The Instrumentation of Universities

IN TODAY'S large university the role of administrator as it was understood in the past is obsolete. Failure to recognize this simple fact and to act upon it has led to internal disorder in many large universities. The effectiveness of some of the great autocrats of years gone by is a matter of record. Eliot's performance at Harvard is an outstanding example. The administrative style of men like Eliot, however, depends directly upon their ability to comprehend the wholeness of their organizations, to use a favorite phrase from Barnard. But intuitive sensitivity and grasp of the university as an organization become impossible when it has gone beyond a certain point in size. Theorists are in general agreement that, in addition to achieving objectives and adapting to environment, an organization must maintain its own internal system.2 Failure in this regard is dangerous, and intuitive administration leads to failure. Intuitive administration, in essence, proceeds from the belief that by keeping one's eyes and ears openand perhaps supplementing one's own observation by that of one or two administrative assistants-one can always learn enough to understand and lead. The fallacy here is the notion that informal reporting of information by subordinates to one or a few men is an adequate basis upon which to administer a great enterprise. We are thus led to an interesting but paradoxical conclusion concerning modern college and university administrators. Over and over again, one reads that business executives-bosses-have begun a takeover of higher education. The manager is replacing the teacher-scholar, and

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