第 22 节
作者:
青涩春天 更新:2021-02-27 02:38 字数:9318
body of the academic personnel; a corps of trusted advisors and
agents; whose qualifications for their peculiar work is an
intelligent sympathy with their chief's ideals and methods and an
unreserved subservience to his aims; unless it should come to
pass; as may happen in case its members are men of force and
ingenuity; that this unofficial cabinet should take over the
direction of affairs and work out their own aims and purposes
under cover of the chief's ostensibly autocratic rule。
Among these aids and advisers will be found at least a
proportion of the higher administrative officials; and among the
number it is fairly indispensable to include one or more adroit
parliamentarians; competent to procure the necessary modicum of
sanction for all arbitrary acts of the executive; from a
distrustful faculty convened as a deliberative body。 These men
must be at least partially in the confidence of the executive
head。 From the circumstances of the case it also follows that
they will commonly occupy an advanced academic rank; and so will
take a high (putative) rank as scholars and scientists。 High
academic rank comes of necessity to these men who serve as
coadjutors and vehicles of the executive policy; as does also the
relatively high pay that goes with high rank; both are required
as a reward of merit and an incitement to a zealous
serviceability on the one hand; and to keep the administration in
countenance on the other hand by giving the requisite dignity to
its agents。 They will be selected on the same general grounds of
fitness as their chief; administrative facility; plausibility;
proficiency as public speakers and parliamentarians; ready
versatility of convictions; and a staunch loyalty to their bread。
Experience teaches that scholarly or scientific capacity does not
enter in any appreciable measure among the qualifications so
required for responsible academic office; beyond what may
thriftily serve to mask the conventional decencies of the case。
It is; further; of the essence of this scheme of academic
control that the captain of erudition should freely exercise the
power of academic life and death over the members of his staff;
to reward the good and faithful servant and to abase the
recalcitrant。 Otherwise discipline would be a difficult matter;
and the formally requisite 〃advice and consent〃 could be procured
only tardily and grudgingly。
Admitting such reservations and abatement as may be due; it
is to be said that the existing organization of academic control
under business principles falls more or less nearly into the form
outlined above。 The perfected type; as sketched in the last
paragraphs; has doubtless not been fully achieved in practice
hitherto; unless it be in one or another of the newer
establishments with large ambitions and endowment; and with few
traditions to hamper the working out of the system。 The incursion
of business principles into the academic community is also of
relatively recent date; and should not yet have had time to
pervade the organization throughout and with full effect; so that
the r間ime of competitive strategy should as yet be neither so
far advanced nor so secure a matter of course as may fairly be
expected in the near future。 Yet the rate of advance along this
line; and the measure of present achievement; are more
considerable than even a very sanguine advocate of business
principles could have dared to look for a couple of decades ago。
In so far as these matters are still in process of growth;
rather than at their full fruition; it follows that any analysis
of the effects of this r間ime must be in some degree speculative;
and must at times deal with the drift of things as much as with
accomplished fact。 Yet such an inquiry must approach its subject
as an episode of history; and must deal with the personal figures
and the incidents of this growth objectively; as phenomena thrown
up to view by the play of circumstances in the dispassionate give
and take of institutional change。 Such an impersonal attitude; it
is perhaps needless to remark; is not always easy to maintain in
dealing with facts of so personal; and often of so animated; a
character。 Particularly will an observer who has seen these
incidents from the middle and in the making find it difficult
uniformly to preserve that aloof perspective that will serve the
ends of an historical appreciation。 The difficulty is increased
and complicated by the necessity of employing terms; descriptions
and incidents that have been habitually employed in current
controversy; often with a marked animus。 Men have taken sides on
these matters; and so are engaged in controversy on the merits of
the current r間ime and on the question of possible relief and
remedy for what are considered to be its iniquities。 Under the
shadow of this controversy; it is nearly unavoidable that any
expression or citation of fact that will bear a partisan
construction will habitually be so construed。 The vehicle
necessarily employed must almost unavoidably infuse the analysis
with an unintended colour of bias; to one side or the other of
the presumed merits of the case。 A degree of patient attention is
therefore due at points where the facts cited; and the
characterization of these facts and their bearing; would seem; on
a superficial view; to bear construction as controversial matter。
In this episode of institutional growth; plainly; the
executive head is the central figure。 The light fails on him
rather than on the forces that move him; and it comes as a matter
of course to pass opinions on the resulting incidents and
consequences; as the outcome of his free initiative rather than
of the circumstances whose creature he is。 No doubt; his
initiative; if any; is a powerful factor in the case; but it is
after all a factor of transmission and commutation rather than of
genesis and self…direction; for he is chosen for the style and
measure of initiative with which he is endowed; and unless he
shall be found to measure up to expectations in kind and degree
in this matter he will go in the discard; and his personal ideals
and initiative will count as little more than a transient
obstruction。 He will hold his place; and will count as a creative
force in his world; in much the same degree in which he responds
with ready flexibility to the impact of those forces of popular
sentiment and class conviction that have called him to be their
servant。 Only so can he be a 〃strong man〃; only in so far as; by
fortunate bent or by its absence; he is enabled to move
resistlessly with the parallelogram of forces。
The exigencies of a businesslike administration demand that
there be no division of powers between the academic executive and
the academic staff; but the exigencies of the higher learning
require that the scholars and scientists must be left quite free
to follow their own bent in conducting their own work。 In the
nature of things this work cannot be carried on effectually under
coercive rule。 Scientific inquiry can not be pursued under
direction of a layman in the person of a superior officer。 Also;
learning is; in the nature of things; not a competitive business
and can make no use of finesse; diplomatic equivocation and
tactful regard for popular prejudices; such as are of the essence
of the case in competitive business。 It is; also; of no advantage
to learning to engross the trade。 Tradition and present necessity
alike demand that the body of scholars and scientists who make up
the university must be vested with full powers of self…direction;
without ulterior consideration。 A university can remain a
corporation of learning; de facto; on no other basis。
As has already been remarked; business methods of course have
their place in the corporation's fiscal affairs and in the
office…work incident to the care of its material equipment。 As
regards these items the university is a business concern; and no
discussion of these topics would be in place here。 These things
concern the university only in its externals; and they do not
properly fall within the scope of academic policy or academic
administration。 They come into consideration here only in so far
as a lively regard for them may; as it sometimes does; divert the
forces of the establishment from its ostensible purpose。
Under the rule imposed by those businesslike preconceptions