UNIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18769, 24 January 1923, Page 4

UNIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY.

I It is not altogether easy to estimate the degree of interest taken by the nonacademic portion of the public—the overwhelming majority, that is to say—in discussions on university matters as reported in the newspapers. No doubt a considerable number of people, without direct academic connections, are indirectly concerned with university life and progress ; and apart from this circumstance it may be surmised that very many; disinterestedly recognising th" bearing of the highest education upon the welfare of the community, make a point of paying intelligent attention to the proceedings of the Senate and cognate bodies. It has occurred to us that some of these observers may now and then entertain some slight misgiving in regard to the adequacy of the Senate's representative character, and niay even ask how far they themselves, or the general unacademic mass to which they belong, have any appreciable voice in university control and policy. Anyone who is disposed to think that such a question would be presumptuous or unreasonable may pertinently be reminded that a large part of the money necessary for the maintenance and furtherance of university activities is provided by the non-academic taxpayer, who therefore has one of the most directly personal of all interests in the business with which the governing body of the university is concerned. It is not, however, solely cr oven chiefly from the taxpayer's point of- view that we are inclined to consider the question under notice, which perhaps is general rather than financial in its significance. The more closely university education is brought into association with popular life and sentiment, the better must it be alike for university and community. The Senate, we are convinced, would gain materially in point of efficiency and influence by the introduction of a free, fresh element of personality not directly associated with any technical interests. As matters are, tbeYe is more o r this jteneral unlearned quality, so to term it. in the University College Cmmdls and the Secondary School Boards than in the Senate. "We sbrv!' be a*\od, quite fairly, how the lack, if isc.'f. t!:»jro ?>*>>

is to be supplied; and we candidly admit that we are not ready with a definite answer. Under the present constitution four of the twenty-five senators are appointed by the Government, and it might appear that in this provision could be found the means of broadening and (in a good sense) popularising the personnel of the governing body; and indeed the Government, without ignoring its own Educational experts, might perhaps take some future opportunity of nominating at least one suitable non-academic representative of the general public. It would be hardly fair to expect the other electoral groups, distinctly academic as they are, to overstep the groove of special representation, but here again, we are disposed to think, the preponderance of particular exponents and of particular products of university life in the electorates is reflected in a corresponding preponderance in the Senate. The Arts and, Science Faculties, for example, are strongly represented among the Fellows of the University. The representation, on the other hand, of the medical, engineering, and mining branches of university instruction—to cite three specific cases—is numerically feeble. There seems to us that there is necessarily, in consequence, a certain lack of balance in the composition cf the Senate. What the remedy is and how it should be applied are questions which the Senate itself may not feel called upon to discuss. But, if our premise is sound, the matter is one that should advantageously receive the attention of the Courts of Convocation.