XI. Powers of the Presidential Office
What were the powers bestowed on the new executive
office by the Board of Visitors? The new President
occupied the chair for the first time at a called meeting
of the Faculty on September 14, 1904; and on the following
day, the Visitors assembled and clearly defined the
scope of his authority in the administration of the
University's affairs.
First, he was to serve as the medium of communication
between the Board and the Faculty, and also between
the Board and the subordinate officers. The object of
this provision was to remove the awkwardness so often
created, during the existence of the chairmanship, by
the greater loyalty which the incumbent of that position,
not unnaturally, exhibited towards the Faculty and
officers than towards the Board. It was expected that
the President, being practically independent of Faculty
and officers, would be able to fulfill these liaison duties
with perfect impartiality.
Second, the President was to be responsible for the
discipline of the students. This regulation was in sharp
contravention of the recommendation of the Faculty,
who, as already pointed out, had claimed that their
body, as a whole, was in a better position to superintend
the internal affairs of the institution than the President;
and that the sole right to supervise these affairs was essential
to the preservation of their influence with the
students. The reasons that led the Board to deny this
claim were: (1) that, so long as there was a duality of
authority, there would be constant danger of a conflict
between the President and the Faculty, with the undignified,
and, in the public view, damaging, incidents
certain to follow; and (2) that, unless the primary
authority was concentrated in the office of President, he
could not justly be held responsible for the proper
government of the University. This did not signify the
complete elimination of the Faculty as a part of the
administrative machinery. On the contrary, as we shall
see, the members of that body, as members of the several
administrative committees, possessed and exercised
great influence in the general direction of the University's
internal affairs.
Third, while the President was required to overlook
these internal affairs only in a general way, he was nevertheless
expected to keep a very vigilant eye upon the
working of all the academic and professional departments.
This latter regulation, if it did not destroy
the independence of the schools as established by
Jefferson, materially curtailed it. The last word in the
guidance of these schools now lay with the President,
and not with the respective professors. The purpose
of the change was to bring about a closer coordination
between all the schools by subjecting them to the continuous
supervision of one responsible person. It was
desirable, too, that the line between the college department,
—the undergraduate and the graduate courses,
—should be more sharply drawn; and that the college
courses should be adjusted more accurately to the courses
of the public high schools. All this could be more
satisfactorily effected under the new system.
Fourth, the President was to represent the University
on every public occasion; and also to take the chair at
meetings of the General Faculty, or the minor faculties,
—bodies whose powers and duties he was authorized
to determine.
Fifth, he possessed the right to recommend to the
Board the names of such persons as seemed to him to
be properly equipped to fill vacancies on the teaching or
administrative staff. Under the operation of the old
rule, the testimonials of the several candidates were submitted
directly to the Board, who, after examining them,
announced their decision in favor of one of the candidates
upon the strength of his superior claim to personal
and scholastic consideration. Under the practical working
of the new rule, the function of the Visitors resembled,
—partially at least,—the function of the
United States Senate in passing upon a nomination: if
the nomination was disapproved of, it could be rejected,
without the necessity of their substituting another in its
place. This was looked upon as a sufficient device to bar
all really objectionable selections by the executive head;
but the rule still left the choice to the disinterested or
biased judgment of the man who happened to be filling
the Presidential office. The reputation of the University
depended primarily upon the learning, character, and
personal impressiveness of the members of the Faculty,
and a failure to rise to the right level in any of these
particulars was, perhaps, less apt to occur when the
Board relied upon their collective judgment than when
they trusted to the fallible judgment of one man, however
conscientious and faithful he might be. But the
argument of the Board was that, if the President was
to be held responsible for the successful administration
of the University's affairs, he should be permitted to
exercise the practically exclusive right to recommend
the appointment of all who were to serve under him, in
whatever capacity.
The additional functions conferred on the President,
which tended to increase the efficiency of his office, may
be grouped as follows: he was to be a member of the
Board of Visitors,—without the right to vote, however,
and he was always to serve as the chairman of the
executive committee of that body; he was empowered to
determine and define the duties of the students who had
been awarded scholarships and fellowships; he was to
appoint the deans of the several departments, subject to
the subsequent ratification by the Board; he could compel
guilty collegians to leave the precincts; and it was incumbent
upon him to inform any professor who had been
delinquent, of the ground of the charge against him.
The latter, however, could not be turned out without
the approval of the Board.
One of the President's additional tasks, as time lapsed,
was to adjust the annual budget. Written reports are
first obtained from the professors of the different schools,
and personal conferences, if necessary for further explanation,
are held with them. The substance of these
reports, and the conclusions of the conferences, are
summarized by the President, with the assistance of a
small budget committee. Then follows the process of
cutting down to make tongue and buckle meet. "One
has need," it has been very truly said, "of great
sympathy and comprehension of varied problems and
personalities, as well as accurate fiscal sense, in order
to handle such a problem."
In weighing all the powers bestowed on the new
executive head of the University of Virginia in
September, 1904, it is perceived that the administrative
system then introduced was less democratic than the one
which had been established by Jefferson; and this fact
is all the more pregnant in the light of the assertion
made at the time of the first President's election; namely,
that the institution was too aristocratic for the spirit
of the times; and that what it needed most was a democratic
purge. The Presidential form of administration
was, as a matter of fact, adopted, not because the Board
of Visitors thought that the institution required a democratic
purge, but because they thought that it required
a more efficient form of government, which, in this instance,
the experience of other universities had demonstrated
would be a modified form of autocracy. Unity,
cooperation, the community spirit,—all were called for;
and these were the more easily secured, as in our modern
municipalities, by a general manager or President, than
by a Faculty chairman, whose powers were limited, and
who was the mouthpiece of a subordinate body rather
than of the University itself. "The new Presidential
system," remarked Judge John W. Fishburne, in a
speech delivered at an alumni meeting, "hinges on the
idea that the President is a man thoroughly familiar
with modern educational questions, who stands ready
to guide the institution along modern lines of complete
service to all the people of the State." In these comprehensive
words are to be found the justification for
the radical alteration, in 1904, of the University's
system of government; and it would be sufficient even
if there had been no other reason for making so far-reaching
a change.
