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teachers; is; in the common run of cases; crowded to one side and
presently drops out of mind。 Like other workmen; under pressure
of competition the members of the academic staff will endeavour
to keep up their necessary income by cheapening their product and
increasing their marketable output。 And by consequence of this
pressure of bread…winning and genteel expenditure; these
university men are so barred out from the serious pursuit of
those scientific and scholarly inquiries which alone can;
academically speaking; justify their retention on the university
faculty; and for the sake of which; in great part at least; they
have chosen this vocation。 No infirmity more commonly besets
university men than this going to seed in routine work and
extra…scholastic duties。 They have entered on the academic career
to find time; place; facilities and congenial environment for the
pursuit of knowledge; and under pressure they presently settle
down to a round of perfunctory labour by means of which to
simulate the life of gentlemen。(5*)
Before leaving the topic it should further be remarked that
the dissipation incident to these polite amenities; that so are
incumbent on the academic personnel; apparently also has
something of a deteriorative effect on their working capacity;
whether for scholarly or for worldly uses。 Prima facie evidence
to this effect might be adduced; but it is not easy to say how
far the evidence would bear closer scrutiny。 There is an
appreciable amount of dissipation; in its several sorts; carried
forward in university circles in an inconspicuous manner; and not
designed for publicity。 How far this is induced by a loss of
interest in scholarly work; due to the habitual diversion of the
scholars' energies to other and more exacting duties; would be
hard to say; as also how far it may be due to the lead given by
men…of…the…world retained on the faculties for other than
scholarly reasons。 At the same time there is the difficulty that
many of those men who bear a large part in the ceremonial
dissipation incident to the enterprise in publicity are retained;
apparently; for their proficiency in this line as much as for
their scholarly attainments; or at least so one might infer; and
these men must be accepted with the defects of their qualities。
As bearing on this whole matter of pomp and circumstance;
social amenities and ritual dissipation; quasi…learned
demonstrations and meretricious publicity; in academic life; it
is difficult beyond hope of a final answer to determine how much
of it is due directly to the masterful initiative of the strong
man who directs the enterprise; and how much is to be set down to
an innate proclivity for all that sort of thing on the part of
the academic personnel。 A near view of these phenomena leaves the
impression that there is; on the whole; less objection felt than
expressed among the academic men with regard to this routine of
demonstration; that the reluctance with which they pass under the
ceremonial yoke is not altogether ingenuous; all of which would
perhaps hold true even more decidedly as applied to the faculty
households。(6*) But for all that; it also remains true that
without the initiative and countenance of the executive head
these boyish movements of sentimental spectacularity on the part
of the personnel would come to little; by comparison with what
actually takes place。 It is after all a matter for executive
discretion; and; from whatever motives; this diversion of effort
to extra…scholastic ends has the executive sanction;(7*) with the
result that an intimate familiarity with current academic life is
calculated to raise the question whether make…believe does not;
after all; occupy a larger and more urgent place in the life of
these thoughtful adult male citizens than in the life of their
children。
NOTES:
1。 It was a very wise and adroit politician who found out that
〃You can not fool all the people all the time。〃
2。 La gloria di colui che tutto muove;
Per l'universo pen閠ra e risplende
In una parte pi* e meno altr'ove。
3。 In a certain large and enterprising university; e。g。; the pay
of the lowest; and numerous; rank regularly employed to do full
work as teachers; is proportioned to that of the highest much
less numerous rank about as one to twelve at the most; perhaps
even as low as one to twenty。 And it may not be out of place to
enter the caution that the nominal rank of a given member of the
staff is no secure index of his income; even where the salary
〃normally〃 attached to the given academic rank is known。 Not
unusually a 〃normal〃 scale of salaries is formally adopted by the
governing board and spread upon their records; and such a scale
will then be surreptitiously made public。 But departures from the
scale habitually occur; whereby the salaries actually paid come
to fall short of the 〃normal〃 perhaps as frequently as they
conform to it。
There is no trades…union among university teachers; and no
collective bargaining。 There appears to be a feeling prevalent
among them that their salaries are not of the nature of wages;
and that there would be a species of moral obliquity implied in
overtly so dealing with the matter。 And in the individual
bargaining by which the rate of pay is determined the directorate
may easily be tempted to seek an economical way out; by offering
a low rate of pay coupled with a higher academic rank。 The plea
is always ready to hand that the university is in want of the
necessary funds and is constrained to economize where it can。 So
an advance in nominal rank is made to serve in place of an
advance in salary; the former being the less costly commodity for
the time being。 Indeed; so frequent are such departures from the
normal scale as to have given rise to the (no doubt ill…advised)
suggestion that this may be one of the chief uses of the adopted
schedule of normal salaries。 So an employee of the university may
not infrequently find himself constrained to accept; as part
payment; an expensive increment of dignity attaching to a higher
rank than his salary account would indicate。 Such an outcome of
individual bargaining is all the more likely in the academic
community; since there is no settled code of professional ethics
governing the conduct of business enterprise in academic
management; as contrasted with the traffic of ordinary
competitive business。
4。 So; e。g。; the well…known president of a well and favourably
known university was at pains a fe