert, that because personality cannot be literally measured instruction cannot be described. The first few times one is told : " Oh, you can't measure personality, for that is undefinable, immeasurable, untest- able, vague, indefinite, spiritual, etc.," one subsides abashed and apologetic. Eventually the mind rebels and asks: " But is it true that personality is the hardest thing in the world to test ? Why can't it be described ? " The surveyor will be surprised at what will happen if he timidly asks when told that of course personality is an intangible, incorporeal quality : " What is there about a man that you judge quicker than his personality? Does not personality dis- close itself in less time than either grasp of subject or teach- ing technique ? " If personality can win appointment, promotion, dismissal; if it makes one such a good fellow that his time is wasted in good fellowship; if it causes students to flock to or from an instructor's courses ; if it draws students like a magnet for conference ; if it drives them away like a sign marked " third rail"; if it wins confidence; if it compels and expresses thoroughness; why, pray, is it impossible to describe it? Instructor Personality Analyzed 275 Minnesota notes each instructor's special aptitudes, kinds of student attracted, reputation for teaching with faculty and students, whether high or low marker. As Record Aids in College Management shows, many colleges are finding it pos- sible to factor student personality. Why is instructor per- sonality undecipherable ? If it were necessary to concede that describing personality is impossible, there would still remain the possibility of de- scribing the effect of teachers' personality upon students. The number of students who go to sleep or look out of the window or whisper can be counted ; an indefinite or imperti- nent answer can be copied ; rudeness begotten by rudeness or sympathy begotten by sympathy is easily described. There are just two hard things about describing person- ality; wanting to describe it, and trying to describe it in terms of appraisal, evaluation, or judgment. Describing personality has been found possible and scientific by histo- rians, library reviewers, and political reporters. What men can do out of college about people out of college men in college can do about one another and themselves. So long as self -surveyors aim to secure facts that will not be denied and facts that will help the instructor and the col- lege personality, surveys need not be feared. Many thou- sands of the " personality camera " card on page 257 have been used by principals and teachers. Unless there is something about the business of instruct- ing college students that draws a deadline beyond which per- sonality can no longer improve, then it will pay college in- structors to analyze their personality and to ask help from colleagues and superiors in making and in using such analy- sis. Nothing could be more unfair than for colleges to let picked men mistake personality weaknesses for signs of cul- ture or genius and choke or dwarf personality's strong points for want of pruning and weeding. Whatever objection there is to having a committee tell Professor M of personality weaknesses disclosed before classes cannot apply to handing Professor M a looking glass in the form of a list of personality weaknesses with which to 276 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities check himself. Such a list was used by David E. Berg when preparing Personality Portraits of 72 College Instructors, some of whom were visited only once, most of them three times or more. Although Mr. Berg's personality descrip- tions teem with direct quotations from lectures or questions, his motive in making these portraits was to test the claim that because personality defies description classroom visiting is futile. With his permission the personality elements listed on pages 277 to 280 are commended to self-surveyors. As suggested elsewhere, more attention by college in- structors to instructor personality and to teaching efficiency will hasten the ability and willingness of the public to in- crease salaries and facilities for college instruction. Intelligent conservation of intellectual and teaching powers calls for such personality aids as this : President A wrote to a sister university about Professor B and was told that Professor B was a man of unusual power as student and teacher but that he had an unfortunate and unusual pitch of voice that made him appear weak and unpleasant. " Well met," said President A, " this is a fine chance to test our new voice clinic. If Professor B is willing to help we will gladly give him a year to remove this obstacle to his ad- vancement." Within a few months both the clinic and Pro- fessor B had proved their worth. Mens sana in sano corpore is the faculty's justification for compelling a minimum of health signs and vitality for every student. To make health and physical vitality a sine qua non for membership in faculties would surpass pension sys- tems in beneficence. A complete physical survey, such as is used for students, would disclose innumerable opportunities to strengthen faculty personality. 98. Personality Portraits The claim that personality is too elusive to be measured or weighed led Mr. David E. Berg, now of New York City — university graduate, public-school teacher, and principal — to visit 72 university instructors, mostly of professorial rank, in order to see whether and how far personality lends itself Personality Portraits of 72 Instructors 277 readily to simple description. Two results of six weeks' constant visiting are Personality Portraits of 72 College In- structors and a handbook of advice to students on ways of avoiding the type of personality that inspires and compels study. To digest Mr. Berg's descriptions would be unfair to por- trayed and portrayer. College teachers and administrators may welcome, however, the following list of personality ele- ments which he built up inductively as his visits increased. They are purposely not classified here in the hope that readers will think of each as a separate element that should or should not be separately noted when selecting instructors and deciding whether to continue and promote them. Per- sonal elements appear not always in degrees of positive qual- ities, but often as negative qualities; therefore the second list, inductively built up of negative or disqualifying ele- ments in personality. Four principles of grading will interest college teachers : (1) candle power (C.P., intellectual illumination) (2) heat (B.T.U., British thermal unit, emotional heat) (3) energy (K.W., or kilowats of volitional energy) (4) class temperature (C.T. ; i.e., class interest) Among 72, instructors Mr. Berg found 11 distinct types which are here repeated. Please note that the marking of C.P., B.T.U., K.W., and C.T. is based upon the standards exhibited by the three personalities who are listed in the first type. 1. The highest type,— the dynamic type, great intellectual qualities, wit, geniality, verve, depth, with students keyed to a high degree of interest, where a splendid personality obtains splendid results. Average 100: C.P. 100; B.T.U. 100; K.W. 100; C.T. 100. Three men are in- cluded in this group. 2. Great intellectual stature, alert, exacting, straining, but lacking in geniality and sympathetic contact with class. Although highly gifted intellectually, the coldness of their personality seemed to have inhibited the highest development of the power to impart knowledge through a lack of power for imaginative projection; they were 278 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities not as luminous as those of the first type. But they were obtaining excellent results from their students. Average 87: C.P. 90-95; B.T.U. 60-70; K.W. 90-100; C.T. 90-95. Four men are included in this group. 3. Lesser intellectual stature, but alive, keen, alert, certain amount of humor, good contact with class. Fine results. Gave promise of further development. Average 82: C.P. 80-90; B.T.C. 70-90; K.W. 75-85; C.T. 80-90. Seventeen men are included in this group. 4. The indolent, lackadaisical teacher of considerable abil- ity but resting on his oars, putting forth only part of his powers and energies. Average 75 : C.P. 80-85 > B.T.U. 65-80 ; K.W. 40-85 ; C.T. 80-90. Five men are included in this group. They accomplished certain results by sheer weight of prestige and their latent smoldering powers. Four of them had a certain aptitude for witti- cism, and a proclivity for humoring the students. 5. Men of considerable training with good grasp on sub- ject, sincere, a certain contact with class, poor methods, a laxity of standards, achieve only mediocre results, but interest fairly well sustained. Average 72: C.P. 70-80; B.T.U. 60-80; K.W. 60-80; C.T. 65-75. Fifteen teachers are included in this group. 6. The cold, assured egotistical type — medium ability but enormously self-assured, men past maturity who have accomplished certain things but are petrified and sta- tionary before the final decline into senility. Classes are deadly boring. No humor. Average 55: C.P. 70-75; B.T.U. 40-45; K.W. 50-60; C.T. 40-60. Five men are included in this group. - 7. The young, immature teachers of considerable keenness, whose vision is not developed, lack of perspective com- bined sometimes with vicious method of teaching. Lack of a sure grasp on the subject matter. Also lack of humor in all but one case. Average 52: C.P. 50-65; B.T.U. 40-50; K.W. 40-60; C.T. 50-60. Seven men are included in this group. 8. The fakir, who runs a game of bluff, men in higher po- sition who put on a bold front to retain their position. Average 49: C.P. 40-50; B.T.U. 40-50; K.W. 50-65; C.T. 50-55. Three men are included in this group. 9. The man of little ability, poor grasp on subject, cold and Mr. Berg's Personality Portraits 279 10. 11. 99. flabby personality. Results are extremely unsatisfac- tory. Average 44: C.P. 40-50; B.T.U. 30-40; K.W. 30-50 ; C.T. 40-60. Five men are included in this group. Senile dotard type, no life, warmth, or interest, no humor. Average 37: C.P. 40-50; B.T.U. 10-30; K.W. 30-40; C.T. 20-60. Three men are in this group. The practically futile teacher, with no strength of char- acter, poor grasp of subject matter and lack of proper training. Average 28: C.P. 10-30; B.T.U. 15-30; K.W. 30-40 ; C.T. 30-40. Three teachers are here. Desirable Personal Elements Found by Mr. David E. Berg when Observing 72 University Instructors Intellectual Qualities Profundity Vision Interest-arousing Comprehensiveness Imagination Wit Incisiveness Associativeness Brilliance Open-mindedness Originality Figures of speech Balance Resourcefulness Related anecdotes Logicality Clearness Personal experiences Coherence Verve and dash Emotional Qualities Tact Pleasant voice Democracy Courtesy Expressive face Address Neatness Good diction Charm Natural manner Humor Taste Poise Enthusiasm Esthetic sense Sympathy Responsiveness Tolerance Even temper Volitional Qualities Dignity and reserve Decisiveness Clear-mindedness Aggressiveness Sincerity Courage Encouraging Industry Exacting Independence of judg- ment Fairness Modesty Firmness 100. Undesirable Personal Elements Found by Mr. Berg Shallowness Narrowness Bigoted Erratic Illogicality Intellectual Qualities Dependence Obscurity Muddle-headed Inertness Short-visioned Tedious Matter of fact Dullness Wooden-minded 280 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Blundering Seediness Slovenliness Affectation 111 at ease Unsympathetic Irascible Lackadaisical Repressing Hidebound Wavering Emotional Qualities Grating Impassiveness Poor diction Solemnity Diffidence Snobbishness Volitional Qualities Hypocrisy Indolence Autocratic Conceit Poor contact Boorishness Lack of taste Thick-headed Prosaic Intolerance Lasciviousness Cowardice Lax ioi. Use of Minimum Essentials The efficiency of a teaching program will quickly be learned by asking where and what minimum essentials have been denned and insisted upon. One reason why the clas- sics, mathematics, and exact sciences have so long been held to have special disciplinary and educative value is that each has its definite list of minimum essentials to be taught and to be acquired. No subject is without its peculiar minimum essentials, lacking any one of which a student cannot master that sub- ject. Physical training has minimum essentials. Admis- sion requirements have minimum essentials. Most colleges advertise minimum essentials of attendance and of punctu- ality. Whether each instructor of each subject has definitely out- lined minimum essentials for his course can be learned by self -surveyors. Whether these essentials are personal and secret, or known also to colleagues and to students, can also be learned. If communicated to students, it is important to learn whether the communication is oral merely or by syl- labus. Where students have been told what the minimum essentials are, it is possible by examining papers already written, or by imposing special tests, to learn whether mas- tery of these minimum essentials is tested and rigidly re- quired. Knowing how to study ought to be a minimum essential for college and student. No college has the right to accept Minimum Essentials for Colleges 281 tuition and time from a growing or grown man or woman who after earnest and well-directed effort by instructors has not learned how to study. No student capable of learning how to study is getting his money's worth until he has learned. Whatever time is required to find out if each stu- dent knows how to study, that time should be spent. Whether each instructor looks for this minimum essential for each student in his course is a question of fact for sur- veyors to answer. What the minimum essentials are for each subject taught in college would require several volumes to answer. In ele- mentary schools extensive use is being made just now of standard scales. Unfortunately a movement which started with the minimum-essential idea has been rapidly swinging toward the average-accomplishment idea. Obviously the two ideas are quite distinct. A student may be far above the average and still lack minimum essentials. An in- structor may be above the average and still lack minimum essentials, absence of any one of which should disqualify a man from instructing. The absurdity of measurements against averages was re- cently pointed out by William McAndrew of New York, who noted that Brooklyn pupils when measured by Courtis arith- metic tests were above the average in speed but below the average in accuracy : " In other words it takes us less time than it takes others to do things wrong." Local search for description and use of minimum essentials will help far more as a first step than unquestioning adoption of stand- ards set up by others. Dr. A. E. Winship reinforces this truth by citing the speed of an express train, an automobile, a horse, and a wheelbarrow and asking what use can be made of their average speed ! Among minimum-essential tests that should be found at work in every college are these : 1. For each instructor — minimum essentials 1. Of personality. 2. Of previous teaching and field experience. 3. Of teaching ability. 282 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 4. Of specific preparation for each course. 5. Of special preparation for each meeting with class. 6. List of minimum essentials for each course. 7. Exaction of these minimum essentials from each student. 8. Analysis of each student's needs, capacities, difficulties. 2. For each subject — minimum essentials 1. Of purpose — before and after it is admitted to the curriculum. 2. Ground to be covered. 3. Methods to be employed. 4. How to be studied. 3. Other minimum essentials needed 1. For every set of examination questions before they are given to students. 2. For every method and textbook before and after trial. 3. For every instructor's work before he is per- manently engaged or promoted or voted a sal- ary increase. 4. For every instructor considered for a depart- ment head, before his election. 5. For every department head after trial before being continued or reappointed. 6. For all persons considered for directorships of courses before giving them serious considera- tion and before continuing or reappointing them. 7. For all persons proposed for administrative po- sitions before serious consideration and after trial, before continuation, reappointment, or promotion. 8. For all persons proposed for presidency and deanships — which call for a rare combination of teaching and administrative ability — before Minimum Essentials Needed 283 serious consideration and after trial, before permanent appointment, reappointment, or sal- ary increase. 9. For every person proposed or tentatively con- sidered for trusteeship before serious consider- ation and particularly before reappointment. 10. For every student desiring to continue merely as a college student before permitting him to register. 11. For all official statements by colleges. 12. For college appeals and budget estimates. Since in most cases it will be found that the idea of mini- mum essentials has not yet been accepted, the main value of a survey for minimum essentials will be to interest the fac- ulty in working out for each department and for college ac- tivities generally a statement of purposes and minimum essentials. 102. Analysing Student Capacity and Need Dean Keppel of Columbia College keeps a personal mem- orandum for each student, showing his college record, his outside activities, plan for life, special interests, etc. Pratt Institute has a point and honor system in its physical-train- ing work which proves the value of factoring student needs and capacities. Lafayette's dean requires a special report for each delinquent student, in which the student must as- sign a reason for failure, state assistance given, and suggest future treatment. Pratt Institute requires from each in- structor for each student a personality impression with a list of weak points, strong points, and needs. Cincinnati's dean of arts learns for each halting student facts about entrance preparation; outside work; health; teacher's estimate of ability; diligence with respect to attendance, papers, and quizzes ; time given to studies ; purpose and plans and recom- mendations. Capacity analysis is carried further by Dean Schneider of Cincinnati's engineering school, who does not wait until de- 284 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities linquency before studying and noting characteristics. (Detailed in Record Aids in College Management.) Dean Jones of Northwestern's college of education has asked other divisions to allow his faculty and research stu- dents to take these steps regarding failures: 1. To retain them a second semester instead of dismiss- ing them. 2. To refer them to the college of education for analysis of causes. 3. To require them to take with the college of education a two-hour non-credit course in " How to Study." Reason enough for analyzing causes and costs and inci- dents of failure may be found in studying the mortality or dropping out of any college. For a large university the number runs into the hundreds annually. Surveyors will ask: 1. Do records show failures by number ..., semester .... subject . . . , instructor . . . ? 2. How many credit hours were attempted and failed? 3. What total costs of instruction and living are repre- sented by these failures ? 4. What instructions are given to faculty members with respect to learning the causes of failure? 5. What is done to see that instructions are carried out? 6. What preventive steps are taken, recorded, studied, and announced ? 7. What subtraction should be made from the total reg- istration in order that credits failed shall not be in- cluded in the total of effective student registration? This item often runs to 15 or 20%. 8. What explanations were published last year for stu- dents' failing? Was inefficient teaching or ill-chosen course among them ? 9. Of total number reported as dropping out before com- pleting the year, how many dropped out voluntarily and how many were advised to drop out because of student failure or weakness ? Dayton Bureau of Research Preparing comparative tables for citizens is quite different from, preparing such comparisons for college students who cannot stay away or get away Professional educators also learn best bv doing Dayton Graduate Work Needs Challenge 285 103. Graduate Work Whatever method will find the trouble about and oppor- tunity in undergraduate work will find the trouble about and opportunity in graduate work. There are, however, a few questions which seldom arise in colleges until graduate courses are given. " Insincere " is declared by President Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation to apply to graduate work as to no other work in American colleges. So far as insincerity char- acterizes graduate work, it inevitably affects undergraduate work also and any other work done by the same organiza- tion. Although a small minority of colleges are as yet giving actual graduate work, it is the secret, if not heralded, ambi- tion of most of them to grow until they can offer graduate courses. They advertise their " easement " by giving the master's degree. All but three colleges in the Association of Colleges in the Southern States offer master's degrees. Credit for in absentia graduate work — i.e., for " pro- jected registration " — is growing. There is every reason to believe that the smaller colleges will organize for supervising study and research by persons at work in different profes- sions who can receive exactly as much help from a small col- lege as from the same grade of instructor in a university. When the fact becomes clearer to small colleges that great universities are giving master's degrees for a year's work that is graduate only in the sense that it is done after a per- son has graduated, and undergraduate in the sense that it is elementary work, they will refuse to let universities monop- olize the tuition and prestige that come with the name " graduate instruction." Among the insincerities that President Pritchett doubtless had in mind may be mentioned these : 1. Attracting graduate students by announcements of courses that are not given. 2. Giving first advanced — i.e., master's — degrees, without significance of scholarship or attainment, 286 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities thereby sharing the student's effort to trade upon the ignorance of school boards and other employers. 3. Calling any work graduate which is taken by a grad- uate student, although it may be freshman or junior grade (a practice opposed by the Iowa and Wisconsin surveys). 4. Overstating and misrepresenting the amount of ad- vance work done, by publishing the total graduate stu- dents without making clear how many of them are taking all or part of their work in undergraduate courses. 5. Accepting or retaining graduate students after they have demonstrated absence of ambition or capacity, and absence of personal initiative or courage to meet the world's tests. 6. Encouraging recent graduates who know no world ex- cept college to stay at college until they secure higher degrees. 7. Allowing courses to repeat or overlap. 8. Allowing graduate students to waste time on futile reading or futile lectures even if there is a commercial advantage in reputation for graduate work. 9. Failing to give the personal supervision which is sup- posed to be the essence of graduate work. The fol- lowing quotation is not untypical : " Absolutely the only thing which any professor did about my thesis was to call attention to three words that were several times misspelled." 10. Giving superficial examinations for degrees. 11. Accepting superficial studies leading to inconsequen- tial theses for degrees. 12. Failing to test study plans, working papers during the study's progress, or thesis. 13. Accepting and advertising as contributions to knowl- edge theses which no magazine or independent pub- lisher would issue, with inaccuracies, poor construc- tion, and errors in English which would flunk a fresh- man. Frequently the fact that a work is a doctor's Graduate Work: Fetich or Worth? 287 thesis is not mentioned because publishers, librarians, and buyers have grown skeptical about doctorate prod- ucts. On my desk is a doctor's thesis published by one of our greatest private universities which is nine tenths "pastepot and scissors" work; i.e., extracts from papers by public employees, etc. Most of the persons quoted would not be allowed to attend under- graduate lectures at this university for want of aca- demic training; yet a graduate student is given a doctor's degree for cleverly clipping their published reports. 14. Allowing theses to appear as if published and en- dorsed by scientific journals when in fact the author- doctor pays for issuing them. 15. Asserting that there is per se something about giving graduate work which improves the character of under- graduate work. All over this country able teachers and supervisors are overworking and underfeeding themselves and neglecting their own pupils in order to save money and time for grad- uate work in education. Not infrequently this work is con- sidered by them in every way but one an obstruction to pro- fessional growth. They waste time and listen to people who ought to be listening to them, for such reasons as the following given to me by a school superintendent whose an- nual report showed that he had actually done notably well what his graduate instructors had never even attempted and could but feebly talk about : " No one seems interested in my work results. If I play the little white-haired boy on the front seat with Professors Blank and Blanker, they will back me for a better position than I can ever hope to secure just from successful superintending." Obviously the question for surveyors is not how can we get along without graduate work but how specific are the in- sincerities and inadequacies of our graduate work ; and how can we substitute definiteness for vagueness, educational pur- pose for money purpose, growth for time killing? The president of the Association of Southern Colleges hazards 288 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities the " guess that not more than ten institutions in the United States are indubitably equipped to give the Doctor of Phil- osophy degree." Think what it means that a student can secure a doctor's degree in education without having taught or supervised other teachers one hour, and without having had one hour's contact, even as investigator, with a growing educational concern ! In surveying graduate work it is particularly important to take nothing for granted and to check every statement and belief by examination of actual work. What is needed first is a careful, exhaustive description of all the elements of what any particular college calls graduate work. How many courses are offered ; how many are given; how many not given? Is it possible to take a whole program of graduate courses in one's chosen field ? Y... N... ?... How many are exclusively for advanced students in the particular course and subject? What is the grade distribution of all students in all courses where graduates are registered? What facts are recorded with regard to graduate students, their previous work, their aims, and field work done by them ? 6. What if any difference is there between the work re- quired of graduates or attention given to them and the treatment given to undergraduates ? Does the M.A. " mean only that a promising student has stayed on for another year or so and continued his under- graduate studies " ? 7. How are thesis subjects selected ; i.e., with what refer- ence to student capacity, student experience, local materials, and local needs ? Do subjects indicate pur- poseful selection? 8. How definitely are investigation subjects outlined be- fore studies begin? 9. What record have the professor and graduate dean of plans for investigations and theses? Questions or Notes 289 For Questions or Notes by the Reader 290 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 10. How does the student make record of time spent, fields examined, sources consulted ? II_. Is the trail blazed; i.e., are working papers filed as evidence of workmanship Y . . . N. . . ? . . . ; are they examined by professor or dean as Mr. Edison ex- amines working papers of employees conducting in- vestigations under and for him? Y. . . N... ?. . . 12. Is there any record of the time given to investigations and theses by the supervising instructors? Y. . . N... 13. How far is so-called investigation largely " pastepot and scissors " work, and how far actually research? 14. To what extent is the graduate student allowed and compelled to learn via doing something which needs to be done for his college or for society? 13. Do professors feel that their function in graduate in- struction is to keep forcing the student back upon himself . . ., to keep him and PROBLEM in proper contact . . . , rather than to do work for him . . . , lay information before him ... or test his memory . . . ? When it comes to testing actual workmanship, only de- tailed scientific analysis of results will help. The manage- ment's plans may be scholarly. On paper the procedure may be scientific. The questions which the dean is supposed to ask may be comprehensive. The surveyor must review actual registration cards ; actual working plans ; reports of progress, etc., to see whether the management is doing what it defines as necessary. Student workmanship calls for the same kind of analysis which research reports, history text- books, and literary essays receive from commercial labora- tories and publishers. There may be some difference of opinion as to the ex- haustiveness necessary in graduate study or as to its social value and originality. There is no outspoken belief that within its scope graduate work may be inaccurate or super- ficial, graduate writing slovenly or unreadable, graduate per- sonality unfitted for work undertaken, or graduate examina- Scientific Tests of Student Research 291 tions superficial and futile. The quality of a thesis cannot be determined by its general appearance, the neatness of its typography, the reputation of its endorser or a survey of its title page. Theses must be read word for word. Misspell- ing, incorrect English, involved sentences, bad paragraphing, confusing punctuation, plagiarisms, and futilities must be noted as discovered. Evidences of unscholarly workmanship have each an abso- lute value not to be outweighed by excellences or ingenuity. Only by featuring each deficiency discovered can a college ask the questions necessary to ascertain whether it expects enough from and does enough for graduate work; whether its instructors, departments, and deans are asking enough questions about work in progress and are sufficiently protect- ing student time and college reputation. A professor of history responsible for reviewing a large number of historical works says : " The only purpose of a reference to author, book, chapter, or page is to help the reader find a fact or verify a statement. If the reference is wrong the reader's time is wasted." Whatever motive leads to a direct quotation in a master's or doctor's thesis also calls for a correct quotation. Any student who has not acquired during graduate work the habit of automatically checking for accuracy is apt to be injured rather than helped by his postgraduate experience. Whether he has the habit of veri- fying experiments and references ; of automatically checking processes ; of applying scientific methods of analysis and in- vestigation to tasks, large or small, surveyors can learn not by talking with the man or his instructors but by examining his everyday workmanship. The more exacting American colleges are when surveying graduate work, the greater will seem the need and oppor- tunity for graduate work. The more closely the fetish of " original contribution to knowledge " is analyzed, the more clearly our colleges will see that the greatest possible service of graduate work is to uncover, try out, and prove student ability to apply the methods of scientific analysis and the ideals of cultured citizenship to specific, localized, time-lim- ited human problems. 292 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Five recommendations regarding graduate work at Iowa State University and its State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts were made by the Iowa Survey Commis- sion: 1. That development of graduate work be encouraged. 2. That graduate status be denied to students not having a definite proportion of their registration in courses for graduates only. 3. That some representative body decide which depart- ments are to be encouraged to develop graduate courses and which to be discouraged. 4. That greater care be exercised in admitting students from other institutions to graduate standing. 5. That there be a standing committee on graduate work, to consist of two members of the state board of edu- cation and two members each from the two institu- tions giving graduate work, — the latter to be elected for a term of years by graduate faculties. The foregoing recommendations are preceded by state- ments of fact and discussion, the essence of which follows : 1. Iowa University distinguishes between admission to the graduate college and admission to candidacy for a degree. 2. Each case is determined upon its own merits. 3. Students coming from approved colleges are not tested at all. 4. Students coming from not-yet-approved colleges are tested by departments as to their major work only. 5. Graduate students register in courses for undergrad- uates. 6. Master's degree is given for four summer sessions of six weeks each — i.e., 24 weeks ; or for two semesters of 18 weeks each — i.e., 36 weeks. 7. The summer session work is supplemented by " pro- jected register " — i.e., work in absentia, according to a plan agreed upon with some authorized instructor; credits earned through projected register may equal Iowa Survey Criticizes Graduate Work 293 those previously earned in the same subject and resi- dence. 8. The projected register reduces materially the time required for earning the doctor's degree. 9. There is a wide difference in the amount and spirit of graduate work in the different departments. 10. Instructors not distinguished for published results of research are directing thesis work or are engaged in " creative work " which is regarded as equal to re- search. The following opinions expressed by the commission have important bearing for other colleges and universities: 1. A student registering for work in a field for which he has had no preparation in his undergraduate work should be registered as an undergraduate until he is ready to carry advance courses or courses for grad- uates only. 2. No institution can do equally strong work in all de- partments that announce graduate courses, even if an equal number of students should appear for each de- partment. 3. Certain departments should be specially encouraged to develop the most advanced courses of instruction and research by special care in selecting new men, by encouraging research workers of promise already on the staff, and by generous appropriation in the uni- versity budget. Not a word is said as to supervision of graduate work or is there intimation that the researcher of distinction may be a hopeless incompetent when directing graduate work by oth- ers, or that the undistinguished or not-yet-distinguished fac- ulty member may be notably efficient in finding questions that need to be answered and in directing graduate research and reporting. 104. Learning via Doing Every teacher of natural science asserts the superiority of the laboratory method. Where is the geologist who 294 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities would decline to organize his work from top to bottom if given Woods' Hole or funds for conducting a geological survey? Learning via doing is the justification for oral and writ- ten composition in Latin; for vivisection in zoology and physiology; for themes in English and reference work in history ; for scientific research in the graduate school. Colleges become skeptical about the laboratory method at the point where their own laboratory facilities give out. Having done the best we could for generations without work needing to be done, without telescopes and microscopes and clinical material, we find it disheartening to be criti- cized for the inevitable consequence of our poverty. Talk about doing and things done — talk about business, com- merce, sick bodies — is so thoroughly organized and so com- fortably under way that even when funds are provided for so-called practical courses in journalism, business, transpor- tation, statistics, we run true to form and give new courses of talk about practical things. Whether a particular college is fully using its facilities at hand for training students via doing rather than via listen- ing and reading is a simple question of fact that a self- survey can quickly answer for each instructor in each course. Typical of learning via doing at the University of Wiscon- sin the following were cited by the survey: 1. In the library course 8 weeks out of 36 given to actual work under supervision in various public libraries. 2. In the law course after July 1, 1916, at least 6 months of work in a law office. 3. Working fellowships for students engaged under university supervision in work in state departments at the Capitol. 4. Teaching fellowships for selected students from the training course for teachers. 5. Industrial scholarships for practical artisans whom it is desired to retain for teaching practical subjects. 6. Special appeal by the Medical School for opportunity to extend its present course to include not only the Learning via Doing at Wisconsin 295 usual clinical education, but also field service in the hospitals and other public institutions of the state and of various cities away from Madison. 7. Six months of actual work on a farm a prerequisite for a degree in the College of Agriculture. 8. Full charge for one week of a practice cottage re- quired in the home economics department. 9. Recognition by commerce course and economics de- partment of the need for a laboratory of practical problems. 10. Beginnings of use of college student publications as " clinic " or " laboratory " opportunity for students of journalism and presentation of technical matter — The Wisconsin Engineer for the engineering depart- ment and Country Life for the course in agricultural journalism. In October and November, 19 16, stu- dents of journalism had nearly three columns a day in two Madison newspapers. 1 1 . Use of assistance from state department through prob- lems under which students of political economy, en- gineering, etc., work under joint supervision of uni- versity and state departments. 12. Assignments given by state legislative reference li- brary and state library commission at the Capitol to students in political science, economics, library school, etc. 13. Laboratory instruction of prospective teachers through the Wisconsin high schools. 14. An extensive course of lectures, including special li- brary and field studies in labor problems, which bore notable fruition in the opportunities for students in this course to participate in the state and national work of the industrial commission. 15. Opening the fields of higher education to students who are unable to attend the university and who wish to do the work by correspondence or by correspond- ence supplemented by class work in the district offices of the Extension Division. ' 296 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 16. A "German House," with rooms for women and board for men and women where only German is spoken. 17. Beginnings of special work for engineers in city plan- ning, in making roads and pavements, and inspec- tion tours (at least two weeks for seniors), besides visits to manufacturing plants in Madison. 18. Normal-school work accepted in exchange for two years at the university. 19. Music regarded as college work and given credit, hour for hour, through the college course in music. 20. Crediting special advanced work during vacation in laboratories and library, if certified by supervising professor, toward an advanced degree. Probably the best first step for a survey is to ask each instructor to list specific ways in which he uses the laboratory method. This composite will be for most colleges much larger than officers have realized. It will be more profitable to start with steps already being taken than with steps not yet taken. The fact that learning via doing is attempted does not prove that students either do or learn. Having listed the places and times when getting done is used for teaching, the surveyor has still to test the completeness and worth-while- ness of the doing and the extent to which students learn by doing. For example, a college class was taught the mean- ing of averages, mediums and norms, by picking, counting, measuring, and classifying dry leaves. Similar doings will raise a question whether educational results justify the method. Substitutes for picking dry leaves will be found by most faculties rather than abandon the principle of teach- ing via assignment of work and via laboratory practice; for example, medians can be learned by counting rooms not used or too small classes. Nothing will prevent the thorough discrediting of learn- ing by doing except a jealous insistence upon efficiency and value of the doing and upon making educational use of it. English Needs Surveys 297 Nothing is so impractical and deadening as practical courses unimaginatively and uneducatively taught. 105. English as Taught and Practiced English requirements illustrate a distinction that is gen- erally overlooked between requiring every student to use English correctly and requiring every student to take a cer- tain number of English courses. It by no means follows that a student who uses poor English in history ought to take more English in the English classes. Colleges are beginning to suspect that a cure for bad English in history is good English in history. If the privilege of remaining in college and of taking subjects that one wants depends upon ability to use — read, understand, write, speak — the Eng- lish language, perhaps the shortcut for colleges is to stress the result and stop worrying about the means. Compulsory English in colleges begets compulsory Eng- lish in high schools, more compulsion in colleges begets more compulsion in high schools. Yet colleges themselves insist that student English would " make literate angels weep." Most colleges will be surprised when the facts are laid out which show how many students after being vaccinated with compulsory English have chosen or been willing to risk later exposure to English electives. Starting with this fact for each college, these questions will follow : 1. Has our compulsion given us creditable student Eng- lish among freshmen ..., sophomores ..., juniors . . . and seniors . . . ? 2. What is there about our particular student body which would naturally make it shun the riches of English literature? 3. Do our instructors themselves appreciate and under- stand the value of English literature . . . ? 4. Is failure of appeal due to courses offered . . . , an- nouncement of courses . . . , reputation of elective courses . . . , or earlier compulsion . . . ? c. Are the content and method of the compulsory 298 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities courses calculated to accomplish the results which prompt the compulsion? Y. . . N . . . Help in answering the above questions will come from detailed study of the English actually taught and practiced in the compulsory courses. Oral work will be observed and written work will be examined in both English and other classes. Errors will be listed, with what is done about them by instructors. Student improvement will be noted by com- paring first-term work with second-term work, not in gen- eral but with respect to particular weaknesses noted at the beginning. As suggested elsewhere, a study of students' written work will be far more productive if the surveyor is looking for student need and instructor opportunity rather than for student attainment. Helpful survey questions include these: 1. Are there "trailer" classes in English; i.e., "no credit " classes for those whose work shows them de- ficient in power to read, write, or speak correct Eng- lish? Y... N... t 2. Is deficiency ascertained by instructors in other than English classes ... or solely by tests in English courses . . . ? Do we " actually have to write letters of application for our senior teachers who are apply- ing for positions " ? 3. Are freshmen who possess satisfactory ability ex- empted from compulsory English courses? Y... N... 4. Is effort made to learn whether the lagging students' trouble is inability to use English ... or in his grow- ing and trying — ; i.e., in his feeling for the ends to which English is but a means ? Is his capacity to en- joy literature and language killed by meticulous dis- section of masterpieces? Y. . . N... 5. Are first English courses given on the assumption " that all freshmen will take the full college course or on the assumption that probably the majority will drop out before taking other English; i.e., is this com- English Instruction: Questions 299 pulsory English vocational preparation for later courses that many will not take ... or is it vocational preparation for mere living . . ., for business or pro- fession . . . , and for enjoyment of literature . . . ? 6. What is done to learn about the student's reading be- fore and after coming to college? Do English teach- ers learn whether students know how to read for pleasure . . . , how to gain a story from a page with- out reading every word . . . ? 7. What subjects do students write about? Have they to write something ... or have they something to write . . . ? How far are incidents and conditions of vital concern to students used as clinical matter in English? Would current magazines and newspa- pers furnish a shorter cut to love for masterpieces than does forced labor at masterpieces or themes about masterpieces ? 8. Have we ever tried substituting assignments in ob- servation and service for assignments in reading and composition? Y. . . N... 9. Is work in literary and debating societies, school jour- nals, etc., credited as college work in English? Y. . . N . . . Is class rhetoric made vital by current events . . ., debates . . ., self-government . . ., tests of leader- ship . . . ? 10. Is individual instruction more productive than class instruction in English? 11. Is it made easy for instructors in other than English courses to secure correction and improvement of stu- dent English ; i.e., are they permitted to refuse credit where English is unsatisfactory? Y. . . N... May they subtract 10 or 25 points for deficient form and English? Y. . . N. . . Are they supplied with slips or cards by which they may notify the English department of a student needing special attention to points checked on this slip? Y. . . N... Is the English department equipped to follow up promptly such notifications? Y. . . N... 300 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 12. Do English instructors visit classes in other courses to observe oral English? Y . . . N . . . 13. Are special courses offered for workers in special fields, — engineering . . . , medicine . . . , law . . . , teaching . . . ? 14. What general reading or what reports upon outside reading are required? Do English instructors meet students socially for cultivation of literary feeling and expression? Y... N... 15. What do instructors who give advance English courses note from observation of difficulties and ac- complishments of beginning courses? Some years ago, Mr. C. R. Rounds, of Wisconsin's nor- mal inspectional staff and later of its university faculty, made a number of suggestions regarding English in college classes, which are repeated here for use by self-surveyors : 1. That instead of treating freshmen as inferiors, col- leges recognize that in their senior high-school year the same boys and girls were treated as refined, re- sponsible, steady, manly and womanly young people? 2. That more attention be given to oral English, be- cause we talk nearly 100 times as much as we write; that a ban be put on incomplete statements, mumbles, and monosyllables. 3. That in oral and written work more use be made of college events and enterprises, such as public lectures and entertainments, papers and magazines, outside life of students. 4. That real letters to real people be liberally used in theme work to recognize the need for ability to write frank, courteous, chatty, interesting matter which some one wants to receive. 5. That requirements as to proper spelling of possessive nouns, capitalization of titles, proper punctuation and form be rigorously enforced. 6. That in the first literature courses warmth, life, spon- taneity, and idealism be featured and not suppressed. Language Instruction: Tests 301 7. That the importance of proper method in teaching be recognized and not underestimated or ignored. [To illustrate poor technique Mr. Rounds cited instructors who read themes of from 150 to 300 words without having told students what elements they were to look for and then asked students to criticize the sentence construction or to repeat the opening paragraph.] 8. That more attention be given to the art of question- ing. An instance was cited of a professor who asked a question and before the student had time to answer changed the question five times so that the student after the sixth question did not know what the pro- fessor wanted. 106. Status of Foreign Languages So far as foreign languages are compulsory suggestions for surveying them are given on page 238. If, as many believe, the status of foreign languages will improve when they are placed upon an equal footing with other courses and deprived of compulsion, there are many questions to be asked about foreign languages. After having the number of registrations for each course offered, it is important to know the distribution of grades given by each instructor. These grades will show what the instructor believes is acquired from his course. More vital than the reason cited for teaching foreign languages is the manner and content of such teaching. I. Is the direct (speaking) ... or indirect (reading) . . . method employed? If the speaking method is not employed, how much time is given to pronunciation? If the speaking method is employed, what are the evidences that it is successful? How are results tested ? How many hours a week are given to speak- ing? How many chances has each student a week? In what ways is the classroom opportunity supple- mented by out of class opportunity, as at a special table in a French house, on a German hike or Zug, through foreign newspapers or magazines? 302 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 2. How early in the course does the teacher use only the foreign language ? From the beginning . . . ; at the middle . . . ; enough . . . ? 3. What advance courses are given in the foreign lan- guage only? What in English only? 4. How much and what kind of written composition and oral composition is done by a student in foreign lan- guage? How often? In what size class? 5. What concrete evidences are there that students taught by the direct method have been able to conduct busi- ness or professional conversations in that language? One reason why the direct method is not more generally used is that colleges have been unable to obtain men and women who are at once college graduates, capable instruc- tors, and capable linguists. It is easier to secure persons who combine general teaching ability with a reading knowl- edge of the language, hence many of our stronger universi- ties are found to have both beginning and advanced classes in foreign languages conducted by men and women unable to compose and pronounce properly the simplest sentence necessary for ordering a meal, entertaining a customer, or explaining the origin of the European war. Where this in- direct method is found the first question should be Why? — i.e., Do we have it because we want it or because we do not find a person capable of teaching the conversational method? Justification for the indirect method is by no means lacking. Many business houses want ability to translate Spanish into English without ability to translate English into Spanish or to speak a word of Spanish. Graduate students want to read in foreign languages without expecting to write or speak in those languages. Ability to pronounce bromidic phrases in foreign tongues is an asset worth much to many. Distinction may be gained in professions and careers where ability to read foreign languages is or seems indispensable without even one's intimates discovering one's inability to write, pronounce, or speak a complete sentence in those lan- guages. What a particular student or class can do in our college Benefits from Foreign Languages 303 after studying a foreign language six months or four years is a question of fact easily testable. Even the extent to which his English, his feeling, his vision, his sympathy have become refined, cultured, catholic, can be tested. The main trouble is that the need for testing has been obscured by the traditional reasons for taking foreign languages, such as that per se they have higher disciplinary value, and in prac- tice are better taught than are other subjects. This alleged better teaching is without doubt due to the grammar prob- lems involved in learning foreign languages; elements are cubbyholed and tackled more definitely than in the social sci- ences and the content has a broader appeal than that of mathematics and natural sciences. Whether a foreign language gives discipline and is well or badly taught is to be learned in the same way that any other fact is found out, by analyzing and observing the phenomena under discussion : 1. What is the purpose of each course ? 2. How many students have taken courses? 3. How many have not given evidence that they learned so much of it as was covered in their course? 4. How many have given evidence of benefiting in pro- portion to the opportunity? 5. What is the nature of that evidence? 6. So far as there was failure, what is the evidence that the fault was with the student, or with the method used in teaching, or with the instructor? 7. What kinds of test have been worked out by each foreign-language department to see how many stu- dents obtain the minimum they are expected to ob- tain? 8. Which departments have and have not worked out the minimum essentials which must be obtained from each course ? 9. If survey courses in foreign literatures are given in English, why should there be foreign language pre- requisites; i.e., why should courses not be thrown open to all students ? 304 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 10. If the engineer who elects French finds German un- necessary, and the engineer who chooses German finds French unnecessary, why is either French or German necessary for an engineer who reads current engineer- ing journals in English? In few colleges will foreign-language faculties welcome a test of their work by members of other faculties, at least until after they themselves have made the test. Few, how- ever, will decline to work out tests to be applied by them- selves. How far unbiased consideration of the need for and suc- cess of foreign languages in a given college is made dif- ficult by the " vested rights " idea of those now teaching foreign languages and sister compulsory subjects will quickly develop on self-survey. The case for requiring foreign languages before and after admission to college was summarized for the Uni- versity of Wisconsin survey by Dean E. A. Birge as fol- lows: I. Disciplinary 1. A foreign language offers a definite study, with long-tested and well-established methods. Les- sons are definite, and methods definite. The student knows what he has to do, how he must do it, and when he" has done it. The teacher knows how much to assign, and can test imme- diately and with precision the amount and qual- ity of the student's work. 2. It demands preeminently constant, close, and ac- curate work, and is therefore a peculiarly ef- ficient means of education. 3. It demands that the student hold closely in mind a considerable (but not unreasonable) number of facts and principles and apply them exactly in numerous cases every day. It demands memory, accuracy, and precision in a way which Leadership qualities tested Carleton College w £,&Mi±M~n ■ '^tmI3i^i£,'4t\42B&m^ a 'i i^Vnjfcifi $f Learning via serving Carleton Making hygiene attractive Carleton Rivaling the disciplinary value of compulsory languages Case for Foreign Languages 305 is not true to the same extent of any other study. 4. It requires the student to direct his attention, consciously, to the basic facts of language. This comes at a time in his education when his knowledge of the similar facts of the vernacu- lar has become in large measure subconscious. 5. It is usually given in continuous courses of two or more years, and in this respect has an advan- tage over other subjects of high-school study as a preparation for college. II. Linguistic 1. It necessarily requires a definite, precise, and discriminating use of words. Students resent this when required in the vernacular, but ac- cept it as a matter of course in foreign lan- guages. 2. It necessitates attention to accuracy of enuncia- tion and correct differentiation of sounds. 3. Learning even the elements of a foreign lan- guage, the student gains a wholly new view of the nature and capacities of language. 4. For these and other reasons it is a most im- portant instrument of training in the use of the vernacular. 5. The study of one foreign language affords a basis for the study of any other one. III. Literary 1. It gives a fresh view of literature, and one that cannot be gained from similar study of the vernacular alone. 2. It deals with a limited amount of reading of acknowledged literary excellence. 3. It gives the student capable of such training practice in the nice use of words, which can- not be reached as directly and quickly in any other way. 306 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 4. Even a two years' course of foreign language, well taught in a high school, gives a new point of view from which to see English literature. IV. Moral 1. The student who attempts in high school a course in foreign language is undertaking a longer and more important piece of intellectual work than he has attempted before. The com- pletion of such an attempt is the best kind of moral preparation for success in the continuous work of the four years of college. 2. It makes for culture and enlightenment by bringing the high-school student into direct con- tact with the words and thoughts of men of other countries and times. 3. It develops sympathy and understanding for some fundamental aspects of life and thought of foreign peoples, and so contributes to civiliza- tion. Colleges contemplating a survey of their foreign-language situation will do well to have the foregoing declaration of faith tested and the above listed questions answered by both foreign-language and other faculties. In addition, the management or faculty committee may wish to ask the fol- lowing questions. When the University of Wisconsin an- swered similar questions from experience its faculty recom- mended a course with no required foreign language. 1. How many students would take foreign languages if they were not compelled to take them? 2. Are foreign languages as effectively taught as they would be if they were compelled to compete with other subjects for the interest of students? Y. . . N. .. 3. How many students now elect foreign languages be- yond the number of hours of work which they are compelled to take? 4. If it is necessary to give general foreign-language literary courses in English in order that advanced stu- EDUCATIONAL SUBVEY SERIES Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities Foreign Languages: Self -Survey Questions 307 dents of foreign languages may understand, why- should not these courses require previous work in German or French, and why should they not be open to all students ? 5. How many students would like an opportunity to learn while at college to speak foreign languages ? 6. What benefits does a student receive from a foreign language, who obtains in his final examination a mere passing mark ? 7. Is indifferent work or poor training in foreign lan- guages better discipline or better cultivation than ex- cellent work in another subject? Y... N... Is there any reason why any subject taught in the uni- versity cannot be so organized and presented that the student will receive as much benefit from the learning process as from the learning process in foreign lan- guages ? 8. Should any subject be taught in a university merely for the sake of keeping alive the teaching of that sub- ject in high schools ? 9. Would it be well to offer students an opportunity to elect sections where they might learn to speak ? 10. Why are there so few students in advanced courses in foreign languages in proportion to the very large num- bers who are compelled to take these courses during their freshman, sophomore, and later years ? 11. If, as the engineering requirements indicate, it is felt by at least one college, that concentration upon one language is more effective before entrance, would there not be a similar advantage to the student after entrance in taking 16 units of one language rather than dividing two years between two languages ? 12. What advantage is there to students who do not pur- sue foreign languages beyond the elementary and re- quired courses? In what ways do these advantages show in the study of other languages ? 13. If one of the main reasons for requiring foreign lan- guages is that better methods have been worked out 308 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities for teaching foreign languages than for teaching other subjects, should colleges continue to require for- eign languages, or take steps to insure equally efficient instruction in other subjects both in the high schools and in the university ? 14. Of what practical use to an advanced scholar in other subjects than foreign languages is the degree of ability to use foreign languages which is brought out by the present examinations for doctor's degrees ? 15. Should the major professor in charge of the work of a candidate for a doctor's degree certify not merely to the ability of a student to use the foreign-lan- guage resources in that department, but also to the fact that this student has actually been making use of such resources? 16. What justification is there for compelling college men and women to take modern and foreign languages, besides keeping no one knows how many other quali- fied students out of college, when distinguished leaders in all professions including college managers never had one of those languages? 17. How far does actual practice show that the study of foreign languages produces the results defined in the above statement of the dean of a college of arts which does the teaching? 18. Should all elementary language courses be called sub- freshman courses without credit, and be shifted as rapidly as possible to high schools ? Instead of compelling students to take what does not ap- peal to them and what will not help them unless it does ap- peal to them, modern education would so organize and so present any subject that each student taking it must, in the words of James Bryce, " draw sufficient mental stimulus and nourishment from it to make it a real factor in his edu- cational growth." " The conflict is not between letters and science," says Lord Bryce, " but between a large and philosophical concep- tion of the aims of education and that material, narrow, and Grading Needs to be Surveyed 309 often vulgar view which looks only to immediate practical results and confounds pecuniary with educational values." 107. Methods of Grading Students' Work Several new theories are gaining headway in college grad- ing: that there is a "normal distribution" of marks for a class ; that there should be more publication, especially as to students engaged in outside activities, of those who excel and those who fail ; that not even upon inquiry should stu- dents know their grades except when unsatisfactory; that all marks should be dispensed with except passed and not passed ; that no work is creditable unless correct or useful ; that the only marking worth while is the factored marking which discloses to each student where he can do better to- morrow than today. Conditions and not theories confront college instructors and managers. We have marking. What's more, mark- ing is here to stay. Examinations are costing a small for- tune every year. They cost time, worry, and earnest ef- fort. Before they are abolished or lengthened or shortened or otherwise changed, they need to be examined by ad- ministrative officers and faculties. With few exceptions surveyors will learn more from studying instructors' methods of marking than from studying students' marks. The first step, therefore, is to ascertain what the practice is; what basis of marking is used by each instructor — i.e., what weight to term work and examination — class quizzes, special quizzes, term papers, laboratory notes, English used, etc. ; how far the basis is denned by departments ; in what ways the grading by individual instructors is checked by col- leagues or superior officers; what use is made of examina- tion results for the benefit of individual students marked and for the benefit of all students in the course; what ad- ministrative use is made of marking by deans and president. What people say about their marking is far less to the point than are concrete evidences of marking found in stu- dent papers. Why should not every faculty ask a com- mittee or administrative officers 310 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities i 7 8 9 io To secure answers to questions given in Appendix, pages 364 ff. ? To collect for a semester all formal examination papers ? To collect for a fortnight all informal papers, includ- ing daily themes ? To collect for a semester all notebooks, including notes on readings and classroom notes, as well as re- quired experiment notes, etc. ? To have answer compared with grade, point for point ? To list, for reference back to instructors, all cases where reviewers feel that marking was too high or too low ? To " high spot " and " low spot " the action of in- structors as shown by evidences on the papers that opportunities to help students were or were not used ? To learn by inquiry steps taken by each instructor to help the whole class benefit from strong or weak points in student papers? To compute the cost to this college of examinations, including time of faculty and students? To list changes in procedure which are shown to be advisable ? The facts for our college are infinitely more important than the facts for examination and grading in all colleges. A grade may be an index to student achievement. The paper or work graded, however, is an index primarily to student need and instructor opportunity. Where faculties keep their eyes on student need and instructor opportunity, the reading and grading of student work can hardly become a perfunctory bore. So easy is it for grading to become perfunctory that surveyors will not be surprised to find weaknesses like these : 1. Plagiarism condoned or not discovered. 2. Different standards used by the same instructor for the same classes. 3. Incorrect answers receiving full credit; incomplete Averaging Grades, Worse than Useless 311 answers receiving the same credit as complete an- swers. 4. An average for class work, mid-semester examina- tions, and finals higher than any one of the three. 5. Incorrect English accepted, including incorrect punc- tuation and paragraphing. 6. Slovenly form accepted. 7. Incorrect English and slovenly form not even noted by instructor. 8. Inadequate, incomplete, unvital questions that too often do not deserve the time required for answering them. Two ways of surveying grades will be found to help lit- tle or actually to injure; viz., the "normal curve" survey and the " average " survey. Averages and norms are as misleading and useless when surveying grades as when surveying instructors. A fatal error of this method is that it analyzes marking and not instructional efficiency or student need. As Superintendent Hughes of Sacramento recently pointed out, not even does a student have an average. If he begins badly and ends well, splitting the difference states no fact about him and omits the fact that both he and his instructor have gained solid ground. The instructor who marks one student A and the next student C has not given an average mark of B. If instructors give one 30 A's and the other 30 B's, their aver- age is not halfway between A and B. Averages for a class conceal differences within the class. Averages for a de- partment conceal differences within a department. Aver- ages for a college, even if complete, lend themselves to no administrative use. Finally, averages do not account for students who drop out. The number of students receiving each grade, the number failed, and the number dropped out are called for in term reports by several colleges. So long as they are used to raise and answer questions about the in- structor reporting them, these facts are serviceable. The normal curve theory of grading epitomizes the hu- man yearning for " a level road in a hilly country," for a 312 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities rule, a formula, a panacea. What is simpler when con- fronting 50 history papers than to decide in advance that the normal curve shall be used: "2% excellent; 2% failed; 23% good; 23% poor; 50% fair"? The trouble with this theory is that it fits the mark not to the written or spoken work before the faculty but to a statistical curve that never fitted any particular individual, class, or situation. In fact, while this paragraph was going through the press it was discovered that 7%, not 2%, should fail and 38%, not 50%, should be average. Whether " A " is too high, right, or too low should de- pend only on what the student has done when compared with what the instructor's questions or requirements call for. The only legitimate use for the normal curve in grad- ing is to make sure that throughout a term or throughout a college the instructors use the same standard of value for reading, recitation, laboratory, or library notebook examina- tion or for progress or attainment. It is important to know whether in different sections of the same subject oral recitation alone has twenty different values ranging from 5% to 90%, as in one large department recently studied. As the unfactored, unexplained grading of a student will unquestionably give way to the type of character and per- sonality grade which is being kept by Wisconsin Library School, Rhode Island State College, Pratt Institute, Kansas State Agricultural College, etc. (see Record Aids), there will always remain the necessity for grading and annotating written work so that the student will " see himself as in a looking glass." 108. Students' Written Work One of the most helpful courses I ever had at college was a course in economics in which we were required to hand in every day our own abstract of the text assigned for that day. Professor William Hill gave more attention to our abstracts than to our recitations. Later, when I was my- self an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, I gave four classes in political science the choice between taking Written Work: Useful Indexes 313 a written examination or compiling five significant proposi- tions from each chapter of Bryce's Volume II on the Amer- ican Commonwealth. Student-like, the verdict was unani- mously for abstracting Bryce. They builded better than they knew. Written work furnishes several indexes important to sur- veyors. It indexes student need; student effort; student attainment; student facility; student pains; student form; student English ; student imagination ; student conception of the instructor's requirements. It also indexes, especially after it has been marked, similar characteristics of the in- structor. After college the student's success will depend very largely upon what he does and what he requires of others by way of written work. Mistakes and inadequacies which an instructor overlooks in written work are a far better index to what he is giving and what the student is getting than is the instructor's syllabus or the department's nominal plan for supervision. One reason why tests of written work are deprecated by educators is that the base has been too narrow. For ex- ample, in New York City where the Gary idea is being tried out it is manifestly unreasonable to limit the examina- tion of written work to the papers handed in on one occa- sion. It would quite as manifestly promote understanding of the Gary idea if written work for a term were pre- served and studied with respect to penmanship, care, imag- ination, interest, content, purposefulness, initiative, and progress. Refusal to credit work in engineering and history unless it is creditably expressed in English means that students do not leave their interest in English behind in the English classroom. Reference to the English department, by word or slip, of all history papers badly written and all students whose English in history classes shows need for special at- tention means that three factors are thinking about this im- portant vocational requirement: (1) the student; (2) the history instructor; and (3) the English instructor. Refusal to accept a mathematics paper that is not in presentable 3 H Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities form means that students will acquire and habitually prac- tice the minimum essentials of proper form. On the other hand, colleges that accept slovenly workmanship in written papers accept slovenly workmanship in oral recitations and shift to later employers the painful and expensive task of correcting slovenly habits. In addition to all that it costs the later employer, it costs the college in reputation lost, in confidence lost, and in time and opportunity lost. Wherever surveyors seek to explain instructor relation to student or student relation to his opportunity they will do well to ask that the following types of written work be sub- mitted for survey analysis : i. All examination papers after they have been graded and marked. 2. Student notebooks, including notes on readings — these are what later the world will call working papers. 3. Informal papers submitted to instructors. 4. Term essays. Regarding this source of information about student courses and instructor, questions like these will be asked : 1. What written work is required? 2. How heretofore have the results of examining writ- ten work been used for improving instruction or for helping individual students? 3. What concrete hints for improving instruction do the papers examined disclose? 4. In what instances is incorrect work graded as correct? 5. How much of an answer may be wrong and still re- ceive a passing mark ? 6. Is plagiarized or frankly borrowed material accepted? 7. What instances are there of incorrect English? What evidence is there that they have been noticed by the instructors? What suggestions or comments have been made? 8. Are minimum essentials of good form insisted upon . . . ; proper margins . . . ; organization of material Testing Instructors' Questions 315 . . . ; paragraphing . . ; proper capitalization ... and punctuation . . . ? Is form stressed to the neglect of content? Y ... N... 9. Has the student to say something ... or has he something to say . . . ; i.e., how much personality, in- itiative, naturalness, and interest does a student ex- press ? IO. Are student notebooks or working papers graded? Y. . . N. . . How often ? How exactingly ? Are all drafts of written work handed in ... or just the final draft . ... ? When written tests given to college students are com- pared with the importance attached to the results, the unsuit- ability of the test is often appalling. Even the central ex- amining boards sometimes miss it in their idea of minimum or typical essentials. Of 33 students admitted without ex- amination in history, only one passed the questions used by the College Entrance Board. Of 16 admitted without ex- amination, only one obtained as high a mark as 42 in ge- ometry, five were marked 20 and above, four between 10 and 19, and seven o. Merely calling for questions that have been asked or are to be asked will appreciably raise the standard of question- ing in any college. Centralizing responsibility within a department — in a chairman or committee — for objectively reviewing each in- structor's questions will do much to insure proper attention to this problem. Often instructors in other departments, like a committee from allied departments, will detect lack of plan, pettiness, indifference, unreasonable demands, etc., that escape insiders. Whether questions test memory or power; whether they invite and compel or forbid exhibition of student initiative, naturalness, imagination, constructive power, is quickly apparent. For example, it is important for every college which is preparing teachers, to know whether questions in class, quizzes, and finals ask who Herbart was or ask stu- dents to " point out specifically how you now feel that your 316 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities teaching attitude, purpose, method, emphasis, will be af- fected by your study of Herbart," — a la M. V. O'Shea. 109. Lecture and Over-Lecture In theory the lecturer saves time for the student. In practice he often wastes time by giving the student less in an hour than could be obtained by reading. In theory the lec- turer illuminates the subject with results of research and personal experience. In practice the lecturer often absorbs more light than he reflects. In theory the lecture is not only fitted to students but is intended to stimulate and in- form students. In practice the lecture often dulls the stu- dent's sensibilities and inhibits the desire to question, read, or think. To a greater extent than has ever yet been tried it is pos- sible for lecturers to mimeograph their lectures for distribu- tion among students and thus release time for finding out each student's difficulties and abilities; teaching students how to study; reviewing notes; encouraging independent thinking. Wherever students have been questioned, whether as undergraduates or as alumni, — i.e., at Chicago and Wis- consin, — they report serious criticisms of the quantity and quality of lecturing. Every faculty member can profitably ask regarding his own lectures : 1. Which courses have I given this year substantially as given once, twice, or five times before? 2. If I read notes, do I also study my students? Y . . . N . . . How do I test their benefits received ? 3. How many and which students in each class seem un- responsive to my lecturing? What chances to re- spond do I offer? 4. How carefully do I prepare each lecture? 5. Could I sell these lectures to a scientific journal? Y... N... 6. Could I hold a body of alumni or of professional col- leagues by these same lectures? Y. . . N. . . Individual Instruction '317 7. How far and how successfully do I attempt to utilize the experience, observations, and other studies of stu- dents or myself? A personal experience with one substitute for lecturing is relevant here. At the University of Pennsylvania several sections took a course entitled " Practical Politics," which be- gan with the issues of the national campaign for President in 1900. Campaign textbooks and party papers were read and discussed and clippings classified. Bryce's American Common/wealth, second volume, was then intensively studied. One senior section clearly had insufficient back- ground in economics and politics. I asked the dean if in- stead of meeting them and alternately lecturing and quiz- zing I might deal with members individually and try to in- terest them in the basic literature of economics and political science or, at least, in using their own minds when thinking about public questions. Permission was given and an- nouncement made that instead of meeting three times a week as heretofore we should meet once in two weeks for class sessions but that I would be in our room at each scheduled hour for personal conference and informal dis- cussion. We then took up, one man at a time, his present interest; his past reading; what he was going to do after graduating, etc. One prospective journalist started with Bemis' Monopolies. The class funny man started with Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. Another who in- sisted he never had been interested in anything finally de- veloped an interest in postal savings banks because of a prospective trip to England. Two results were gratifying. A much greater amount of reading was done than could have been required; and the regular attendance during the five voluntary conference hours was higher than earlier when attendance was com- pulsory. Incidentally the instructor worked harder, cov- ered more ground, hit more marks, answered more ques- tions, than in many terms of lecturing. Instructors teach more by stimulating than by anticipating questions. 318 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities no. Specialisation and Overspecialisation Three phases of overspecialization are general: i. By student in selecting work. 2. By instructor in presenting material. 3. By departments in course of study. The sections on correlation, course of study, and research suggest problems for self -surveyors. The short cut is to watch what happens to students and to see what means of testing results are officially employed. in. The Point System of Improving Scholarship No college is without a minimum quality of work which it will accept. The nominal minimum varies. The actual minimum varies still more. Some institutions have not the heart to dismiss any student, whatever his scholarship, so long as he does not burn down the college buildings or play jokes on instructors. Having established the required passing mark colleges find that many students are entirely satisfied so long as their work permits them to remain. They will do the least pos- sible amount of work of the poorest possible quality. No college wants to have a large percentage of these " border " men. Hence various devices to force up the standard. Raising the standard of admission, of athletics and other outside activities is one method. The point system or honor system is another. This means that in addition to a min- imum number of passing grades or credits it is necessary for students to have a certain percentage of honor points above mere passing. Counting ten A's as more than the equivalent of ten C's will be universally approved. Refusing to graduate a stu- dent who has failed to secure an average better than " passed " will raise protests not only from student victims of their own neglect or inability but also from parents, out- side friends, and in the case of state institutions from offi- cial boards of visitors and legislatures. The Wisconsin board of official visitors protested that it was inconsistent Point System in Scholarship 319 to mark a student " passed "— i.e., satisfactory in credits totalling the minimum required for graduation — and then refuse graduation because the student had not done better than satisfactory work. It may prove easier to eliminate such students during a course than to refuse them gradua- tion. Use of the point system to stimulate competition for recognition among students and among fraternities, between sexes, etc., will go on independently of the decision any col- lege makes as to actually refusing graduation, if the points do not exceed the credits earned by eight or twenty. Dean Jones of Yale reported in 1916 that the committee on sophomore class administration regarded as beneficial the " system of quality credits," and recommended that warn- ings be issued to all men failing to earn eleven quality credits. At Miami University average ability in a subject by stu- dents of recent years is taken as the base. For exceeding that average grades of A and B are given; for falling below it up to 20% the grade of D is given ; all other grades of partial or complete failure are reckoned as zero in all com- parative statements. The purpose in taking average ability is to avoid the former system, which Miami said "was to predicate a standard of absolute perfection and rate down from that point, . . . which system is difficult of application since the standard is of itself impossible and even the approxima- tion of it depends upon many variable factors." The weighting of grades by Miami is this : Hours of A count each 130% Hours of B count each 115% Hours of C count each 100% Hours of D count each 80% Other hours o, no credit be- ing given at all for unsatis- factory work Please note that average ability at Miami means average grades earned. 320 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 112. Segregation of Sexes in Certain Courses That men and women should have separate dormitories and so far as practicable should lodge in separate private houses, is an agreed-upon minimum essential of college man- agement. That it is not necessary to segregate men and women in dining rooms is similarly agreed. Whether if financially possible it is better to have sexes in separate classes for undergraduate work is still an open question in many quarters. Whether a small college or a tax-supported college should or should not segregate the sexes is not only unsettled but is a profitless question, because nothing is clearer than that this country refuses to consider working such educational plants at less than their maximum capacity. Our genera- tion refuses to deny women education simply because mix- ing them with men may theoretically be less advantageous to them and to the men than separate instruction. Because we have rejected segregation so far as attend- ance at most private colleges is concerned and at practically every publicly supported institution, as in every high school where city funds do not permit equal facilities for both sexes, is no reason why segregation should not be adopted within a college wherever separation of sexes will benefit men and women alike or either of them. Nobody expects a coeducational institution to have mixed classes in gymnasium work. Only now and then does any one suggest mixed classes in sex hygiene. No serious ob- jection will be raised to experiments which will answer several questions now troubling students of college instruc- tion: 1. Is it true, as many teachers of English maintain, that men students are so self-conscious in English courses that they avoid such courses rather than exhibit to women students their efforts to improve self-expres- sion? Y... N... ?... 2. Is it true that for similar reasons women evade classes where success depends upon discussion, as in Poultry husbandry University of California ■ ■ *?^^5— ^fl j^L> *fSslff;1aj Br 3 rB* ". .--. -^BVjL ff ^jr^-vl'**. * fa ~-\ ' r Sex segregation via interest segregation California Coeducation permits sex segregation too How Certain Courses Affect Sexes 321 economics, political science, sociology? Y. . . N . . . ? . . . How men and women elect subjects can easily be learned. Whether their reason for evading subjects is the presence of the other sex can be learned partially by comparing electives in educa- tional and coeducational institutions, but best of all by experimentation within each college. 3. Is it possible that even where in a large lecture sec- tion sexes are advantageously combined they would be more profitably quizzed on these lectures in sepa- rate sections? 113. The Junior College Two different conditions are being called junior college: a segregated college of under classmen within a college or university which for administrative and instructional pur- poses draws a line between the comparative immaturity of freshmen and sophomores, and comparative maturity of juniors and seniors; secondly, courses in local high schools scattered throughout a state which offer continuation in- struction of college grade. After learning whether a college will, with or without ex- amination, accept work of college grade done in high schools, several other questions will be asked : 1. Do all high schools know that such work will be ac- cepted? Y... N... 2. Which high and preparatory schools can, with reason- able effort and expense, extend high-school work one half year or a year? 3. Will more students go to college if part of their work can be done at home high schools without expense for tuition and living? 4. Will the total tuition obtainable by colleges be in- creased or decreased if they make it easy for students to secure a degree in less than four years of resi- dence ? <;. Would it extend the radius from which students come 322 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities to college if for introductory college courses there could be three or ten or twenty centers in a state ? 6. Provided students pass satisfactorily the test of the college itself as to college-grade work done in high school, what if any complications will such students cause in college organization? 7. Would students be inclined to stay on in high school even when sure they could not finish a college course, if credits beyond the high-school courses were recog- nized by colleges and universities so that these stu- dents could think and speak of themselves as having had two or eight or twelve college credits? 8. Would it be fair to taxpayers for state universities to encourage junior colleges by declining to give cer- tain elementary work or by offering inducements to have work taken in high schools or small colleges ? 9. If colleges admit from high schools upon examina- tion, will history repeat itself and call upon colleges to accept without examination all students from ac- credited schools having accredited college work? The division of a particular college into junior college and senior college is being urged as a protection to both groups. Where such separation is not made, it is often felt that upper classmen suffer from contact with less ma- ture lower classmen and the necessary adaptation of instruc- tion to less mature minds. At the same time it is feared that lower classmen are given less drilling than they need and are introduced too abruptly to the freedom of lecture courses and the self-responsibility that are felt to be neces- sary characteristics of upper-class instruction. What, if any, differences there are in instructional methods between upper-class and lower-class groups, what if any differences are provided in the catalog, and how rigidly they are ad- hered to, are questions for surveyors. For a small college there are these practical questions : 1. Will the small private college accept the position of drillmaster and trainer for under classmen with the Junior College Problems 323 expectation of sending advance students on to the state university or other central university? Y. . . 2. Will universities encourage students to take the junior college work before coming to the university and recognize such work given by a small college? Y... N... 3. Is it feasible for both small college and university to have the latter give a degree, Master or Bachelor, in behalf "of Hamilton College and Cornell Univer- sity," or "of Grinnell College and University of Iowa " ; i.e., can a plan be worked out by which both the small college and university will recognize the stu- dent who has done two years' work in Beloit and two years' work at the state university as an alumnus of both institutions? Y. . . N. . . " In the matter of correlation of private colleges to the State University, Wisconsin colleges," according to President Evans of Ripon, " have been studying the problem very carefully and have been making a few experiments which are successful. The dean of each leading school in Wisconsin has accepted an invitation to come to Ripon College and aid us in our attempts to make proper correlation of courses and proper adjustment of undergraduate work with graduate work ; or, of pre-prof es- sional with professional work." That the junior college should be taken more seriously even in proposals for self -surveys will be held by many edu- cators. President Frank L. McVey of North Dakota writes : " The junior college question really represents a reorganiza- tion of higher education of the country, and a discussion should point out what effect it would have upon the upper years of the present college course and the relation of it all to the grad- uate school." My apology for not trying to develop these relations is that the present-day surveyor has to do primarily with going concerns, and secondarily with substitutes for present or- ganization. My personal opinion is that until faculties have 324 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities compared what they are now trying to do with what they are actually accomplishing, the resort to junior colleges, ex- cept for reasons above indicated, may easily do more harm than good. One assumption will need constant checking after senior colleges divide from junior colleges; viz., that senior col- lege students are necessarily and without considerable ex- ceptions more mature than junior college students, and are without considerable exceptions capable of benefiting from instruction that does not aim to educe, discover, and help the individual student. 114. Experienced Teachers for Less Experienced Students Miami announces that in 191 6 " the beginning work in every department but one was given wholly or in part by the head of the department." Yale reports that 24 of 36 available assistant professors and 16 of 32 professors were giving elementary instruction. Without assuming that upper-class teachers are by virtue of rank or experience more effective than under-class teachers with under-class students, every survey will want to learn who is teaching the supposedly neediest students. Where graduate students are numerous, their share of stronger professors must be com- pared with that of undergraduates. Many colleges already keep a record showing for each class of each instructor the number of Freshmen \ , , Sophomores J under classmen Juniors \ , Seniors J u PP er ^ssmsn SdccihIs 1 Graduates ) u PP er classmen What to do with the facts is another matter calling for further surveying. After inquiry it may be clear that the faculty high lights would not teach freshmen as well as do lesser lights ; or it may be clear that lower classmen, upper- class instructors, college, and scholarship are all the losers Stronger Instructors for Under Classmen 325 because high lights are marooned or self-marooned with upper classmen. If not feasible to let higher-priced high lights carry en- tire courses for under classmen, it may prove feasible for them to give introductory survey lectures, to be responsible for the course, or even to lecture, leaving the quizzing to others. What is feasible and economical must be decided with this fact in mind, that considerably more than half the tuition is paid by under classmen, many of whom will never reach upper classes. President Hadley, speaking in 1916 of ex-President Nichols of Dartmouth, says : " He proposes by choice to teach Elementary Physics. The men who think that we have no more of the old type who found time both for ele- mentary teaching and for productive investigation may take comfort from an example like this." 115. Effects of Research upon Teaching Efficiency A discomfiting dilemma is confronting colleges. One set of distinguished educators declares that there can be no high-grade college teaching where faculties are not conduct- ing research. Another set of distinguished educators de- clares that only a handful of universities have the library equipment which makes research possible. If both beliefs are true, either the overwhelming majority of American col- leges are doomed to mediocre teaching, or else they must bring up their scientific equipment, including libraries, to the standard of California, Chicago, and Columbia. Every- body knows that this alternative is impossible. Therefore our colleges must either give up hope of efficient instruction or disprove the contentions that research depends upon ex- ceptional library facilities and that high-grade instruction depends upon research. Self-respect and self-protection alike require that the smaller colleges conduct the self-surveys necessary to set- tle on the basis of fact a question heretofore discussed on the basis of prestige, wealth, and theory ; viz., what is the effect of faculty research upon teaching efficiency? 326 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities So far as research is found essential to efficient teaching, colleges must raise the money for equipment and time neces- sary for research. Not much longer may research and its costs be dealt with indirectly and by estimates as an inci- dent of instruction and a reason for a smaller number of teaching hours. If desirable men leave colleges or refuse their invitations because research opportunities are lacking or limited, the sooner such losses and competitive disability are proved, specified, and advertised the sooner can colleges raise the needed money. Local facts, not professional opinion, must be invoked. Even if professional opinions are unanimous, trustees and donors will not be convinced without local evidence; much less will they be convinced when professional opinion is not unanimous. If President Van Hise of Wisconsin is quoted as saying that no one can be a first-rate teacher who is not a productive scholar, President Hadley of Yale will be cited as urging that " our colleges need all the good teachers that we now have, whether they are productive scholars or not." If the University of Iowa is cited to the effect that " in- structors who do not develop the tendency for research shall have no chance for promotion whatever," Teachers College, Columbia, may be cited to the effect that " one man may be greatly stimulated by the opportunity to do research work, whereas another comes out of it with little or no gain." President G. Stanley Hall believes that a " college which fails to provide specifically for research by its instruc- tional staff is doomed to have mediocre teaching." Presi- dent King of Oberlin, who has specially studied college effi- ciency, insists that " some of the most mediocre teaching is now done by men who have done a good deal in the way of research." That there is something in the research virus which causes it to spread and seek to dominate, observers will agree. Unless its relative value is definitely ascertained, with conditions for guiding and controlling it, research in- terest will supplant teaching interest, and research ability How Research Affects Instruction 327 irrespective of teaching ability will determine academic pre- ferment. Yale finds it necessary to announce : " No quali- fication is demanded more insistently of a candidate for ap- pointment than the qualification of a teacher." In the face of such frank admission as President Butler's, that many of the most distinguished scholars are execrable instructors, why the worm — the student — does not turn when given execrable instruction by estimable scholars is an important subject for study. In conducting self -surveys there are two sets of questions to be asked, — one relating to direct research products and easily countable research costs; another relating to indirect results and costs that have not heretofore been studied even by the large universities. Fact questions must be separated from opinion questions. Among fact questions are these: 1. How much weight is given to research — proved ability . . . , prospective ability . . . , when selecting and promoting faculty members ? 2. Does sentiment practically compel research or ap- pearance of research by faculty ? Y. . . N... 3. What provision is made for faculty research in col- lege time; i.e., is a definite allowance made; i.e., is need for research assigned as a reason for reducing hours of teaching? Y. . . N... 4. Is any record called for of time given to research? Y. . . N... Is that record accurate . . ., continu- ous . . ., cumulative . . ., or is it occasional . . . and estimated . . . ? 5. What attempt is made to record or estimate the cost to the college of research? Are laboratory supplies, special books, or other research materials charged to research ... or to instruction . . . ? 6. For survey purposes would the faculty record for a year, a semester, or a typical week, time actually given to research ? 7. So far as research means work in addition to the regular teaching load, does it add to ... or subtract from . . . teaching efficiency? Where special provi- 328 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities sion is made for it, does it increase ... or decrease ... the instructor's interest and efficiency in teach- ing? 8. What discoveries, inventions, publications, are the visible results of faculty research? Is a cumulative record kept . . . published ... of these results ? 9. How far is the college treated as a partner or share- holder in the emoluments or credits of faculty re- search ? 10. How extensively are students used as aids to faculty research ? What colleges will do with answers to these questions need not concern the surveyors — certain it is that no college can help benefiting from having the answers before it. The quality of faculty research will seldom be taken up by self -surveyors. Any one reporting upon state-supported research, however, is in duty bound to examine research products for their quality ; i.e., for the earmarks of scholarly workmanship and social productiveness. For some time to come presidents and other college surveyors will not be free to ask questions about research efficiency of colleagues. They are, however, free to ask questions each about his own research. Occasionally a group may safely survey one an- other's products. Every faculty will benefit from taking up abstractly and impersonally the tests which should be ap- plied by scholars, wherever located, to faculty research. Among the elements to be tested are these : 1. The original plan. 2. Method pursued. 3. Progress made compared with time spent. 4. Workmanship during study. 5. Workmanship of presentation. Only factored questions will bring helpful information about research. To ask if faculty research is considerable or valuable will bring meaningless answers. Instead, self- surveyors will first learn the time given to research and to Accounting for Research Costs 329 other university purposes as per the schedule on page 148. Additional information will be needed : i. Time given by students or assistants to each in- structor's research. 2. The cost of time paid for by the university, including rebates in number of weekly meetings with students or required hours of instruction, or other university duties. 3. The cost of supplies and equipment borne by the uni- versity. 4. The cost in time, supplies, equipment, etc., borne by the instructor, properly chargeable to the college. 5. Corresponding facts for research work done during vacation periods which it would help the college to have done during the college year if funds permitted. 6. Indirect measurable costs, including time known to be diverted from instruction. 7. Results of research in findings ; i.e., conventions, con- tributions to knowledge, publications. 8. Specific uses made of research questions, procedure and results for instruction of students, both those en- gaged in research and others. 9. Evidences that instructors come to or remain at a col- lege because of research opportunities. Is provision specifically made for research when making up each instructor's time schedule or when admitting experi- enced instructors. to the faculty? If so, is more or less provision made for those instructors whose effi- ciency is supposed to be most in need of outside in- centive and aid ; viz., the younger instructors ? In the light of local experience it would be well for each college to ask each faculty member for himself and each department and dean for their respective jurisdictions spe- cific data in support of answers to the 21 questions on pages 331 to 333. Faculty answers will disclose significant dif- ferences of opinion that will prompt continued self-survey- ing. These questions were worked out for the University 330 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities of Wisconsin Survey by the directors, with the aid of Pro- fessors Henmon and Sharp of the University of Wisconsin and Professor S. F. McLennan of Oberlin. Answers were received from 57 researchers and supervisors of research, including 18 college presidents and deans; 6 normal-school presidents ; 22 college professors ; 8 administrators in pub- lic service ; and 3 editors. The answers of the distinguished contributors to this survey symposium are not given here because it is vastly more important to each college to learn how its own faculty would answer these questions than to learn distant educators' beliefs. The need for local study and the free field for it are indicated by the fact that of 57 collaborators not one an- swered that there is any verifiable evidence as yet collected to show how research affects the quality of university or col- lege instruction. The significance of this admission is not weakened by the other fact that the majority of collabor- ators, particularly from college groups, believe teaching effi- ciency is increased by faculty research. While making self-surveys of research effects and methods, two facts will profitably be remembered: (1) unaccountable — i.e., irresponsible; i.e., unsupervised — re- search will show the same gaps between attempt, achieve- ment, and delivery as does any other human activity that is unaccountable, irresponsible, and unsupervised; (2) the more emphatically any faculty believes that research is in- dispensable to teaching efficiency the clearer it becomes that the short cut to efficiency is to watch the teaching product rather than to worry about the research. By insisting upon efficient teaching would faculties then secure research? If lack of opportunity for research is a reason for inefficient instruction, what better stratagem is there than to show trustees evidence that instruction is not as competent as it ought to be? Certain it is that teaching efficiency is reduced wherever emphasis upon research and self-advertising tempts faculty members to such half -facetious cynicism as one experienced and influential professor writes: " If I were young again, A Research Symposium 331 and if I were starting in to make a place for myself in uni- versity work, and if, moreover, I had no conscience, I would neglect my teaching absolutely and would cultivate those in authority, get up some fake scientific treatise, keep off the campus, and pose as a great educator. My doctor's thesis would be on the topic : ' Families which keep cats are likely to have many children.' " Twenty-one Factored Questions as to Effect of Research upon Teaching Efficiency 1. What verifiable evidence has been collected to show how research affects quality of university or college instruc- tion ? 2. Does research by an instructor improve his teaching (a) in other subjects than that in which his research is con- ducted, (b) in that subject? 3. Does research affect method of instruction and command of subject matter equally and similarly; if differently, in what respects? 4. Which improves the efficiency of teaching more, (a) the research which an instructor conducts alone, (b) re- search in which he is assisted by his students, or (c) re- search by his students under his supervision? 5. Which benefits the student more, (a) helping the in- structor conduct the latter's research, or (b) being helped by the instructor to conduct the student's re- search ? 6. Which is the more important to the student, (a) the new knowledge gained by research, (b) the technique of investigation that he develops, or (c) the effect upon his future ability to teach? 7. What effect has an instructor's research into a given sub- ject upon his enthusiasm (a) for teaching the result of his investigation, (b) for teaching subjects related to but lying outside of his special investigation, (c) for teaching freshman and sophomore classes, (d) for teach- ing junior and senior classes, (e) for teaching graduate classes, (f) for teaching per se as distinguished from investigation ? 33 2 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 8. What difference is there in the effect upon an investi- gator's teaching ability whether the knowledge sought is (a) new to his field, or (b) is merely new to himself? 9. Which is more valuable to the student, (a) to conduct an extended study in some narrow field, or (b) to help investigations in several fields? 10. Would it be desirable to waive the requirement of a dissertation, and insist upon a wider knowledge of the subject in which a degree is given (a) for a master's de- gree, (b) for a doctor's degree? 11. What difference is there in the effect upon a researcher's teaching ability whether the increment he adds to human knowledge is in the form (a) of heretofore undiscov- ered truth, or (b) of heretofore undiscovered or unex- plained method of applying truth? 12. Is teaching helped more, equally, or less (a) by an in- structor's search for something immediately useful, or (b) by a search for something that would have value only because it was " some new truth " ? 13. Would a study of the particular problems involved in a university's instruction react as favorably upon teaching ability as the study of problems not connected with uni- versity instruction ; i.e., would research into how to teach chemistry most effectively be as serviceable as the search for a new formula? 14. In what ways is instruction affected by the search for a new element, a new serum, a new principle of taxation, a new fact about Napoleon, or a new star, as it would not be affected by search for undiscovered possibilities of students in the researcher's class, difficulties which confront individual students, and opportunities to help such students? 15. To what extent is the stimulating effect of research due to professional recognition? 16. Would research into methods and results of instruction, courses of study, etc., within chemistry or English de- partments have as beneficial an effect upon instructors in chemistry or English as upon instructors in depart- ments of education? 17. In what ways and for what reasons is research less nec- essary for vitalizing instruction in elementary, high, and normal schools than for vitalizing university instruction? A Research Symposium 333 18. Is the college or university which fails to provide spe- cifically for research by its instructional staff doomed to have mediocre teaching? 19. What evidence is there that American scholarship among instructors has been more productive, man for man, in a given university or given subject since the development of so-called graduate work? 20. What evidence is there that the same instructors will do more productive research work if they teach 6 hours a week than they would do if teaching 15 hours a week? 21. How far and in what ways does administrative work by instructors have a stimulating or broadening effect upon their teaching, similar to the effect generally attributed to research? For Questions or Notes by the Reader IX RELATION WITH COLLEGE COMMUNITIES 1 1 6. The Home Town "DEED COLLEGE and Its City-wide Campus is the leg- Iv end of a chart showing five different relations between that college and the city of Portland. The chart is headed : " Has Reed College Reached Your Home? Study this map. Make inquiries." Five centers are charted, showing four ways in which a college works for a college town : 1. Extension courses. 2. Community service by Reed students. 3. Addresses by Reed teachers. 4. Homes of Reed students. To this list might be added civic work by Reed instructors. The circles which show student activities for the city are almost as numerous as those showing residences of students. In November, 19 16, an instructor of Mount Holyoke ad- dressed chambers of commerce on the relation of the college to its city, South Hadley. As the outcome it was agreed that the class in economics would work with the local cham- ber in preparing a description of the town which would serve as a high-school textbook in civics. At the alumni banquet celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Vassar, Miss Evelyn B. Hartridge discussed the college and city as follows : " President Dabney of the University of Cincinnati says that ' Society is a real thing on its own account, with a plan of its own, a life of its own, principles of its own, and func- tions of its own different from and more important than any of its parts.' He says further that we are beginning to realize that the chief end of education is not the develop- ment of intellectual power merely, but is also the forma- tion of character trained and habituated to think in terms of social obligation. I doubt if any real contributor to the educative forces of the world ever thought that the 334 Colleges and College Towns 335 chief end of education was the development of intellectual power merely, but I admit much truth in the statement that its end should be the formation of character trained and habituated to think in terms of social obligation. " Now how can a college better prepare a student for her place in the community after graduation than by giv- ing her, in connection with her studies, practical knowl- edge of community life before graduation? And what community life can be more easily studied by her than the community in which she is living before graduation? If the gospel of the age is service, she must have her appren- ticeship. On the other hand, if she is to have courses in chemistry, in economics, in sociology, etc., she can well use the neighboring community for her laboratory. " Would your chemistry be more or less interesting to you if you were helping your instructor to analyze and test samples submitted by the city, the results to be of practical value? " Would your work in social science be more or less valuable if you were cooperating, under supervision, with public institutions, such as the Juvenile Court and the de- partment of charities and corrections, or with private associations such as the Associated Charities, the Anti- Tuberculosis League, and the Juvenile Protective Asso- ciation ? " Would your lessons in political science suffer if you covered council meetings and visited city departments ; if you helped organize a municipal reference library; if you made continuous surveys of streets for cleanliness ; if you recognized your obligation of citizenship to Poughkeepsie, an obligation at least to know all her problems, desires, difficulties, resources ; if you organized an efficient-citizen- ship club which would make a complete list of the most advanced steps taken by municipalities in all parts of the country, checking off against this list steps not yet taken in and for Poughkeepsie and making the results available ; if you tendered your service to city and county officers, arranging for the college to supervise your work — the results again to be of practical value? For visiting city departments will tend to tone up those departments, while proving valuable lessons to the students of civics; and '336 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities officers are glad to improve their work if they can count upon volunteer aid under intelligent supervision. " Would your very modern department of psychology object to your testing (as helpers only) backward pupils in the city schools rather than one another? Such work might lead to one of those so-called educational hospitals for defectives, which sometimes save children from being classed irrevocably with idiots and incompetents. " And what about your studies with your physicians here? Do they teach you household science, including house sanitation? And elementary bacteriology and household hygiene? If they do, could you persuade one of the clever members of your faculty to take five or six of you as helpers and start a class in Arlington or Pough- keepsie? It might lead to the saving of some of those tiny babies about whom our Miss Lathrop is so justly concerned. It might lead some day to the saving of some of your own children. " You have proved that you can get the cooperation of your instructors. I understand that on your own initia- tive you employed a district nurse in Arlington and that you now have in that connection a committee of Arlington people with a faculty member. You already help with the Day Nursery, you read to the old people in the alms- houses, you teach in the Sunday schools, perhaps you sing in the churches. I am sure that you do not fail to patron- ize Poughkeepsie stores and that many of you belong to the Consumers' League. Why not go a little further? Professor Lough of the New York University says that he is convinced that you have more knowledge than many girls in Poughkeepsie, that if you can persuade competent instructors to act with you and to count you as their aids you can in your extra hours organize classes in the city for these girls in house economics or home nursing, or house sanitation, or domestic art, or practical housekeep- ing, or home bookkeeping, or what I call a purchasing partner's class — teaching the members how to expend a salary or an income wisely with a due sense of propor- tion. Why not? It would be very valuable for you. Perhaps some day it might come to pass that in already existing departments these same subjects would be taught Which is better for higher education, road making or road using with roadsters ? Berea College Student-built chapel Learning via serving college and town Berea College Cooperates with City Schools 337 for you. It would be no more marvelous than it was to us of '92 to hear that we might study economics and so- cialism. " There are several points to be remembered, however. One is that you cannot all of you do all of these things any more than you can carry courses in ancient and modern languages, English, history, mathematics, science, art, and music all at the same time. Whether regarded by you as laboratory work or as service in the field of citizenship, they must be considered with moderation and an appreci- ation of the fact that there are not nearly hours enough in any one day. Another is that in approaching munici- pal affairs you must have an humble spirit. You must realize that you will be indebted to them for a chance to learn citizenship at first hand. " As far as the matter of service is concerned you Vas- sar girls have already demonstrated in many ways that you fully understand that what you give you have." Dean Elmer E. Jones of the department of education of Northwestern University has arranged with the board of education of Evanston, Illinois, for university students to make a number of studies, to include these : 1. Physical survey of school buildings. 2. School organization and administration. 3. Investigation and analysis of the conditions revealed by the age-grade-progress study. 4. Study of elimination — extent to which children drop out of school, at what age, in what grades, and why. 5. Tests of the school work done by pupils. 6. Adequacy of course of study to meet the educational needs of the children in the schools. 7. The teaching staff — their education, training, and experience. 8. Health work — scope, method, and results. 9. Janitorial service — cost, quantity, and quality. 10. Unit costs in District 75. 11. Salaries of teachers and cost of living. 12. Study of the educational needs of Evanston as a whole and the opportunities for cooperation between 338 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities the different school boards in the interests of greater efficiency and economy in the administration of Evanston public schools. In requesting such opportunity for students, Dean Jones wrote as follows : "The following are some of our problems: (i) We should like to offer inducements for mature, well-trained men and women to come to the University to study edu- cation under these favorable conditions. We should like to have your schools for the laboratory in which superin- tendents and supervisors can be wisely trained. We feel that the supervisory problem in education is so important that we should like to emphasize it by offering induce- ments for well-trained students to come here to engage in study for advanced degrees. In order to induce such students to take up such work with us, we hope to be able to offer scholarships and fellowships which may be at- tractive. (2) We should like to have opportunity for seniors in the University who meet certain standard re- quirements to serve as apprentices in your schools. They might serve as assistants to certain teachers, as helpers in special drills, teachers of special groups, or they might serve in some other capacity deemed necessary by your administration. This would put them in touch with your schools and give them an experience more valuable than many years of teaching without such supervision. (3) We should like to have opportunity for our advanced students in education to carry on investigations that will be of value to you, if properly worked out, and for which we can give credit as research for advanced degrees. (4) We should like to have the opportunity to be of serv- ice to you in the solution of many smaller problems which individual students might work out in connection with the various courses offered in the department. The de- partment of education would welcome such problems from your superintendent. For example, students in school administration could very well work out one or two prob- lems of an administrative character each semester which would involve the expenditure of a few hours each week. Gown's Responsibility for Town's Conditions 339 " The administration of all of this work presents a con- siderable program and some vital difficulties. However, they are not insurmountable, and while the burden of such a program would rest upon your superintendent and his staff, the department of education stands ready to co- operate in working out the problems in a manner satisfac- tory to both parties." Municipal universities emphasize municipal services and are beginning to recognize the training value of community services that need to be rendered. Toledo University, for example, is voted funds by the city council for work to be done by the university for the council, such as investigating electric-light and power rates for use, including future rates from private companies. Cincinnati's University gives its students of engineering and chemistry part-time instruction in testing foods and building materials for the city and mak- ing state roads. The term " extension work " usually refers to extending college activities for the sake of extending college influence and benefiting communities rather than for the sake of ex- tending college resources for giving instruction to regular students. This more familiar phase of extension work is taken up in a separate section. Extension for the sake of the college; for enriching and definitizing its instruction; for training its students and broadening its faculty, are re- ferred to here. The college buys food and other supplies. Is it doing its part in checking the rise in cost of living; in encouraging, introduction of substitute supplies; in preventing the mo- nopoly of land and of business ; in organizing for its faculty and students cooperative buying and selling? The college pays taxes and is exempt from taxation. Is it using its influence to see that the taxing bodies explain to the. public the purpose and nature of taxes ; reasons for levying them; results secured by spending them? In a word, is the college itself an efficient citizen? The college is a heavy purchaser of transportation. Is it doing its part to secure an agreeable approach to the city; 34° Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities a clean, beautiful, and convenient station and courteous, ac- commodating service? College health is influenced by town health. Is the col- lege doing its part to secure a sanitary town and an efficient administration of health laws? Is it complying with a strict interpretation of the sanitary code? Civic beauty affects the drawing power of a college and its power to teach those drawn. Are its own grounds and buildings a practical demonstration of civic beauty? Are its classrooms a living illustration for city classrooms? Does the college give a culture tone? Town life means normal life, up-to-date life, human need and human ingenuity. Does the college use these forces in imparting information and in developing character ? College towns frequently misunderstand their colleges. Misunderstanding breeds gossip, backbiting, community forces that reduce student receptivity. What steps does the college take to remove and prevent misunderstandings and to reduce to the minimum the occasion for unfavorable town gossip about the college? With few exceptions the constituency of a college is near by, when not local. Tone, like support, is largely given by the home town. What steps does the college take to make sure that it is the town's or near by's best which is given to the college ? Has the college the courage to fit itself to its own town and the communities from which it draws rather than to " authorities " in foreign towns ? 117. Accrediting Secondary Schools For mutual help and protection in maintaining a desired standard for accepting high-school or secondary graduates, colleges have organized several different federations which decide for all colleges in a federation which preparatory schools should be accredited. In theory this accrediting is based upon an examination which includes field examination of physical equipment and facilities, number and qualifica- Accrediting High Schools 341 tions of teachers, curriculum requirements and standards of instruction. From schools accredited by a federation, students may be received by any self-respecting college as freely as students from schools intimately known to and approved by such col- leges. Whether standards of accrediting are high enough or whether given schools are improperly accredited can hardly be told by testing what happens with pupils from such schools. Certain colleges receive from certain high schools the poorest-equipped pupils only or the least ambitious or most unruly. The only way to ascertain whether the high school itself has done its part satisfactorily is to survey it. That, however, is rarely a question for individual colleges to answer, since they receive verdicts from federated agencies. Several state universities are held directly responsible in their states for accrediting high schools. This recognition from the state university is a much sought prize. Few com- munities are happy until their high school has received the stamp of approval from the university. In such states im- portant questions for surveyors are : 1. What are the standards for accrediting; i.e., what curriculum, how many teachers, what preparation of teachers, what maximum of teaching hours, what min- imum of pupils, what specifications as to scholarship? 2. Is there an enforcement of these standards? 3. How many visits are paid to each high school ? How far apart ? Of what duration ? 4. To how many classes of each instructor and to what portion of each period visited? 5. What tests are applied to classroom instruction? What examinations of written work? What special questions are asked ? 6. What reports are made to the accrediting college ; i.e., how specific and comprehensive are they? 7. What specific reports are made to the community, 342 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities public, trustees, superintendent, principal, and teach- ers as to the minimum essentials for accrediting? During the visit? Orally or in writing? How soon after return to central office ? 8. What instructions are given to inspectors? Are they written ? Do they call for opinions or facts ; i.e., for analysis of each standard into its elements; i.e., do the standards consist of minimum essentials lacking any one of which accrediting will be withheld, plus provision for accrediting additional qualifications? Or is an average accepted in which desirable qualifi- cations offset undesirable conditions ? 9. How has the accrediting institution protected itself against being influenced by the presence of its own graduates as supervisors or teachers of preparatory schools seeking indorsement ? 118. Relations to Secondary Schools The most important relations of colleges with elementary schools are two : 1. Colleges prepare teachers for secondary schools. 2. Colleges obtain students from secondary schools. Each of these relations presents many phases for analysis by surveyors. Whatever questions ought to be asked of normal schools or of colleges of education need also to be asked about the teacher-training activities of any college. It is not fair for colleges to ask that their certificates be accepted without further examination of graduates by school boards and state officers who certificate teachers, until col- leges make sure that their own standards of teacher per- sonality and teacher preparation are high enough to protect and help secondary schools. Survey questions for teacher- training work are needed by all private colleges. Think what it means that professional training is required by law and that even Teachers College, Columbia University, does not require classroom teaching before accrediting teachers ! What colleges do to secure students from secondary 100% of College Constituency 343 schools and to merit the confidence of those schools will generally be considered the private affair of the college and the secondary school. Without urging certain reasons why this relation is of public concern, it will suffice here to con- sider the relation from the standpoint of the college itself. College reports do not indicate that college managements generally hold themselves responsible for knowing each the main facts about every high school in its immediate terri- tory. Yet experience shows that most colleges draw the great majority of their students from their immediate neighborhoods. A business house confronted with this same situation would have a complete list of every pre- paratory school for a hundred miles around, of every teacher in those schools, and of every pupil in the graduat- ing class. A business house would go further, and have a list of editors, ministers, leading lawyers, public officers, citizens with boys and girls coming on toward college age, and of every student within two years of college. Busi- ness colleges have such lists, private schools have corre- sponding lists. One reason why colleges do not have them is that without making this effort many of them have as many students as their resources will take care of profit- ably. Colleges will be helped if surveyors ask what steps are taken to secure the cream of graduates from their legiti- mate territory. (Colleges with special constituencies of de- nomination, of sex, of profession, may reasonably count a much larger circle as their legitimate constituency.) It is hardly enough that all seats are occupied. Colleges may legitimately work for the highest quality of student ma- terial. Thoroughgoing attempts to understand one s constituency will provide a deeper motive than the desire to secure stu- dents. After a college once recognizes, as several of them do, the obligation to act as torchbearer in its territory, and a direct obligation both to the student whom it re- ceives and to the parent and community that send this stu- dent, it cannot help taking anticipatory steps to benefit the 344 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities prospective student. Moreover, it will become interested for the community's sake. Whether the college has fitted itself to receive the boy is becoming a more important question than whether the boy is fitted to receive what the college has to give. Col- leges want to know the boy's background, not merely his marks; therefore they ask preparatory schools to tell about the boy's health, his personal characteristics, his strong and weak points, his leanings, the capacities which promise suc- cess and those which promise difficulties. Nor do they cut the channels of communication with the boy's background after he has been admitted; instead, they inform the parent the first week who the boy's adviser is and ask the parent's cooperation. Similarly, they commu- nicate with the principal, ask him for his assistance, and invite future suggestions. If the boy has difficulties, whether social or educational, these are reported to the prin- cipal, not merely because he may help the college deal with the boy, but because knowledge of one boy's stumbling at college may help the principal discover where other boys in his school are stumbling from preventable causes. Special pains are taken to inform preparatory schools of their graduates' success at college. Pride begets fellow- ship and loyalty. Preparatory schools like to have their boys and girls where their boys and girls have succeeded. Conferences are called to consider problems of mutual concern; experiences are exchanged; questions and com- plaints are frankly discussed. Conferences at the college are followed up by visits to the schools, not for the purpose of accrediting these schools or of marking them A, B, or C, but for the purpose of finding out where if at all condi- tions in preparatory schools prove the need for changes and improvements in the college. Finally, personal contact is supplemented by printed bul- letins. Whether these documents express and invite co- operation it is important for the surveyor to learn. By looking to preparatory schools for suggestions which will make colleges more serviceable and more efficient, colleges Extension Service to Community 345 will find the fountains of perpetual use. To the extent that colleges regard themselves as judges of secondary efficiency and their standards as hurdles, to that extent will col- leges find themselves out of adjustment with the prepara- tory schools and the communities which colleges exist to help. 119. Extension Work A great deal more extension work is being done by col- leges than is generally appreciated. A special bulletin is- sued by the United States Bureau of Education in 1914 showed that 32 institutions were giving correspondence courses and 35 were giving extra-mural instruction through special classes and through a combination of syste- matic lectures with local class groups. The number today is much greater. For public employees in New York City the College of the City of New York and New York University have for three years been giving special courses, not only in subjects that lead to a degree, but also in vocational subjects in- tended primarily to increase the student's value to the city. For example, there are engineering courses for bringing graduate engineers up to the latest date in road building; employees of the charities department have lectures and reading in modern philanthropy, not for credit but for wid- ening their working horizon ; stenotyping is taught, not for mental discipline, but to increase rapidly the supply of stenotypists. Columbia's extra-mural instruction, like its intra-mural work for non-collegiates, has increased by leaps and bounds. Just as normal schools are taking up extension work as a means of vitalizing instruction and to deepen and broaden their relations with the communities from which they se- cure their students and money, our colleges and universities will go in for extension work. The popular phase of so-called university extension will always be better done probably when done on a large scale, such as will be possible in most states only by the state uni- 346 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities versity or, as in Massachusetts, by the state board of edu- cation. There is, however, an intensive, more personal kind of extension work which self -surveyors may help colleges con- sider. In absentia instruction can be given just as well by a professor of education or of history in a small college as by a professor of education or of history in a great uni- versity. That it can be given is maintained by an increas- ing number of colleges. For example, Williams will give a master's degree for supervised study and written work in a graduate's major. State universities like Iowa, North Da- kota, and Wisconsin are doing it. Many a graduate who has gone out into teaching or secretarial work will be more apt to continue her work in English or German or history if encouraged to build on the beginnings already made at her own college under the supervision of instructors who al- ready know her. Why should not small colleges build up this type of graduate work What is there about it which cannot be done just as well from Carleton College as from the University of Minnesota? Once having established this method of retaining contact with graduates, small colleges will find it possible to include former students who did not graduate and students from other colleges who are in the immediate neighborhood and feel the need of supervision over their reading and study- ing by some one near enough to know personally. Wisconsin's practice of leaving it to the individual de- partment whether or not it shall develop this in ab- sentia contact with credit might well be tried as a first step. Contact by correspondence will usually lead to a demand for closer contact through lectures and class groups. The University of Pennsylvania is rapidly developing an intensive service for teachers in population centers, which differs from ordinary extension work in that the courses given are the same courses as are given at the university. It is obviously easier for a university instructor to travel Extension Possibilities of Each College Center 347 from Philadelphia to Scranton than for forty teachers to go to Philadelphia. Similarly, Columbia is giving at New- ark and Brooklyn courses which duplicate courses given at Columbia. City College is opening special courses in Brooklyn. Why should not this method be employed by practically every college? Where is there a college town which would not support collegiate work in one or more of its factories, in its city hall, or its nearest neighboring town? Every college will do well to make a survey of the ex- tension possibilities and needs of its locality : 1. What part is for work below collegiate grade? What can the college do to direct attention to these needs by state universities or boards of education ? 2. How many recent (within 10 years) college grad- uates live in the college town? 3. How many within an hour's ride ? 4. What would it cost to circularize them in order to learn what the demand is for continuation courses ? 5. What would it cost to circularize all other groups capable of doing collegiate work ; i.e., former college students who did not graduate and high-school grad- uates who never entered college ? 6. Into what profession groups do these totals fall ; i.e., how many teachers, how many lawyers, how many women interested in philanthropy or literary societies, how many faculty members ? 7. Is there any other agency than this college capable of directing continuation work? Y... N... ?... 8. How much would have to be charged in order to make the work pay for itself ; i.e., pay for all energy diverted from present work? 9. Are there faculty members capable of making a suc- cess of such work ? Y. . . N... ?... 10. Would collegiate grade work downtown or in the next town strengthen ... or weaken . . . work at the college ? 11. Is it out of the question to organize late afternoon 348 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities or evening courses in the college or downtown in a bank or city hall? Y... N... ?... In few instances will it be better for a community to have work of high-school or elementary grade done by the college instead of by the public schools. Popular lec- turing frequently hurts more than it helps the college lec- turer. It is probably better for colleges to use their efforts in the interest of central state-directed extension work of second- ary and elementary grades, unless they happen to be rich enough to organize this work separately. Few college in- structors will ever be able to straddle both unsystematic or systematic extension work of elementary grade and work at college. Where this is being tried surveyors should test both kinds of work. 1 20. Municipal Universities If universities came free, every city would want its own municipal college or university — for its boys and girls, for the advertising, for business reasons, for extension work, for the indirect benefits expected. If universities could be obtained from rich men or re- ligious bodies for the asking, the boost clubs and chambers of commerce of all cities in the country would try to se- cure this attraction. Since, however, it costs money, lots of money, to start and to run a municipal university, cities are compelled to stop, look, and listen before they decide to tax themselves for building and maintaining their own local institutions of higher learning. Because municipal universities are classified with schools, it behooves the public schools of all cities to wonder if there is school money enough to go round to elementary schools, high schools, and municipal universities. Testing the efficiency of municipal universities calls for the same steps as are here suggested for other colleges, with one exception; viz., the taxpayers to whom the mu- nicipal school must account require more definite evidence Municipal Universities 349 oftener than do state universities or private colleges. A municipal university cannot thrive on the argument that it helps society or posterity or children of talent and ambition. It must prove that it helps the whole city which supports it, including those who do not attend its regular or extension classes. Thus we find Toledo's university making reports for the council, keeping strict account of time given by the faculty to municipal research and other municipal purposes, and keeping further cumulative record of all ways in which it has helped Toledo. Cincinnati's president reports not merely to his board of trustees about the university but also to the people of Cincinnati about The Service of the University to the City, which records divers kinds of service to the whole public. Municipal universities must be model budget makers, model tax spenders, model stewards, model publicity agents, model champions of the public's right to information that enlightens. Only blind alleys of popular distrust and event- ual popular repudiation lie ahead for municipal universities which fail either to take their publics frankly and fully into their confidence, or to do such work for the whole com- munity as when rendered and described will make the whole community wish to have that work continued. Asking for $164,000 increase over last year in a total of $758,000, without one syllable of explanation, as did New York's City College in 1916, will bring the municipal university to a short turn, not because it owes any more to its supporters than do other colleges and universities, but because the people who support it are near at hand and are compelled yearly to consider the alternatives presented to them for spending their taxes. Given service such as several municipal universities are rendering to their communities and given, secondly, the conviction voiced as follows by Dean E. G. Woodbridge of Columbia University's faculty of political science, it is prob- able that within a generation every city of 100,000 or over 350 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities in the United States will have a privately or publicly sup- ported municipal college or university : "The university should be a place to which resort not only those who seek degrees, but also those who seek enlightenment, encouragement, and inspiration. There should be found the youngster who needs in- struction, the men and women of society, those busied with affairs, the writer, the publicist, the statesman, the men of the professions, the inquisitive wanderer, who may find in the university the best which its or- ganized effort in the pursuit of the best can afford. " With such a clientele the university should be stim- ulated to achieve what it can never achieve by helping the immature to secure degrees." An impecunious municipal university will be an anemic disappointment. The kind thing, therefore, to every city which is moved by valid reasons for having a municipal university is to postpone action until after the city's ability to support it has been investigated. This procedure was followed in Dayton, Ohio, in 19 17. The mere statement of the advantages of a municipal university led influential business men to demand its immediate establishment. The Dayton Bureau of Research advised examination first; was retained to make a hurried study ; prepared a succinct report of 36 pages under eight headings : Summary of Findings The Municipal University Colleges and Departments Enrollment Probabilities Financing a University College Facilities in the Miami Valley The Junior College An Alternative Program The school committee of the board of trustees of the Dayton Bureau of Research believe Look before Starting a University 351 " That as < a charge upon the community a municipal university is not at this time considered desirable, but with sufficient endowment the matter would be opened for discussion from a new angle, as many of the pres- ent objections would be eliminated." The summary of findings listed 1. Dayton's exceptional facilities for university work along technical, university, and governmental lines. 2. Functions which a municipal university might per- form. 3. Reasons for not adding another small and weak col- lege to Ohio's list. 4. Other present unsatisfied needs which would compete with the university for consideration, such as flood prevention, city planning, elimination of grade cross- ings, parks and playgrounds, sewage disposal, new city hall, central police and fire stations, city abattoir, the public schools in nearly every phase of their work. As an alternative to establishing at once a municipal uni- versity the Dayton bureau recommended : a. Improvement of existing schools. b. Reorganization for better vocational training. c. Encouragement and extension of cooperative courses. d. Study of the junior high school advantages. e. Establishment of a junior college. f. Cooperation with Cincinnati's university. g. A study of normal-school needs. The report itself may be secured by addressing the Dayton Bureau of Research, Dayton, Ohio. How naturally one's idea of accountability and publicity adapts itself to the source of support is illustrated by the recent action of the Municipal University of Akron, in sub- stituting for a formal annual report a series of bimonthly bulletins. 352 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities The first short message was 12 pages — 5J4 x 7}i> Feb- ruary, 1917. A pink slip announced: " The directors of the Municipal University- believe that the citizens of Akron should at all times be in- formed regarding affairs of their university. They are, therefore, adopting the plan of reporting several times annually to the people. . . . Any citizen may receive these bulletins, etc." Taxpayers are shown graphically how the Municipal Uni- versity has increased in numbers and has decreased in per student cost. The last page is given to " needs and aims " and begins : " Indications point to a strong desire on the part of Akron citizens to be allowed to share personally in the benefits of the university. The demand for evening- class work has surpassed all expectations. . . . Espe- cially encouraging is the cooperation of Akron's indus- tries. . . ." The second bulletin listed the service rendered by the university's bureau of city test to seven different city de- partments, including the board of education. If establishing municipal universities means making higher education community-minded, perhaps the municipal university will become the benefactor of all higher educa- tion. 121. Colleges and Central Boards of Education What colleges do for and to society is so many sided and so vital that society cannot afford to ignore its re- sponsibility for minimizing dangers and maximizing bene- fits from higher education. Isolation for colleges is becoming impossible. False ad- vertising by one college not only injures those upon whom University of Cincinnati One way to find what Dean Schneider calls "the yellow streak" in futur engineers "Coop." students in real foundries and shops Cincinnati Municipal university uses factories Central Boards of Education 353 it imposes but also injures every other near-by college. Therefore our older states require that colleges be chartered and that they issue annual financial reports. One or two states have gone farther and prohibit the giving of degrees by any institution that has not an endowment of $500,000 or the equivalent in assured income. To secure facts, the power of visitation is given to a central supervising board of education. Where universities and normal schools are supported from public funds, their responsibility toward other pub- licly supported schools makes necessary some clearing house for information and study that will promote helpful adjustment of one educational activity with all the others. The current demand for central boards of education can- not be ignored by privately supported colleges and uni- versities, nor can it be blocked by ill-considered, stand-pat opposition of private colleges working naturally with state- university and normal-school officers who, perhaps natur- ally, resent any attempt to bring them under central super- vision. However it is accomplished, a 100% view of every state's educational activities is a necessity. It behooves self-surveyors in private and public institutions to ask them- selves where they, their courses, and their institutions stand with respect to other educational work done in their state, and secondly, to ask how best their state can organize for central supervision of education. The most detailed study that has yet been made of educa- tional opinions regarding central supervision of education was by Governor E. L. Philipp of Wisconsin in 1915. Letters were written to college presidents, foundation officers, state governors, in all parts of the country, not merely asking them what they thought about central super- vision but asking one specific question after another for the purpose of eliciting definite answers. The correspondence was digested and given to newspapers. After much dis- cussion a central board of education was established, with extensive powers of inquiry and administration. 354 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities Since even in Wisconsin governors do not go on forever, perhaps the shortest way to obtain this information in the future will be to address the Legislative Reference Library, Madison, Wisconsin, where undoubtedly the correspond- ence will be filed. A succinct published report entitled Five Different Reasons for a Central Board of Education for Wisconsin's Educational Systems, and a brief report by L. P. Benezet on a field study of Iowa's central board, sum- marize the findings. Unless self -surveyors are watchful, they will find them- selves naturally siding for or against a proposal for their state according to the political line-up in the legislature, or perhaps without study they will be influenced for or against it by university or normal-school officers. The following incident may encourage educational lead- ers and followers to ask for specific facts before taking sides : After a number of letters from educational leaders in different parts of the country condemning the central board had been read to the Wisconsin legislature, a sen- ator asked for a copy of the. letter which had drawn out this opposition. This letter, written by an alumna of national reputation, had not only clearly invited opposition but re- ferred to a bill that not only was not before the legislature when the letters in opposition were read but had actually been withdrawn for amendment before it ever went to com- mittee ! 122. The Effect of Foundations upon Colleges No American college is free from the influence of great foundations like the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- vancement of Teaching, (Rockefeller) General Education Board, and Rockefeller Foundation. Whether colleges want to be influenced by foundations is no longer the question. They are influenced and will continue to be influenced both directly and indirectly. The only open question regarding foundation influence is whether that influence shall be toward or away from de- Foundation Dangers to Education 355 mocracy in education; toward or away from freedom and elasticity; toward or away from recognition of merit for its own sake even if it disagrees with foundations. To maximize foundation benefits and to minimize foun- dation dangers is one of the greatest single opportunities and duties of the American college. That foundation influences can be so studied, discussed, and directed that they will be negligibly injurious and not- ably beneficial is certain. It is equally certain that a laissez faire policy or an adulation policy or a policy of that grati- tude which is a lively sense of favors to come, will take from colleges more than foundations can put back. This is still a difficult question to discuss openly, for sev- eral reasons. Looking a gift horse in the mouth will never be a popular procedure — scores of our colleges have re- ceived gifts of money from the foundations. Looking a gift horse in the mouth before it has been given to us is particularly ungracious and embarrassing — hundreds of colleges hope for gifts from foundations. Again, founda- tion trustees include presidents of private and public col- leges and universities who have hosts of friends in the col- lege world — to question foundations ostensibly managed by one's friends seems hardly loyal. Conceding that foundations are animated by the most unselfish, most altruistic, highest educational and patriotic motives, there is nevertheless inherently in their position a danger to themselves and to their beneficiaries. Not needing money, they necessarily find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to see the world as it is seen by those who desperately need money for their good work. Not being under pressure to make out a case, — i.e., to sell their goods; i.e., to convince their audience, — they instinc- tively grow lax in desires, in scientific method, in accuracy, in attention, in consecutive study, in vision, and in sym- pathy. Having money to give away, they exercise an influence proportionate not to the money they hold or to the money 356 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities they give away but rather to the necessities of the rest of the world that wants some of that money. It is not foundation greed for power but college poverty that gives to foundations influence which they cannot possess and colleges cannot yield without jeopardy to American edu- cation. Because of the money power they represent these great foundations are "good news." Not only can they afford to prepare their stories for the press in attractive, wide- margined, prettily tinted releases, but news agencies can afford to telegraph broadcast extracts from these releases and local papers can afford to print stories about them. When foundation benefactions are misrepresented and exaggerated, the harm cannot be undone by showing that the misrepresentation and exaggeration were by newspapers or school journals rather than intentional by the publicity agents of the foundations. For example, a headline reads that $100,000,000 has been spent by one foundation on schools — this sum is ten times too large. Another headline reads that a certain foundation gave colleges last year $12,435,780 — this is the total pledged in 15 years. An educational journal edited by a professor of education who is making studies for a certain foundation refers to " a model teachers' home dedicated February 16, 1917, the first of its kind to be built in Amer- ica." Hundreds of teachers' manses had earlier been built in America, in the South, Northwest, and Middle West. One hundred and forty-four in Washington under the leadership of State Superintendent Josephine C. Preston, 200 in Texas, 27 in North Carolina, 75 in Oklahoma, etc. In these three announcements alone over a million read- ers are given false statements and misleading impressions. Can any one doubt that with these false impressions has gone an undue influence which prepares those million odd readers to ascribe a soundness of judgment and carefulness of statement proportionate to ability to have sound judg- ment? For purposes of self-survey concrete instances are not Local Effects of Foundations 357 cited, although many exist, of foundation pressure and foundation influence in directions prejudicial to the interests of American education. To cite these instances will help no self-surveyor. On the contrary, his problem is three- fold: 1. In what respects am I, an individual college teacher or officer, influenced by foundations as I would not be influenced by the same fact or suggestion from a colleague, citizen, or editor ? 2. What, if any, evidences are there that the man- agement of our college is giving more thought to what will favorably impress foundations, than to what is needed and wanted by our own constituency ? 3. What, if anything, can be done to make American colleges and universities equal to and not subservient to the great foundations? A constructive program for increasing the effectiveness of foundations and for decreasing the possibility of leth- argy or arbitrary use of power is here tentatively suggested to students and managers of higher education. The rea- son for putting this program tentatively and in the form of questions is the same as for asking questions elsewhere instead of making assertions ; namely, to invite the reader to reach an independent conclusion with respect to each ques- tion. See Exhibit I, pages 360-361. Instead of discouraging interest in education, everything possible should be done to multiply the number of men and of agencies who will contribute devotion, study, and money to the upbuilding of our colleges and universities. Foundations as handmaidens to higher education can be of infinite helpfulness. Foundations as arbiters and patrons of higher education can and will incalculably deter and en- ervate. The shortest cut to the proper relation between higher education and educational foundations is a continuous, frank, independent self-survey by our colleges and uni- versities. Appendix 360 Appendix Exhibit I. — A Constructive Program for and for Decreasing the Possibility of 1 — Should all philanthropic agencies engaged in in- terstate philanthropy or investigation be required to secure national charters and be made subject to inspection and supervision by the national gov- ernment? 2— Should such foundations be required to report an- nually (a) not only cash in and cash out but work done; (b) whether income has been spent or allowed to accumulate; (c) opportunities met and not met; (d) cost of each kind of work and of each important undertaking? 3— Should the number, character and purposes of ap- plications received but not acted upon favorably be reported and accompanied by statement that all applications have been read and accounted for? 4 — Should failure to read and account for all applica- tions be reason for a special examination and report by the government? 5 — Should interlocking directorates be prohibited either within a group of foundations established by one donor or between independent founda- tions? Or, whenever donors wish to have the same man or men in control of several founda- tions, should donors be required to act under sin- gle charters so that the ultimate control and re- sponsibility will be constantly advertised? 6 — Should foundations be prohibited from giving away money or services to any other organization or individuals, e. g., any college, civic or charitable agency, church, hospital, etc.; i.e. F should charters be limited to foundations which will direct the spending of their own incomes and capital and will assume responsibility for the efficiency and safety of the results? 7— At least should charters be refused for the double service of giving away money to colleges, civic agencies, etc., and at the same time conducting general investigations in these fields? 8 — Should all charters include provision for public ex- amination of foundation records subject only to Exhibit I: Program for Foundations 361 Increasing the Effectiveness of Foundations Lethargy or Arbitrary Use of Power reasonable restrictions such, as now control citi- zen inspection of governmental records? 9 — In order to insure periodic comparison of work by foundations with the opportunities for service which have been presented to them and in order to keep the burden of proof upon the foundations rather than upon an unorganized, unwatchful and generally uninformed public, should the life of a charter be limited to 20 years, renewable only by new appeal and submission of new evidence to the public? 10 — Should all findings of fact by foundations regard- ing public or private agencies or officers be sub- mitted to such agencies or officers for confirma- tion or modification according to the truth before being finally incorporated in a report for the pub- lic or for the governing board of the foundation? 11— Should the fact base of all generalizations and pro- posals made by foundations regarding individuals involved in such proposals be clearly stated to- gether with the proposals: how many persons and who were examined, how many and what records were examined, how long was the investigation, what conferences were held, etc.? 12 — Should membership upon boards of foundations by officers or employees of national, state or city governments or bodies be prohibited on penalty of forfeiting the foundation charter? 13 — Should trustees of foundations when elected to pub- lic office be required to resign their trusteeships? 14 — should charters specifically prohibit foundations or officers speaking for foundations from recom- mending or urging the appointment of individu- als to public or semi-public office, such as mem- bership on boards of education, presidencies of colleges and universities, and professorships, and should recommendations made by foundation of- ficers in their Individual capacities with respect to fields within the foundations' scope be reported to the trustees In writing and made a permanent record? 362 Appendix Exhibit II Madison, Wis., May 22, 1914 To the Faculty Members of the University of Wisconsin The inclosed questions and requests for information and suggestions are going today to all persons who have to do officially with instruction and research at the University of Wisconsin. Individual members of the faculty are addressed, including all posi- tions and including the most recent accessions to the faculty, because it is felt that no one else can so effectively explain and demonstrate the personal and social value of his subject or his department or his work, as can the faculty member charged with giving instruction or training through his work, subject and department Each question calls for definite information which the State Board of Public Affairs feels should, in fairness to the state which supports the University and to the University itself, be obtained by the Uni- versity Survey directly from the faculty members. Similar information has been obtained from all who have part in normal school instruction in this state; and similar information will later be obtained from instructors in high schools, county training and agricultural schools. _We particularly hope that you will take advantage of repeated in- vitations and of the blank pages which ask for your help in securing statements of fact, and suggestions not specifically called for in this set of questions. Will you think of these questions not as a duty but as an opportunity to record the essential truth about your work and the University so that the public cannot fail to understand? The only purpose in asking for the information here called for is to obtain facts or suggestions that will help the University and the State of Wisconsin when considering the numerous questions that come biennially before the legislature and constantly before the administra- tive officers of the University and the State. We ask for the informa- tion in order that we may use it in our report. We shall, however, regard as strictly confidential any part of your answer which you may mark confidential. Every precaution will be taken by the University Survey in reading and using papers returned to it so as to insure confidence, where confidence is requested. Special conferences have been held and will be held further with the president, the deans, chairmen of the departments and others having special responsibilities. All findings of fact will be submitted in advance of publication or of use for conclusion or recommendation to the departments whose work and needs are described. THE UNIVERSITY SURVEY, By the State Board of Public Affairs. Francis E. McGovern, Governor and Chairman State Board of Public Affairs. A. W. Sanborn, Chairman University Survey Committee. Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 363 DIRECTIONS Note. This was written on University Survey stationery covering all committees, names and State Capitol photograph. Signatures were facsimiles. Size sheet 8J4 x ioj4. i. Answer every part of each question. If you leave any question unanswered it will be necessary for us to resubmit it for your reply. If you cannot give the information called for, or if any question does not seem to apply to your work, write "I don't know," or " Does not apply," or equivalent 2. In cases where you have previously given the information called for in the question, if you prefer to do so, indicate the page and number of answer giving the information desired. 3. In all cases, unless otherwise stated, all questions apply to the cur- rent University year, October, 1913, to date. 4. Make your answers as specific as possible. Concrete illustrations are very much desired. Avoid generalities. 5. Wherever available, send copies of instructions used, forms, syllabi, conference programs, etc. If not available, please indicate where they may be obtained. 6. In most cases sufficient space for the answer 1 is left on the paper on which the question appears. If space is insufficient use blank sheets at the end of this set of questions. Be sure, however, that every answer is given the same notation as the question to which it applies. [Generous use was made of blank spaces, varying from y 2 inch to 3 or 6 inches and including several blank pages. Where it is easy to write faculties will write. Spaces omitted here.] 7. It is desired that in all cases replies be made without conference with any one else, except when it is necessary to get specific in- formation from an associate. In all matters calling for your suggestion, advice or criticism, the committee desires what you yourself think or believe. 8. Suggestions or information not called for, which you consider help- ful, will be appreciated. 9. Enclose your answers in the envelope supplied, and then mail direct to the State Board of Public Affairs, or if you prefer, deliver to the University's mail service. 10. Please return your replies as soon as possible, but not later than June 20, 1914. 11 If you desire information regarding the Survey, or an interview, please address University Survey, attention of William H. Allen or of A. N. Farmer. 364 Appendix 53 :o ••a ■ c C E \A •43 s V §• is V & OJ J3 M t/1 a V H * H 0! X c W O u a Q :, 3 ** 1-1 I £ 1 ■8 1 1 •g I 5*5 31 be ■S* «1 a I *> S 1 | 1 u 2 I I! -a a is 05 2 E co -2 jr OB ft a I O D to ■* •5 II ML u a d, A = 1 (A a s § CO 3 u o « *3 5g . Ccg si" i S o-o .2 "§»-■! » i°§» t p genu u gS-2§a .ScXJ-SBg ||llu-5| Ofl: B°& 0>H o V a-5 « .§1 3 >n cj *« as S-° *>& c M -5 2 & :*J w v e «J3 " V 3 s-0 .°.o 2 « ■<« Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 365 AS TO RATING OR GRADING STUDENTS' WORK What rule do you follow in giving the mark of : Excellent , Good Fair Poor Incomplete Conditioned Failed Do you consider uniformity of standard in grading throughout your college desirable? Why? Do you record the presence or absence of each enrolled student at each session? How? A. Final Examinations 1. In which of this year's courses have you not given final examina- tions? Why not? 2. In which have you given final examinations? 3. How many, if any students, by course numbers, were excused from taking final examinations? 4. On what condition are students excused? 5. In giving the final grade what relative weight do you attach to (a) Oral recitations and quizzes (b) Written work during the term (c) Final written tests (d) Term thesis (e) Oral report on special assignments (f) Other (please specify) 6. How many students have you " failed " this year (a) Whose " term work " was satisfactory but who failed in the final examination? (b) Whose " term work " was unsatisfactory but who passed the final examination? (c) Whose "term work" and final examinations were unsatis- factory in spite of earnest effort? (d) Of those finally failed how many had you warned that their work was likely to result in failure, unless improved? How long before the end of the term? (e) How many students finally passed whom you warned of pos- sible failure? (f) How many dropped out of each of your courses each semester before the end of the semester? So far as you know, please indicate why they dropped out 7. What individual attention, either in or out of class, have you given (a) Students doing unsatisfactory work in spite of their best effort? Number ? (b) Lagging students who seem not to try? Number ? (c) Students who " pass " but seem not to try? Number. . ....? (d) About how many students, out of classroom or stated meet- 366 Appendix ing, have this year sought your advice and assistance as to studies? ; as to vocations? ; as to other per- sonal matters? (e) What has interfered with your seeing as much of your students as you and they need for best results? (f) Do you care to suggest how the relations of instructor with student may be made more effective other than through the present student adviser system, dean of women and proposed dean of men? B. How far is "discipline" a problem in your courses? How many cases have you had this year ? Please indicate the nature of each case and final disposition I. EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS A. Elementary education I. Names of elementary schools you attended Year (a) from to from to from to (b) (c) B. Secondary education 1. Names of high schools you attended Year (a) from to (b) from to (c) from to C. College education i. Names of colleges you attended Year Degree (a) from to (b) from to (c) from to Date of graduation D. Postgraduate work, including professional studies in law, medicine, engineering, etc. Year Degree (a) from to (b) from to (c) from to (d) from to (e) from to 2. Subject of master's thesis 3. Subj ect of doctor's thesis Is it published? Is it in the University library? Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 367 4. Special preparation or training for the work of instruction, special- ization, field experience, etc., which you deem of consequence in this relation 5. Other research work — fields, results, how published, where avail- able, — so far as you wish them of record with the University Survey II. EXPERIENCE AS A TEACHER 1. No. of years you taught in Rural Schools yrs. 2. No. years you taught in grades of Graded Schools, yrs. 3. No. years you taught in High Schools yrs. 4. No. years you taught in County Training Schools yrs. 5. No. years you taught in Normal Schools, yrs. Name of Institution Dates Subjects Taught (a) from to (b) from to (c) from to 6. No. years you taught in Colleges or Universities yrs. Name of Institution Dates Subjects Taught (a) from to (b) from to (c) from to (d) from to (e) from to (f ) from to 7. No. years you taught in other schools, yrs. Name of Institution Dates Subjects Taught (a) from to (b) from to (c) from to (d) from to (e) from to (f ) from to (g) from to III. EXPERIENCE AS SUPERVISOR OR ADMINISTRATOR No. years experience as supervisor or administrator, , as follows : Portion Subjects of Time Position Name of Dates Taught, Devoted Held School >f Any to Teaching (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) from to from to from to , from to from to from to , from to 368 Appendix IV. SUPERVISION OF YOUR CLASSROOM OR SEMINARY WORK A. How often has your classroom work this University year been observed since October, 1913 — including laboratory work, serai- nary, etc.? 1. By the chairman of your department 2. By other members of your department 3. By representatives of the state department of public instruction 4. By representatives of the board of visitors 5. By others (please indicate who) 6. By regents 7. Who, not mentioned above, exercise supervisory authority over your work? B. State under what circumstances, by whom, when, and with what results, the efficiency of your classroom or seminary teaching has been ascertained other than by observation of classroom work V. ABOUT HOW MANY PERSONAL INTERVIEWS REGARD- ING YOUR COURSES HAVE YOU HAD THIS UNIVER- SITY YEAR (SINCE OCTOBER, 1913)? A. With the president B. With the dean — upon his initiative — upon your initiative — ac- cidental C With the instructor in charge D. With the chairman of your department E. State briefly the purposes and general results of such interviews VI. COURSES OF STUDY 1. In determining subject matter, emphasis, order and method of treatment, etc., of courses offered by you, what part is taken by others than yourself — by whom? 2. Have you at present a syllabus of each course you offer? 3. Was a copy of each submitted to the chairman of your depart- ment? To the instructor in charge? 4. Has your department as such ever considered, analyzed and criti- cized your syllabi? What individuals have done so? 5. If so, describe^ how this was done, when, and what specific changes or modifications were made by you as a result 6. What courses are you giving for the first time this year? 7. Which of this year's courses have you given two or more times before ? Please indicate the changes you have made in them for this year 8. State specifically what needed equipment or supplies are so de- ficient as to handicap you in your teaching 9. What attempts have you made to get these since October, 1913, to date? 10. What effort did you make to have them included in the budget estimates for 1914-1915? Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 369 11. How is classroom work correlated with laboratory — shop — field practice work? 12. What foreign languages and what other subjects are necessary as a prerequisite for successful work in your courses? VII. ABILITY OF STUDENTS TO DO WORK OF YOUR COURSES 1. State specifically (illustrate when possible) to what extent, and in what courses, you are prevented from giving and requiring the kind of work you believe your students ought to do because of (a) immaturity which prevents them from understanding the subject matter (b) poor preparation in the fundamentals upon which your work is based (c) not knowing how to study (d) indifference or lack of interest (e) aversion to or disinclination to consecutive concentrated work (f) social diversions (g) outside student activities (h) presence of men and women in the same sections 2. What suggestions have you (a) for improving the preliminary preparation — in quality or quantity — of students who are planning to enter your courses? (b) for adapting University work to the abilities of students entering as to either subject matter or to method of teach- ing, special examinations, reviews, study conferences, re- wards for excellence, penalties, etc.? 3. What, if any, evidences do you see that students are helped too much, or too little, after reaching the University? 4. Do you consider present day students more able, equally able, less able to do University work than those of 10 years ago ? 5. In what respects have the requirements of _ your work changed in 10 years because of students' ability? VIII. THE FACULTY MEETING OF YOUR COLLEGE 1. How many meetings have) you attended during the present Uni- versity year, 1913-1914? 2. State specifically what part you took in the faculty meetings dur- ing the year 1913-1914 3. How do you learn about the proceedings of meetings which you have not attended? 4. State specifically of what value the meetings have been to you 5. Indicate how these meetings could be made of greater value to you IX. GENERAL DEPARTMENTAL MEETINGS 1. How many meetings have you attended since October, 1913? 2. State specifically of what value the meetings have been to you 37° Appendix 3. Indicate how these meetings might be made of greater value to you 4. Will you suggest ways in which each faculty member may most easily learn about the advance steps, plans and discussions of other departments than his own and of the other individual faculty members ? 5. Please describe purpose and results of any other meeting, or con- ferences, formal or informal, that should be recorded in this con- nection X. DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE MEETINGS FOR FAC- ULTY MEMBERS OF RANK OF ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OR HIGHER 1. How many meetings have you attended this year? 2. State specifically of what value the meetings have been to you 3. Indicate how these meetings might be made of greater value to you XI. GENERAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY MEETINGS 1. How many meetings have you attended this year? 2. State specifically of what value the meetings have been to you 3. Indicate how these general faculty meetings might be made of greater value to you 4. Have you read the questions used in the study of Oberlin by the faculty in 1908-1909? Have you read the report of this study? 5. Have you read reports on the Princeton Preceptorial method ? Or the recent report on Bo wdoin's test of this method ? XII. WORK TURNED OVER TO ASSISTANTS How many of your stated periods for meeting students have you, since this University year, October, 1913, to date, turned over to assistants? Total Recitation.... or Lecture Seminary.... Other.... How many have you failed to meet? XIII. SUMMER AND OTHER OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT 1. Did you teach in the summer course last year? No. hrs. per week 2. Do you think the summer course should be extended to nine weeks? To twelve weeks? Why? 3. How many weeks of complete vacation did you have? 4. How many weeks part work, part vacation? 5. How many weeks were you employed on outside remunerative work? 6. Will you care to state, for confidential uses, the total earned (not including extension work) in outside employment, lectures, writing, consulting, the last year? Total during the summer only? During the school year? 7. Do you consider that outside employment helps or hinders Uni- versity work in your field? Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 371 XIV. TIME REGULARLY REQUIRED BY UNIVERSITY WORK DURING THE UNIVERSITY YEAR 1. Approximate the average number of hours per typical week de- voted to each of the following during the spring semester, 1914. In blank lines indicate any other activities so that your report will definitely show the demands made upon your time by the University Kinds of work No. hrs. per wk. Characterization or remarks (a) classroom work (not (c) conferences with your on seminary work (d) conferences with associ- (e) supervision of others' (f) personal preparation for courses, syllabi, etc. (g) reading papers or theses (h) clerical work for your (i) work with student or- (j) special university assign- ments other than as adviser, including reg- ular and special com- (k) work as student adviser (1) professional reading other than research . . (m) literary work of study (n) research, your own, not (0) extension work, regular (p) other (please specify) 2. Apart from the above how many hours per semester are required by (a) regular seasonal demands such as registration, term ex- aminations, etc. (b) occasional demands such as extension lectures, conversa- tions, etc. (c) civic work as a citizen of Madison (d) work for national societies as officer 37 2 Appendix (e) work for national societies as member, including attendance at conventions, etc. (f) work for state societies as officer (g) work for state societies as member, including attendance at conventions, etc. (h) outside professional employment XV. UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS 1. Name the regular committees of which you are a member (note if chairman) this semester, and state for each the approximate number of hours required per semester 2. Name the special committees of which you have been a member (note if chairman) this University year, and state for each the approximate total number of hours required this University year 3. Do you feel that these committee assignments help or interfere with your instruction work ? Your research work ? Your other administrative work? 4. Have you suggestions as to reducing committee or clerical work by faculty members? 5. How if at all would you have the work of student advisers changed ? XVI. THE "PRODUCT" OF YOUR UNIVERSITY WORK 1. What do you believe to be the most important measure of the effi- ciency of University teaching? 2. By what " product " or " results " do you feel that your University work should be judged? 3. Please list typical or most gratifying products or results which you wish recorded among your services to productive scholar- ship, learning, or business or social progress that the people of Wisconsin ought to understand and remember XVII. OFFICIAL FACTORS AFFECTING YOUR EFFICIENCY State specifically in what ways your professional efficiency has been affected and how you have been helped in dealing with students, in method of instruction and subject matter by (a) the president (b) " the dean (c) the chairman (d) the instructors in charge (e) university scientific societies (f) other official factors Name local, state or national scientific bodies of which you are a member XVIII. RELATION TO THE STATE OF WISCONSIN 1. Name the positions you have held in and for the state govern- ment, with dates 2. Name the positions you have held in and for the government of the city of Madison, with dates Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 373 3. State specifically what you have done to acquaint yourself with actual conditions and needs in Wisconsin that relate to the work of your department 4. Name the Wisconsin communities other than Madison which you have visited since June, 1913 5. Which communities were visited in connection with your Uni- versity work? 6. State in what respects, if at all, each of your courses is different from what it would be if given in an eastern privately supported institution, that is, in what respects it is modified as a result of your analysis of Wisconsin's social, industrial and educational conditions and needs or your study of the students who are in your classes XIX. DIFFICULTIES AND NEEDS 1. Under what difficulties, if any, are you working which interfere with your highest efficiency as faculty member? 2. Do you feel that faculty members are underpaid? Overpaid? Overworked? Underworked? Please illustrate 3. Will you suggest ways more closely to fit pay to work or work to pay? 4. What lines of University work would you like to do which your present program does not permit? XX. MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS 1. What proportion of the written work for your classes is corrected by you? Are papers returned to students? How are corrected papers used for teaching purposes ? 2. What criticism or suggestions not covered by these questions have you as to improving or increasing the efficiency of your own work or the work of the University as a whole ? The University Survey desires to make this study as thorough and compre- hensive as possible and will welcome your help in formulating a constructive report as to University and State needs. The report will not be based upon opinions, but opinions and sugges- tions point to records and to field work which should be exam- ined. Statements of fact when confirmed will be used no mat- ter from what source derived, except as confidence is requested. 3. Typical of points regarding which your further suggestion is in- vited are: Are students expected to do too little work? Are regular demands upon students by courses uniform? Is enough attention given to English in other than English courses ? What maximum number of hours gives best instruction results ? What is the best proportion of instruction to research? Where, if at all, are mixed classes undesirable ? Is the combination of gradu- ates with undergraduates undesirable? Is the semester the right unit for courses? Do freshmen and sophomores see enough of the instructors of higher rank? Are library facilities adequate? Are student assemblies desirable? Is work of related depart- 374 Appendix ments adequately correlated ? Should number of cuts be limited ? Should students be required to show that they have made up lost work? Is there enough of application of theory to actual prac- tice? How should entrance requirements be modified? etc., etc. Exhibit III: Alumni Questionnaire 375 Exhibit III Madison, Wis., Sept. 24, 1914 Request for Cooperation from Alumni Members and Former Students As you know, the legislature of 1913 directed the State Board of Public Affairs to conduct a survey of the normal schools, high and county training schools and the University of Wisconsin, and to report facts and recommendations not later than December 1st, 1914. The survey of the eight normal schools, A. N. Farmer, Director, has been completed with results that already include specialized courses according to the work teachers plan to do, the dropping of Latin, the dropping of college courses from four normal schools, a division of reference and research for the regents and field inspection for the purpose of putting into effect survey recommendations. The survey of the University began last April with an effort to answer the twelve generally worded questions on page three here- with. The letter on page two with forty pages of questions was sent to all members of the University instructional staff. Answers from 580 are now being studied and recorded under proper headings, — a veritable mine of fact and suggestion. Among special studies already made are the following: agricultural college and extension work by Professor Branson; use of rooms in University buildings; 8000 examination and term papers; extension division; courses for the training of teachers; high school inspection; 350 classroom exercises; Wisconsin High School; charts of organiza- tion ; maps showing attendance, cost per hour per student, etc. ; regents' investigations; faculty minutes; registration methods; housing lists; the adviser system; supervision of instruction, etc. Hearty cooperation has been shown by university officials including regents, president, deans, instructional staff and business officers. The Executive Committee of the Alumni Association has author- ized the Board of Public Affairs to state that it is the wish of the Executive Committee of said association that every alumnus make an extra effort to answer the questions submitted immediately and fully, so that the survey may be of the greatest possible value. While trying to frame questions which will call for concrete in- stances and in large part for checks so as to save your time, we shall be very glad to receive suggestion, criticism, comment or ex- pression of opinion on university work and needs which falls within one of the generally worded questions on page three. In justice to those who answer, and to those whose names you may mention, all personal statements will be regarded as strictly confidential 376 Appendix and the answers will be destroyed as soon as they have been compiled and their results used by the University Survey. Advisory Committee* THE UNIVERSITY SURVEY, By the State Board of Public Affairs. Francis E. McGovern, Governor and Chairman State Board of Public Affairs. A. W. Sanborn, Chairman University Survey Committee. [Copy] To the Faculty Members of the University Extension Division, University of Wisconsin The inclosed questions and requests for information and suggestions are going today, with the approval of Dean L. E. Reber, to all persons who have to do officially with the University Extension Division. [Same as general letter above, page 362] 12 QUESTIONS THE UNIVERSITY SURVEY SHOULD ANSWER These twelve questions were sent to all members of the faculty, to all county superintendents, to the principals of all free high schools, and to all editors in the State of Wisconsin. Hundreds of definite sug- gestions were received and are being used as guides to studies which should be made. Suggestions from alumni are invited. 1. What if anything is the University of Wisconsin undertaking that the state as a whole does not wish it to do? 2. What if anything is the University failing to undertake which the state wishes it to do ? 3. Is the University doing well enough what it does? 4. Is it doing inexpensively enough what it does? 5. What parts of its work, if any, are inadequately supported? 6. What parts of its work are out of proportion — too large, too small — to its program as a whole? 7. Is the state's support of the University proportionate or dispro- portionate to state support of other public educational activities ? 8. Is the University's business management — in policy, planning, purchasing, supervising, checking, and reporting — adequate and efficient ? 9. Does the legislative policy in dealing with the University and other educational activities reflect adequate information? 10. What is the University's relation with and influence upon the rest of the state's system of public education? 11. What are the standards of living — social and economic — in the University? *Note. Nine names representing state associations of teachers; farmers (2); physicians; lawyers; bankers; women; labor; merchants and manufacturers. Exhibit III: Alumni Questionnaire Z77 12. What not-yet-met needs of the state which the University might meet and what opportunities for retrenchment or increased efficiency should be reported to the next legislature? Alumni Answers to be Returned to the University Survey, At- tention of William H. Allen, Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin Name College Course, class or last year Present Address Occupation If you were to have your undergraduate college course again i. Please check whether in general you would prefer (a) textbook course (b) lecture course (c) course in which informal discussion by instructor and class predominates (d) In which lecture courses taken by you would you prefer not to have lecture courses again? What if any difference would you wish made in the amount and character of lecture work for (e) the junior and senior years? (f) the freshman and sophomore years? 2. Written exercises prepared out of class (a) Would you like more or fewer than you had in college? (b) Written in class, more or fewer (c) Of " term papers," i. e. regular written assignments an- nounced early in the term, more or fewer 3. Oral reports (a) Would you wish more or fewer Oral quiz? Would you wish more or fewer? 4. Notebooks on lecture courses (a) Were your notebooks reviewed and marked by in- structors ? (b) Would you have review of them by instructors mandatory or optional ? (c) Would you have more or less emphasis than in your day? , , .... (d) Have you found that your experience in taking classroom notes has helped you in your business or profession much little none ? (e) Has your college experience in taking notes on reading helped you much little none? 5. Recitations per week per subject (a) In general would you wish a class to meet each week 6 5 4 3 2 1 times? 378 Appendix (b) Would you prefer a lecture course 6 5 4 3.... 2. .. .1. .. .times? (c) From what subjects would you expect better results if reci- tations came 6. .. .5. .. .4. .. .3. .. .2. .. .1. .. .times? 6. Grades (a) Should students know their grades? Yes No (b) Should examined papers be returned with grades ? Yes No (c) Should paper be so marked as to show the mark for each question? Yes No (d) Should papers in each subject be marked so as to show errors (1) in the form? Yes No (2) in English? Yes No (3) in spelling? Yes No (e-) Was the English in your written work for other than Eng- lish courses noted too much too little enough ? 7. Afternoon recitations (a) Did you recite afternoon? much little none (b) Did you benefit more the same or less from afternoon than from morning recitations? (c) Would you again prefer afternoon or morning recitations ? (d) Do you feel that afternoon work for freshmen and sopho- mores is more or less desirable than afternoon work for juniors and seniors? (e) Would you advise the University and taxpayers to provide rooms enough so that afternoon recitations would not be necessary for any undergraduates? Yes No For juniors and seniors? Yes No For fresh- men and sophomores ? Yes No (f) Do you believe that the difference in benefits between after- noon and morning recitations is so slight that the Uni- versity should require classrooms to be used throughout the afternoon, rather than erect new buildings? Yes No 8. Undergraduate working day (a) So far as you can recall, how many hours a day did you spend on college work proper in preparing for classes laboratory in classes total (b) Do you feel that students generally in your day spent too much enough or too little time on their university work? (c) How many hours a day on the average would you now feel that you should be required to spend on college work, in- cluding study, class time or laboratory? (d) Would you advise that each student be required to take work Two classes of teachers at Pennsylvania State College, learning how to teach agriculture by doing agriculture Do alumni advise "practical" courses? Exhibit HI: Alumni Questionnaire 379 necessary to fill out a minimum working day fitted to his own possibilities ? Yes No (e) What minimum and maximum of hours required and permitted, would you suggest for undergraduate students ? REQUESTING SPECIFIC INSTANCES FROM THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OR OBSERVATIONS OF ALUMNI AND FORMER STUDENTS 9. Courses slighted (a) To about how many of your courses did you give so much time that other courses had to be slighted? (b) To how many was this difference due to extra interest? (c) To your deficiency in that subject? Sd) To extra requirements by the instructor? e) Please cite instances 10. Highly efficient instruction Please cite concrete instances especially in your freshmen and sophomore years. Inefficient instruction. Please cite instances 11. Out-of-class help from instructors (a) Did you have much help little none from in- structors? Please cite concrete instances (b) Also cite instances of instructors with whom you had no helpful contact out of class 12. Advisers (a) Was the help received by you much little none perfunctory personal at registration time only continuous cumulative (b) Were you helped much little or none in selecting your courses of study? (c) Much little or none regarding membership in students' organizations other than scientific societies? 13. Outside student activities (a) Of how many societies, literary debating or scientific were you a member? (b) Would you again give more the same or less attention to such societies ? (c) Since graduation do you feel that you suffered many few or no disadvantages because you did not have the right kind enough work in literary debating and scientific socie- ties ? Please cite specific benefits or disadvantages (d) To what other outside activities did you give special atten- tion? 380 Appendix (e) Did these other outside activities interfere with your col- lege work much little none If much, do you now consider such interference beneficial or harmful 14. Secret societies (a) Of how many secret societies were you a member? (b) Do you feel that you benefited much little none (c) If not a member do you feel that you suffered much little or no disadvantages ? (d) Do you feel that secret or Greek letter fraternities and clubs are more equally less harmful than other private limited clubs among students? (e) Would you have the number of secret societies decreased increased abolished or differently supervised (f) Please cite concrete instances of benefits, disadvantages, or recommendations 15. Student government and honor system (a) About how many instances are known to you personally of dishonesty in class work, which as you now look back, could with reasonable care have been prevented by the fac- ulty? (b) How many cases of dishonesty did student government settle less equitably or less efficiently than you now be- lieve university officers would have settled them? (c) How many discipline cases were settled by university officers less equitably or efficiently than you now believe student government would have settled them ? (d) Would you have the honor system introduced? Yes No (e) Would you have student government continued? Yes No Extended? Yes No Restricted? Yes No (f) Please specify conditions or practices which you believe would not exist under the honor system. 16. University extension work Please cite concrete instances which have come to your attention since graduation of what you regard as efficient or inefficient service given by the University Extension Division, through its correspondence, classes, lectures, community institutes, etc. 17. Alumni relation to the University (a) Do you feel sufficiently or insufficiently informed , regarding university affairs? (b) About how many instances have there been where you felt the need for, and would have welcomed information from the University as to matters of public discussion of interest to you as an alumnus ? Exhibit III: Alumni Questionnaire 381 (c) About how many times have you tried to secure accurate and complete information how many times did you get it not get it (d) About how many suggestions have you made to the Uni- versity ? (e) Did these seem to be welcomed? Yes No (f) On how many did you receive a report of action taken • •• of favorable action taken of unfavorable action taken no action taken no report (g) What have you specifically to suggest as to extension of im- provement of relations between the University and its alumni ? 18. Miscellaneous If between now and the final report of the University Survey there are questions of fact which you would like answered with respect to scope and methods of the Survey, will you give us an opportunity either directly or through the Alumni Association to answer such questions? We hope you will also use our invitation to send in suggestions even though they are not apparently covered in any of the generally worded questions or the specific questions sent herewith. There are a number of other questions to which, if your time permits, we should like to obtain concrete answers. For example, which, if any, courses did you take, which you now consider a waste of time? Which, if any, courses did you take that required practically no time outside of class ; would you have the number of such classes increased or decreased? From which, if any, of the "pipe" or "lunch" or " snap " courses which you took, do you now feel that you substantially benefited? . Are there instances of instruction which you considered efficient while at the University which now, as you look back upon it, you consider inefficient? . Are there other instances of instruction which you considered in- efficient while at the University, but which you now look back upon as Were there specific instances when you were graded too high for the quality of work you did ; when you were graded too low, or where you felt sure others were unfairly or improperly graded? 382 Appendix Exhibit IV Fitting State University Service to State Needs — Illustrations from the University of Minnesota Too late for inclusion in the body of our text and index, we have received from the University of Minnesota, in response to our referendum request of last winter, facts and photographs that are so very suggestive that we are here adding this index to them. While this material illustrates directly the newer ideals and meth- ods of stewardship toward which our state universities and normal schools are striving, it should be equally helpful to privately sup- ported or endowed institutions of learning. If, as educators so often say, ed-u-ca-tion means drawing out rather than pouring in, the services and the methods of graphically described service that are here referred to will suggest many ways in which every college can by serving help draw out, develop, and build the communities which furnish its students and its support. How Minnesota is served by its state university will always be a question of national interest, because Minnesota was wise enough to retain for education the incalculable riches of its iron and cop- per mines. For generations to come it will be easier for Minne- sota to translate its ideals of education into state-wide service than for any other state to do so. Further interest attaches to Minnesota's present vision and ac- tion for the reason that in 1917 President George E. Vincent re- signed from the richest state university to take the presidency of the Rockefeller Foundation, which at present has a principal of over one hundred and twenty-five million dollars, which for years to come will undoubtedly be the most active, the most praised, and the most criticized private foundation in the world, and which at present is subsidizing various kinds of educational service and propaganda by the University of Minnesota. As do the college high spots on pages 113 ff., and the twenty different methods of learning via doing at a sister university men- tioned on pages 294 ff., the services here cited indicate a nation- wide effort on the part of higher education to find its opportunity and duty in the community needs of the present and the future. The material sent to us in August, 1917, was addressed to Presi- dent Vincent by division heads in January, 1917. Through its bureau of cooperative research, Minnesota's college of education " is making an extensive survey of the achievements of children in 150 school systems. During the last year over 150,- 000 tests in handwriting, spelling, reading, and language were made by local superintendents under university direction." The results of these tests are now available. Exhibit IV: Minnesota Photographs 383 The teacher-training departments of high schools in Minnesota are being surveyed by Dean L. D. Coffman of the college of educa- tion, for the Rockefeller Foundation. Dean Coffman writes that he " controls and directs the survey and is assisted by three grad- uate students," who of course are thus obtaining the best possible kind of training for any field in education. " The report will ap- pear under the following heads: (i) History of the training de- partments in Minnesota; (2) course of study; (3) the training of teachers in charge of the departments; (4) the student body; (5) the relation of the departments to community life and community welfare; (6) general strengths and weaknesses of the departments." Not only is the Minnesota taxpayer helped in innumerable ways, of which the photographs here listed are the symptoms, but the fact of service rendered and the offer of future service are set before the people of the state by means of these and similar pho- tographs. In going over the list, will the reader continually ask himself whether his own college or normal school or university — or, for that matter, city school system — has exhausted the possi- bility of taking taxpayers and patrons into its confidence, of fitting instruction to local needs, and of giving instruction via doing work that needs to be done? Short courses for farmers, agricultural extension, A. D. Wilson, director 1. Short-course equipment car, and 2, corn-testing instruction as shown in photograph opposite page 116. 3. Pruning demonstration with audience of farm men and women. 4. Meat-cutting demon- stration with audience of farm men and women in schoolroom, Fergus Falls, Minnesota, demonstrator and chart just under replica frieze of Elgin marbles! 5. A farmers'-club picnic. Teaching country boys and girls via farm work that needs to be done 6. Seed testing in rural school under direction of county agent, A. L. Norling. 7. A northern Minnesota corn-club boy's results being tested by T. A. Erickson, the university's state leader of boys' and girls' club work. 8. Rural-school teachers studying how to judge corn and grain by judging them. 9. State champion bread club of nine girls, Maple Lake, Minnesota. 10. Garden and can- ning club girl against a background of canned fruits and vegetables, chart of instructions, and photographs of different breeds of milch cows 11 The fourth winner in the state fair contest of boys pig clubs'— boy's pig, cared for under university direction, being over twice as large as father's pig, same litter. General extension work, Richard R. Price, director 12. Map showing state-wide activities, 7 symbols. 13. Photo- graphs of letters, correspondence study work. 14. Extension class in electricity, Duluth. IS- Night class of 50 m banking. 16. Night class of 60 in business law. 17. Class of 35 >n accounting, up state. 18 Class of 20 in chemistry. 19. Short-course class of 125 men 384 Appendix and women in merchandising. 20. Class in accounting, Minneap- olis. 21. Class of 20 men and women in mechanical drawing. 22. Class of 30 in show-card writing, merchandising short course. 23. Class of 40 in Spanish. 24. Class of 25 in rhetoric. 25. Ama- teur theatricals in an up-state town, university's lyceum service. 26. Orchestra at Northfield. 27. Set of plays lent in the dramatic service. 28. Typical posters of university week, 6-day program. 29. Traveling set of slides used in furthering visual instruction. 30. Municipal Reference Bureau, photograph of files to indicate available material. Index INDEX Absences, recorded, 50; students dropped for unexplained, 114. Academic freedom, and written agreements, 49; protected by rec- ord of absences, 52; questions, 73 n local power plant, 115; run moonlight schools and free lecture system, 116; credit for farming, 116; legal aid bu- reau, 116; practice teaching in high school, 116; summer camp for engineers, 116; home man- agement, 117; field training for public service, 117; on college bookkeeping, 134; by instructors, 234; in Wisconsin, 293 ff. ; at Northwestern, 337 ; teachers not required to teach, 342. Lecture, overdone, 316. Lee, Ivy L., 100. Legislatures, order surveys, 2, 16 ; reports published, 27; budget es- sentials, 1 18-124. Library, 244 ff. Lough, Professor J. E., 33°- Lowell, President A. L., 3. Low spots, see items. McAndrew, William, 281. McLennan, Professor S. R, 33°- McKendree College, 105. McVey, President R L., 81, 3*3. Mandel, Edward, 22. Maryland survey, 3, 7, 233- Master's degree, see Graduate. Matscheck, Walter, 179. Mezes, President S., 47- Miami University, 3, 81, 106, 114, ,,135. 190, 191, 199. 217, 319. Michigan, University, 44, 117. Milwaukee Normal, no. Minimum essentials, of colleges, 4 ; for college managers, 82; in testing courses, 247; use of, 280 ff. ; listed, 281. Minneapolis Committee of Munici- pal Research, 3. Minnesota, University, 3, 10, 48, 116, 121, 275. Minutes, in by-laws, 53 ; surveyed, 56, 90; visitors should read, 61; waste faculty time, 90; of bud- get deliberations, 122. Missouri survey, 3. Missouri, University, 117. Modem Philanthropy, 96, 98. Montana, University, 116. Mount Holyoke, 248, 249, 334. Municipal Reference Bureau, 117. Municipal universities, 339, 349. National Education Association, 5. Nearing, Professor Scott, 235. Nebraska, University, 117. Needs, cumulative lists, 78; not listed, first of year, 90. New York City College, 203, 345, 347, 349. New York City, school survey, 26 ; cooperative teaching, 229. New York University, 115, 345. Nichols, ex-President, 63, 325. Normal schools, surveyed, 1, 3. North Carolina University, 116, 117. North Dakota, survey, 3, 5; uni- versity, us, 346- Northwestern University, 32, 165, 251, 284, 337- Oberlin, 20, 28, 116. Office essentials, 103. Ohio, state-wide survey, I, 21 ; uni- versity, 1, 3, n, 116, 117. Oregon University, survey, 3, 5. Organization, questions for trus- tees, 46; confusion of responsi- bility avoided, 47; statistical, 392 Index minimum essentials, 103 ; of fac- ulty simplified, 114. O'Shea, Professor M. V., 316. Out-of-state students, 193. Outside activities of faculty, 48; of students, see Extra-curricu- lar. Pearse, President C. G., no. Pease, Lynn S., 58. Pennsylvania, University, 48, 209, 218, 312, 317, 346. Pensions, 66 ff. Percentages, computed for trus- tees, 55 ; of freshmen, taught by older men, 56 ; in president's re- port, 92; eligible to college, 99; working week, 146. Personalities, eliminate from re- ports, 17; questions, when em- ploying instructors, 58; when giving honorary degrees, 62; president's, 83 ; student prepared- ness, 113; president qualications, 185; chart, 208, 257; analyzed for employment, 213; specific tests, 252; measurable, 274 ff. ; 72 portraits, 276. Ph.D., see Graduate ; thesis, inade- quate supervison, 178; typical deficiencies, 179. Philipp, Governor E. L., 353. Phillips-Andover, 233. Physical instruction, 59, 204 ff. Political science, practical studies, 335. Pratt Institute, 48, 204, 283, 312. Preceptorial system, 113. President, see topics; sets pace in efficiency, 81 ; qualifications, 82 ; working year, 87; efficiency tests, 88; gives courses, 225. Preston, Josephine G, 356. Princeton, 75, 248, 264. Pritchett, President H. S., 92, 97, 285. Private colleges, surveyed, 2, 3; limitations of foundations, 7; will have outsiders survey, 14; will make suggestions, 30; con- done high costs, 193. Professional courses, 241. Psychology, via doing, 336. Public-health courses, 116. Public service, field training, 117; see Learning via doing. Publicity, of surveys, disapproved, 27 ; urged, 17, 27 ; in small doses, 26, 351 ; inefficiency criticized, 59; budget, 124 ; of instructors' time, 146; vacancies advertised, 176; stress health needs, 205 ; catalog, 219 ff. ; misrepresents Ph.D's., 285, 286. Purchasing methods, 134, 135. Purdue University, 147. Rankin, Professor A. W., 167. Rankin, Janet R., 179. Ranking, of colleges, 36. Recommendations, separated, 22; based on facts, 23 ; reported an- nually, 57. Record Aids in College Manage- ment, 81, i2i, 125, 199, 201, 209, 247, 252, 267, 275. Records, see topics ; are indexes of efficiency, 124; defects of, 155; written, for departments, 182; cumulative, of health, 204. Reed College, 117, 195, 334. Reference and research, division of, 111-118; enlisting faculty, . 112. Regents, see Trustees. Repairs, actuarial leases for, 73. Reports, see topics; are surveys, 8; improving, 10; survey, should contain, 16; small doses better, 26 ; reasons for and against pub- lishing, 27 ; suggest questions for surveys, 30; to trustees, 42; es- sentials, in by-laws, 53, 54; re- flect research, 57 ; visitors should read, 61 ; president's, essentials, 83 ff.; best points circulated, 112; printed early, 113; by graphs, 118; for alumni, 215; by foundations, 358. Research, a qualification for presi- dent, 84; faculty committee, 113; and teaching efficiency, 113; rec- ords, 156; control and cost, 157 ff.; supervision tests, 177; ef- Index 393 feet upon teacher, 325 ff. ; survey questions, 327; five elements, 328; cost of, 329; 21 questions, 331- Revolving funds kept separate, I30t 136; alternatives, 137; ad- vanced, not given, 137. Rhode Island State College, 312. Ripon College, 162, 197, 323. Rockefeller Foundation, 242, 354. Root, Elihu, 244. Rounds, C. R., 300, 301. Russell Sage Foundation, 7. Salaries, written agreements, 47; and vacations, 67; levels, 75; budget questions, 119; survey es- sentials, 175; averages mislead- ing, 177. Scapegoats, educational, 41 ; none on business side, 79. Schneider, Dean H. G., 208, 283. Scholarship, of president, 83, 84; honor point system, 113-116, 318; reading for honors, 117. School and Society, 66. Science, 66. Scientific management, 109. Secondary, see High. Segregation of sexes, 320. Self-government, 196 ff. ; limita- tions, 197. Self-survey, see topics. Self-Surveys by Teacher-Training Schools, 38, 242. Sex hygiene courses, 117. Sharp, Professor F. C, 33°- Sheffield Scientific School, 115. Small classes reduced, 114; num- ber published, 118, 156; capital cost, 157. Smith College, 10, 32. "3, "8, 121, 122, 139, 188, 248, 249. Space, non-use of, charted, 36 ; an- nually reported, 94; no proprie- torship allowed, 117; surveys needed, 138-141 ; efficiency, argu- ments against, 140; three ways of reporting, 141 ; United States bureau's formula, 143; small classes, 157. Specialization, 318. State department of education, surveying local schools, 2 ; Wis- consin surveys university and normals, 3 ; not asked to survey colleges, 6; central boards, sur- veying, 30, 352. Statistics, see topics. Stearns, Alfred E., 233. Stowe, President A. M., 195. Student, outside activities, advis- ers, 58; rushing controlled, 59; publications censored, 59; ques- tions, 199; see Ex-curricular. Student-clock-hour, 151 ff. Supervised study, 206, 284. Supervision, of instruction, 262 ; of advisers, 269. Taxpayers demand surveys", 2, 16; will be generous if informed, 76. Teachers College, Columbia, 326, 342.. Teaching, see Instruction. Teaching load, Smith analyzes, 113; Wisconsin figures, 145; Purdue, 147 ; tests, 150 ff. Technique, survey, 37 ff. ; factor- ing questions, 38; working pa- pers, clearly marked, 39; cau- tions, 49 ; see topics. Tentative, see Budget. Tenure, questions, 63; and sal- aries, 172. Texas, University survey, 8. Time budget, see Budget and Teaching load Toledo University, 146, 158, 171, 195, 339, 349- Tolstoy, Count, 75. Transfers, see Budgets. Trottman, Regent James F., 46. Trustees, will start surveys, 1, 16; use survey currently, 20; rela- tion to president and faculty, 42 ff. ; foundations would strip of duties, 42; number in United States, 44; conventions for, 44; responsible for deficiencies, 46; survey_ by-laws, 52 ; minutes, 53 ; investigations for, 54 ff.; and 394 Index visitors, 58; audit, inadequate, 70; need lists of needs, 78; and deans, 86; budget making, 118 ff. Tufts College, 22, 87, 93, "8. Tuition rates, 76. Unit costs, supplies, board, 135. United States Bureau of Educa- tion, as surveyor, 4; limitations, S ; will list surveys, 30 ; free pub- lications, 246; extension work, 345- Vacations, 67 ff. Van Hise, President C. R., 326. Vassar, 36, 141, 144, 209, 248, 249, 334. Veblen, T. B., 185. Vermont, surveyed, 7. Visitors, official, 57 ff.; results in Wisconsin, 58; dangers, 59; is- sue student questionnaire, 60; time to report, 60. Vocational guidance, 206; instruc- tion, 212. Voice, important, 83; speech-de- fect clinic, 116. Washington, surveys, 2, 3, 5. Way, Professor R. B., 197. Wendell, Professor Barrett, 254. Winship, Dr. A. E., 281. Woodbridge, Dean E. G., 249, 349. Wellesley College, 248, 249. Wesleyan University, 115. Williams College, 346. Wisconsin, normal schools sur- veyed, 1; state department sur- veying, 2; university surveyed, 3 ; _ university alumni visit, 8 ; university president on survey- ors, 17; confidences invited, 20; faculty asked questions, 21 ; edu- cation department visited classes, 21; prompt building, 22; state budget law, 25; university sur- vey report in sections, 26; questions included Oberlin and Chicago, 28; twelve general questions, 28; central board, questions helpful, 30; university survey avoided comparative studies, 34; tabulation card, 39; by-laws surveyed, 52; visitor's results, 58; prohibits Socialist address, 75; high spots, 113; working week, 144; central board asks time, 146; rebate for research, 157, 160; research cost, 158; full-time faculty sec- retary, 171; student costs, 194; student activities, 201; voca- tional conferences, 207; employ- ment bureau, 209; catalog, 221; coordinating lectures, 225; cul- tural vs. practical courses, 232; normal -school study, 242; spe- cific efficiency tests, 252 ; univer- sity classroom visits, 256, 270 ft.; learning by doing, 294 ff.; English, 300; foreign languages, 304; and questions, 306; spe- cific grading, 312; student com- ments, 316; point system, 319; research survey, 330; credits in absentia work, 346. Working week, see Teaching load. Written agreements, 48, 89, 164. Yale, 32, 76, 78, 113, 188, 192, 204, 215, 248, 251. 319, 324- Yocum, Professor A. D., 218, 220, 221, 222, 225, 229, 234, 235, 238, 243. 244, 245, 247. Book Notices iiiliiimiiiiiiiiMiiiiinmiMmiiiiiiiiiiiiijimiiii The first three volumes in the Educational Survey Series A carefully selected list of the ken new educational survey material available SELF-SURVEYS BY COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES By William H. Allen With a referendum to college and university presidents. A vast amount of information and practical methods of doing work. A practical, work- able book. Illustrated. Clotb. fy.00 SELF-SURVEYS BY TEACHER-TRAINING SCHOOLS By William H. Allen and Carroll G. Pearse A book of surveying technique, asking of questions, analyses of answers, tabulation of results, problems of administration, and instruction. Illus- trated. Cloth. $2.2J SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION By Ellwood P. Cubbzelzy, Jesse B. Sears, Lewis M. 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