The College President Calls it a Year

Abstract

T H IS paper attempts to set forth typical points of view relative to outstanding phases of educational procedure discussed with some frequency by college presidents in their annual reports. To mingle in their company has been a thrilling experience. One feels a breath of romance, coupled with the steady pulse throb of a great adventure, for the college president works with youth, with his eye always to the future, for ends that though often defying precise definition are constructive and timeless. Judging from these reports, contrary to popular belief, the most striking thing about the American college president is his awareness of this changing modern world, with its enormously complex and difficult problems; its magnificent opportunities; its ever expanding horizons; its staggering challenge to men of intellectual and moral power, men of invincible good will. The presidents are men of conscience, courage, and determination. When orderly processes of law and government are endangered, they speak out, as witness their unanimous opposition to teachers' oath bills, and in specific instance, the courageous championship of the New Jersey courts by the men of Princeton. The literature found in the reports of a single year is so extensive as to make the task of the reviewer both interesting and perplexing. Every conceivable phase of administration is covered from informal picnics of the Outing Club to qualifications of a college chaplain, from the hourly wage of the FERIl copyist to the investment portfolio of $io,ooo,ooo. From the wealth of material it was necessary to choose. It was decided