UNIVERSITY REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1665, 4 February 1913, Page 8

UNIVERSITY REFORM.

THE REFORMERS AND THE SENATE.

[By fI'ROI'ESSOB AttNOLD WAIIi.]

Let the reformers take heart. ,- They know now whore they stand; tho'enemy has, declared himself, and coino out into tho open. The reforming professors may bo fools; they may oven be as great fools as tho Chancellor would hove us believe; but they are, let us hope, not fools enough to attempt in futuro«to persuade, convmce, or conciliate such a body as tho University Senato has now. proved itself to be. _No argument, no enthusiastic labour, no sweet reasonableness is of any avail against fixed prejudice, personal amnms, and sullen, malice.

Let us suppose that an enlightened-visi-tor, interested in .University matters and acquainted with the aims, constitution, and spirit of the newer universities of the Homeland, had been in' New Zealand during tho last fortnight, and read carefully the published reports of the meetings of tho Senate. What would lie think of it?

He would, in the first place, have been 6truck' by the very peculiar tone of tho Chancellor's address. He would-gather from it that a conference of the)professors, of the Unive\sity had been held, that this conference had passed certain resolutions, and that those resolutions were to bo submitted to the Senate. Ho would understand also that this conference had been called by the Senate, and that the expenses thereof had been borne by the Senate. Tho tone of the address as a whole would inform him that these resolutions would not be likely to get a friendly reception. ' He would detect, in certain passages, a; note of animosity, a taunting, contemptuous,manner. The address would probably remind, him of the speeches ho made when, at the age of eighteen or twenty, he belonged to ah undergraduates' debating society, and more particularly of the speeches he made when he had a bad case, and both hated and feared his youthful adversary. As i the session went on he would soon, perceive, that'"the professors" were the bete noire* and especially a certain section of "the professors." He would not be surprised to find that tho Chancellor thought it necessary to disclaim any hostility to the professors; "ho did'not want to'see professors excluded from the Senate" 1 (Saturday, January 25). ' .'/ '

By the third or fourth day.of the session our unprejudiced and interested observer would have inevitably formed :some clear' opinions upon the University, -and the Senate. He would • havo" seen the resolutions of the Professorial Conference brought forward one by one, ahd : contemptuously rejected. ' Prom the tone of. the Chancellor's address ho would have expected this; he might, indeed, havo been surprised when, on January 24, a very mild and reasonable- suggestion, which had been unanimously approved by the Professorial. Conference, had.been.rejected like the rest.' But what.would have been his thoughts when, 'oil January 25, a Senator proposed that the Professorial Conference be discontinued, on the ground that "the' result was futile, compared with-the great cost involved." Our observer must have been, a man'of wide' experience indeed if' he, could have' remembered' any case to be compared with this in point of monumental impudence. "Why!" he; might think, "you employ an expert to advise you in your business, you fling, his advice to the winds and follow your, own notions, and then you turn upon him and abuse him for the illsuccess of your operations, and .grudge him' his ;•• modest. fee." And' he would .judge the. Senate accordingly;' ',■'■' One thing might .puzzle-the-, observer. Ho would notice that there are professors on the Senate, and 1 that a certain'humber of them, voted With tho glorious majority. He might 'wonder how ; this was. If,he should ask,,and ask the right man, he' might- get' sotno, sort of explanation. He would 1/0 .informed that the status of the professor'in the University of New Zealand is curious in that he is, in theory, only employed to bring-"his students up to u certain 'standafd, 1 While,, the' ;ex-, amination upon" which their'' success depends is conducted from England. In these circumstances it is'hardly possible ; for the professor to be anything more than a coach.' Some of them openly de-, clare that that is what they ; consider themselves. N ( ow,'-.if a.man regards..his -work in this light, it is obvious that his courses of lectures, being based solely'.on the requirements of the syllabus, tend'to .become fixed and stereotyped. Having once - compiled. his series of notes, . etc.,_ all he has to do is to go on repeating them to successive generations of students,-with only trilling alterations. The men, who are.opposed to the reforms.demanded by a majority of the professors are those men. Some of them do attempt- to disguise tho facts; some possibly admit that 'they aro coaches and no more. To those men the proposed reforms are anathema. They would throw upon the professor-a far greater burden of responsibility; they demand more work : and promise no increase of-pay; they raise the status of the teacher, Inakins.it possible for him to pursue new and original lines of. thought and research, and to carry his students with him., A singlo instance -.will show the difference betwoen the two types .ot men.' A.few years ago the Professorial Board of one,of the university colleges corresponded' with th© other boards upon the superannuation Act, and on dm occasion the question was the retiring age of professors. At one meeting of this .board letters were read from two of the;other boards, which we may call A and B. Board A was of opinion that no professor ought to be .obliged to retire at any age, adding that a professor "at 65 is not infrequently at the zenith of his efficiency and usefulness." Board B was of opinion

that,' if conditions remain as, they are, no member of that; board expeoted to live to the proposed retiring age—6s.; If the the University Senate on the resolutions of the Professorial Conference be scrutinised, it will be found that all

tho professors belonging to. Board A (tho "at-his-best-over-70" board) voted against | every resolution, with hardly one excerption, whilo tho representatives of Board B (the "don't-hope-to.-live-to-G5" board) wcro, without exception, in favour of those resolutions. Our intelligent visitor •would not need, to bo told much more. That little comparison tells volumes. Supposing that the onlooker ,'had ,no access to inside information, .and, had to guess for himself ''-.what' had happened in the past, and what underlay this series of rejections, by the Senate, of the resolutions and suggestions which they'had themselves invited, what would he think? Ho would not bo blamed if ho conjectured that the Senate, having b«en frequently, and perhaps too" vehemently, requested to sanction certain reforms, had determined to put a stop to this sort of thing. With this view, no might conjecture,, they resolved to call a conference of the professors, and ask their collective opinion upon tho' university degrees generally, and then, having got that opinion, to sit upon it, stamp upon it. throw out, reject, and.conspne it (as the French say), and thus show the professors what they; the Senate, think of their opinion, snub the very, nose off their face, and effectually silence, the malcontents for ever. Hero tho observer would be at fault. ■ Ho would not, indeed, have over-ratei the malignity of the Senftte, but he would have sadly over-estimated their ability. No such definite, if sinister, design was before the minds of the Chancellor and his followers; this action was rather the result of a muddle of motives, of which tho more powerful were piqtio, personal animosity, nnd that fatal and generally'irresistible tendency on the part of the possessors of autocratic power to abuse that power and show tho' world who is the underdog. r Andlwhat of the future? Our visitor wends his way, and is not concerned; but if his advice were, asked b" tho reforming party, what would ho say 1 ? His answer would undoubtedly be encouraging. The reformers have a better case than ever. They have called for a reorganisation 'of the university, and exactly nt the right moment the supremo body of tho university shows itself iu its truo colours, gives an unparalleled exhibition of incompetence, and gives tho reformers a magnificent case. What now remains to be done is to movo heaven and earth to got a new Senate; the walls nro crumbling already, another march round, and another blast, of tho trumpets, and Jericho is won.

Professor Wall adds to his article, as a "note," tltis observation:—"The cordial thanks of the reforming professors nro (Ins to the Inspcctor-Genpral of Schools, who, alono anions tho non-professorial members of tho Senate, warmly supported all the resolutions of the Professorial Confer«nc»."