"2. Resolved, That such definition should include the provision for an annual report to the President on the condition and needs of the College of Arts and Sciences."

And in order to facilitate an impersonal and dispassionate consideration of the question on its merits, I submitted to you two days later for the Trustees my resignation as Dean. While this was the immediate occasion for my action, other motives tending to the same result had long been at work and at no time so powerfully as during the present year. They convinced me that I could be of greater service to the University as teacher than as Dean and that I could not properly perform both duties. After discussion in the Committee and the Faculty, the following resolutions were adopted by the Faculty, April 16th, 1907:

"I. Resolved, That the Dean be ex-officio Chairman of the Committee on Educational Policy."

"2. Resolved, That the Dean, after consultation with the Committee on Educational Policy, be requested to present an annual report to the Faculty on the general condition and needs of the College of Arts and Sciences."

What relation the report thus asked for by and to be made to the Faculty shall bear to the annual report now asked for by and made to the President is a matter for subsequent adjustment. But the main principle involved in the original suggestion I understand to have been accepted so far as in such a matter a vote of the Faculty is decisive and binding. Heretofore the Dean has been purely an administrative officer with no more responsibility for the educational policy of the College, no more duty to inform himself regarding the work of the College as a whole, no more right of initiative than any other member of the Faculty or of the Committee on Educational Policy. The College is facing serious questions, of importance not merely for Cornell University but for university education throughout the country. I do not believe that these questions at present are receiving adequate attention, and I believe that the responsibility for studying them and reporting upon them should be made, as it now has been made, the duty of some one officer enjoying the confidence of President and Faculty.

The more I have considered the terms of the Executive Committee's resolution of December 11th, 1903, the deeper has grown my conviction that the statements of fact in the preamble to that resolution were and are correct, and that the action of the Faculty to

which that resolution led, although a step in the right direction, is very far from a complete and satisfactory solution of the matter. A comparison of our College of Arts and Sciences with all other institutions of New York State conferring upon men or upon both sexes the degrees of A. B., B.S, Ph. B., or B.L. for the ten years since this College received its separate organization,-and I restrict the comparison to the New York State institutions because in this College, unlike most of the other colleges of the University, between twothirds and three-fourths of the students are residents of New York State-shows that the average annual number of graduates for 19011904 at Cornell increased over the average number for 1896-1900 by 29 per cent. the average annual number at all other New York State institutions except Cornell, Columbia and Barnard, increased by 39 per cent, and the average annual number at Columbia and Barnard increased 91 per cent. If the increase in the department of arts— language, literature, history, political science, philosophy-practically the departments partly or entirely housed in Goldwin Smith Hall, be compared with the increase in the departments of mathematics and natural science, it appears that the number of marks reported by the former group in February, 1907, exceeded the number reported in February, 1897, by 22 per cent, and the number of marks reported by the latter group increased between the same dates by 87 per cent., showing that the departments of mathematics and natural science have been growing about four times as fast as the departments of arts. A more accurate method of comparison allowing for the greater average number of hours per week occupied by courses in mathematics and natural science magnifies the difference of increase to nearly six times. On the other hand it must be noticed that the difference is largely due to the assistance rendered by the departments of mathematics and natural science to the rapidly growing professional schools.

These arguments which might be amplified, did space permit, seem to support both the fact stated in the first clause of the preamble and the possibility suggested in the second clause, as follows:

"Whereas, The expansion of the department of arts-language, literature, history, political science, philosophy-has lagged behind that of the technical Colleges, and"

"Whereas, This slower development may be due to special and local causes, as well as to general causes which are affecting disadvantageously other Colleges of arts all over the country."

The statement in the third clause of the preamble, "Whereas, In contrast with the technical Colleges of this University, the department of arts lacks organization, union and aggressive leadership", seems to afford more room for differences of opinion, and I believe that not a few influential members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences believe either that there was no such lack in 1903, or that the lack was fully met by the establishment of the Committee on Educational Policy. My conviction is that the statement was and still remains true, that the creation of the Committee on Educational Policy and its successful work for three years have contributed materially to improve the organization, and to strengthen the union within the College, but that the organization and the union still need improvement, and that the Committee has done almost nothing towards furnishing the College with "aggressive leadership". At the behest of the Faculty it has wrestled strenuously and effectively with the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts and with the regulation of the elective system, but no one would seriously maintain that either of these questions was in the minds of the members of the Executive Committee as conspicuous among the problems before the College. Initiative, responsibility, leadership are individual matters and no deliberative body like the Faculty or a large committee can exercise them effectively.

I find myself, therefore, in complete and hearty agreement with each clause of the preamble to the resolution adopted by the Executive Committee, and my conviction of its correctness has steadily deepened with my experience in the Dean's office.

As the same time I should greatly deprecate the assimilation of the organization in this College to that in the professional Colleges, where the problems are different. Each of the professional Colleges has before it a well-defined goal, the training of young persons in such a way and to such a degree that they may enter upon a certain profession as their life-work with a minimum of delay and of friction and advance in it with a maximum of speed. Given such a goal, a Director to guide the efforts of the professional College towards it becomes almost a necessity.

The object of the College of Arts and Sciences on the contrary, seems to be double, first to provide a liberal education, and secondly to train specialists in some one or more branches who are later to make their education yield them an income, usually by teaching. The difficulties in the way of the effective organization and development of this College seem to spring from two main roots.

I.

There is no generally accepted definition of what constitutes a liberal education, either in content or in mode of presentation, so that the first object lies in the minds of students and teachers in vague and ill-defined outlines.

2. The governing agency best adapted to secure the first end is a Faculty, the individual members of which possess clear cut notions of what a liberal education is and how it is to be secured and find their notions on this subject in substantial agreement. The governing agencies best adapted to secure the second end are a number of almost independent departments each working to train specialists.

The present organization and administration of the College of Arts and Sciences, wherein the voice and the control of the Faculty are at a minimum, and the voice and the control of the several departments are at a maximum, seem to be a natural result and expression of the fact that the second of these objects, that of training specialists, is the prominent one and the one which has been steadily gaining currency at the expense of the first. Under this conception the College of Arts and Sciences is merely the nebulous mass or undifferentiated residuum after certain technical or professional colleges have organized and broken away, and in which at present the beginning of similar changes may be discerned.

In my judgment this development has already gone far enough, or at least has outstripped other changes which should have gone forward pari passu. What we most need now is a belief, an enthusiastic conviction, that the idea of a liberal education is not outgrown, is neither dead or moribund, but is merely in process of transformation and readjustment to the vast additions to knowledge as yet only partly assimilated and incorporated in the scheme of education.

The most vital need of the College, at present, as of college. education throughout America is the formulation and application of some definition of a liberal education which will apply to the new conditions. Some one is needed at Cornell to urge forward and lead in this work. He should be as closely as possible in touch with educational work in the College, in the University, in other colleges and universities, and in the schools of the land. This is what I meant by saying in my last report to you that the College needs an educational leader, and that the Dean seems to be the person who should be charged with that work, and that for this purpose his duties and responsibilities towards the President and the departments should be increased.

To this end all questions of organization should be subordinate and by it they should be judged. We may all hope that the readjustment under my successor will prove to be a step in this direction. To my thinking the College of Arts and Sciences ought to develop gradually a form of organization and a system of government as well adapted to its specific needs as the organization and government of the professional Colleges are adapted to their needs. It ought to become able to deal with its own ordinary or routine problems as regularly and as well as similar problems are dealt with by the professional Colleges, and to carry to the President of the University only the most fundamental or difficult of its questions. The only way I see to encourage such a development is gradually to increase the duties of the Dean by charging him with responsibility for things now undone which ought to be done. I believe that Faculty, President, Trustees ought to look more often at the College as a unit, and that an annual report setting forth its history and its problems ought to be prepared. This has now been directed. May I frankly express the hope that this step may be found successful and be the precursor of other similar steps?

On February 2nd, 1906, you introduced in the Faculty the following resolution :

"Resolved, That the Committee on Educational Policy be requested to take into consideration the question of public lectures to be given under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences with a view to meeting the varied needs of the College, unifying the interests of the several departments concerned, and placing on a satisfactory basis the whole system of public lectures,"

and it was adopted.

The Committee on Educational Policy presented the following report on the subject to the Faculty, June 1st, 1906:

"Whereas, The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Committee on Educational Policy be requested to take into consideration the question of public lectures to be given under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences with a view to meeting the varied needs of the College, unifying the interests of the several departments concerned, and placing on a satisfactory basis the whole system of public lectures.

And Whereas, That Committee is of the opinion that the establishment of public lectures, given under the auspices of the College