College and Research Libraries


Book Reviews 
Report oil Some Problems of Personnel in 

the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. A 
Special C o m m i t t e e A p p o i n t e d by the 

President of H a r v a r d U n i v e r s i t y . 

H a r v a r d U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1 9 3 9 . i 6 5 p . 

$ 1 . 5 0 . 

T H E DISMISSAL f r o m H a r v a r d , in the 
spring of 1 9 3 7 , of M e s s r s . W a l s h and 

S w e e z y , t w o popular economics instruc-

tors, set off the train of events w h i c h re-

sulted in the report under r e v i e w . T h e s e 

terminations of appointment prompted 1 3 1 

of the y o u n g e r H a r v a r d f a c u l t y to address 

a memorandum of misgiving to nine pro-

fessors w h o in turn recommended to Presi-

dent C o n a n t that the university's action 

be investigated by a f a c u l t y committee 

and that, f u r t h e r , a report on the larger 

questions relating to the advancement of 

younger men on the f a c u l t y be considered. 

T h e present item is a report on the second 

of the t w o objectives. 

T h e problem u n d e r l y i n g the situation 

investigated is a dilemma c o n f r o n t i n g 

every private institution of higher educa-

tion and, in some degree, most publicly 

supported institutions. O n e horn is the 

static or declining income f r o m invest-

m e n t s ; the other, increasing enrolment. 

T h e first horn calls f o r a reduction of 

expenditures; the second, for an increase 

in teaching personnel. O n e w a y to re-

duce expenditures is to replace professorial 

vacancies w i t h instructors. T h u s , money 

f o r the good job, the secure job, filters 

d o w n to the level of unattractive jobs 

w i t h no security at all. I t is easy to see 

h o w such circumstances produce, pres-

ently, the need f o r an investigation like 

this. I t is also apparent that there can 

be no satisfactory solution in the idiom of 

the past w h e n an expanding university 

economy could make room in the upper 

brackets for promising y o u n g men. T h e 

solution proposed is nothing more than a 

rapid and enforced turnover in the l o w e r 

ranks of the f a c u l t y . T h i s solution recog-

nizes the accidental practice prevalent at 

many universities of casual, hand-to-mouth 

re-employment f r o m year to year of l o w e r 

rank teachers, resulting eventually in the 

a c k n o w l e d g m e n t by the university of " a 

moral obligation to retain f o r l i f e the man 

w h o m they have never at any point ex-

plicitly and affirmatively chosen f o r per-

manent rank. T h e time for the crucial 

decision has been postponed until it is 

no longer a free decision, the teacher hav-

ing acquired a cumulative expectation, and 

the university a cumulative c o m m i t m e n t . " 

T h e report divides itself into f o u r ma-

j o r p a r t s : rank, tenure, and s a l a r y ; cri-

teria of selection; administration and 

p r o c e d u r e ; e x t r a m u r a l relations. T h e dis-

cussion and conclusions are, since this is a 

report of a f a c u l t y committee of H a r v a r d 

U n i v e r s i t y , stated in local terms. I t is 

possible, h o w e v e r , to glean certain general 

truths applicable to any institution. 

T h e discussion of tenure is one of the 

portions of general interest and utility. 

T h e value of tenure is essentially the 

value of security. Security confers free-

dom of thought on the teacher and the 

research w o r k e r , and insures safety f o r 

men whose public statements f r o m the 

lecture platform or in print make them 

peculiarly open to attacks by outside 

groups. Security makes attractive a ca-

reer whose l o w income prevents the storing 

up of reserves against old age and acci-

dent, substituting the guarantee of modest 

MARCH, 1940 181 



but continuous income. Finally, security 
"enables a scholar . . . to devote himself 
single-mindedly to the advancement of 
knowledge unharassed by one of the 
major anxieties of l i f e . " 

L i b r a r y workers may well ponder this 
analysis of the value of tenure in connec-
tion with their own jobs. W h i l e the li-
brarian apparently does not need the 
safeguard of tenure for freedom of 
thought, since his activities occur within 
the framework of institutional policy, it 
should be observed that, as he assumes 
broader interests and responsibilities of 
professional and community nature, he 
moves increasingly into the area of conflict 
with outside groups. T h e problem of 
censorship in libraries is an instance of 
such an area of conflict. If the library 
profession draws to itself people of broad 
interests and personal capacity, it must in 
time face this problem of conflict which 
has always confronted the scholar. A s 
for attractiveness of job and security to 
work wholeheartedly at the job, the li-
brarian is in a situation no different from 
that of the scholar. 

T h r o u g h o u t , often by implication, the 
report recognizes the positive need for ad-
ministration as an activity necessary in 
large and complex operations. " R e g r e t t a -
ble as it may be to those who prefer the 
tiaditional spirit of informality. . . . In 
a complex situation, informality gives rise 
to misunderstanding, conflict, irresponsi-
bility, and inefficiency." 

T h e report is an admirable case study 
of faculty organization, its problems, and 
certain solutions therefor. T h e course of 
scholarly advancement is formally simple, 
going as it does from the undergraduate 
by degrees to the top professor. T h i s 
formal simplicity, however, is attended by 
many real complications produced by en-

rolments, the tradition of tenure, academic 
freedom, the difficulty of defining and 
applying criteria for advancement, and 
the problem of securing adequate self 
administration by men whose primary con-
cern and thought lies along wholly differ-
ent lines.—Donald Coney, University of 
Texas, Austin. 

Administrative Ability; Its Discovery and 
Development. W a l t e r V a n D y k e 
Bingham. Society for Personnel A d -
ministration, P . O . B o x 2 6 6 , W a s h i n g -
ton, 1 9 3 9 . I 7 p . $ . 2 5 . (Pamphlet 
N o . 1 ) 

I N THE equipment of university li-
brarians emphasis has so often, even very 
recently, been placed on academic educa-
tion, on the scholarly mind, that there 
seems to be some danger of forgetting, as 
is sometimes done in reference to other 
university administrative positions, that 
administrative ability is something else 
again and must be sought out, cultivated, 
and used in certain places where it is 
perhaps entitled to be considered before 
scholarship, at least productive scholar-
ship. It is to be expected that university 
librarians, w h o generally stress the ad-
ministrative character of their work, 
might have contributed some ideas, some 
practice in their organizations for the de-
velopment of this particular ability, but 
such are not readily found and therefore 
w e are constrained to read general treatises 
and study how they may be applied to our 
particular organizations. Colonel Bing-
ham's little pamphlet is so vigorous, so 
specific, so pertinent even to libraries that 
I have already quoted from it rather ex-
tensively in my recent paper on " T h e 
T r a i n i n g of University L i b r a r i a n s . " 1 I 

1 College and Research Libraries 1122-29, Dec. 
1939. 

1 8 2 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES