No More Generals, Please

When General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named president of Columbia University, there were muttered misgivings among many U.S. educators. How does success as a soldier qualify a man as a college president? Most of the complaints could not be heard above the din of crockery at faculty club luncheons, but last week a respected educator brought the talk out into the open. Mild-mannered Monroe Deutsch, 68, vice president and provost emeritus of the University of California, thinks that appointments like Eisenhower's endanger the future of American higher educators.

Wrote Deutsch, in the current issue of the weekly journal School & Society: "It must not be forgotten that the choice will doubtless be cited as an impressive precedent whenever a new college president is to be chosen. If one able and successful general . . . why not other military leaders? . . . Trustees will realize that what a famous general says will always gain publicity, and he will be in constant demand. . . . They may hope that such a man will be welcomed everywhere--including the circles of the well-to-do--and will bring in funds in large amounts to the institution.

"The justification for their choice will be administrative ability. . . . But is administrative ability a thing that, regardless of experience and background, can be transferred readily from one activity to another? . . . Would a successful college president be able to step into command of an army? I doubt it.*But even if such an interchange could be readily made, one must consider where . . . [it] . . . would lead. . . . We should inevitably see suggestions seriously made that heads of great corporations ... of large law firms ... be named college presidents. . . . And last but not least, public officials out of a job. . . .

"It cannot be denied that some nonacademic presidents have made decided successes. . . . But... I wonder whether the present trend in our universities . . . may not be responsible for the fact that we can today count our outstanding presidents on the fingers of one hand. ... I should place educational leadership ahead of mere administrative ability; the latter can be secured, it can be bought. The former is far rarer. . . . What reason have we to anticipate that men whose aim has been the winning of elections, or increasing the earnings of their stockholders, or even defeating the enemy in a series of bloody battles, will automatically sympathize with these ideals of a university--complete freedom of research, untrammeled freedom of teaching, and the pursuit of truth wherever that may lead?"

*General Ike disagrees. He recently told Columbia's trustees that if any one of them had suddenly been placed in command of an army, the Battle of the Bulge "would have turned out exactly as it did. . . ."

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