PROFESSORIAL APPOINTMENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 18698, 29 July 1924, Page 7

PROFESSORIAL APPOINTMENTS.

TO THE EDITOB. ) Sir, —In your loader of July 17 on this. subjecit you 'show sympathy with the opinion that the University Council _is unfit as a body to make any professorial appointments, let alone any professorial appointment in the 'Medical School! The facts, however, seem to be that the ap- . pointments which have been made by this University Council to professorial, chairs have been' made with judgment and with very great success. The council on its own initiative has sought expert advice when it felt the need: of it in the past, and ) is quite- able to judge itself when there ■ i 3 need for further information. The sue- ' cess of the council is not to be wondered at if we consider its personnel Tho members of the council are nearly all men who are accustomed to the merits of candidates for varied positions. They are in close touch with the local needs of this University, and particularly when a medical appointment is concerned there are on tho council three experts of the highest scholastic attainments, one a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Breland, another a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and a third a member of the Royal College of Physicians, London. You suggest that these experts are not in -agreement. _ Well, could there be imagined better calculated' to ensure a thorough discussion of the claims of candidates and a correct and full presentation of the facts af issue to the lay members of the council! They are capable men, -and can be trusted to form a sound l opinion. It is suggested that one or more of these exports desires to avoid the responsibility of making any appointment. Surely, then, he should resign, for his duty as a councillor is to express his honest opinion, whether it - is to -his advantage or not. * Surely it is especially in the case of a medical appointment that there is no special need for outside advice.

A committee of experts would not have tho sense of responsibility that the Members of the council now have. If they muddle the appointments those who represent teachers, graduates, etc., wOJ lose their seats. We must remember tbps expert committee which inquired ints tho Dental School, with the result that the removal of the school to Auckland was attempted. Why all this pother about appointments in the Medical School? Is it suggested that any recent appointment has not been an unqualified success#? Is it because since the personnel of the council has undergone a change it cannot any longer he regarded as day in the hands of the potter, while a committee of experts, ignorant of local conditions, offers a better prospect of being the more pliant material? It is a cheap thing to speak disparagingly of our University Council, but I would point out that if it - ii not what it should be, then it should be reformed, but not superseded, as tho \ suggestions that have been made to it j recently amount to. Where is the critic j of the University Council who makes a J constructive criticism and can tell us how't its constitution should bo altered?—l am, etc., Bepsesestatitb Gfovmmimm July 28,