University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

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STATE BOARD AND FACULTY BOOK- 1

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Jnwa ' s i tatr Inarfc of That the eyes of all educators are directed toward Iowa and its pioneer system of centralized control over state educational institutions, was the statement made recently by Gov. B. F. Carroll in an address delivered at the University Assembly. Gov. Carroll, who appointed the present State Board of Education, professed great confidence that the men whom he has selected will succeed under the new system, and that their achievements will place Iowa conspicuously in the leadership as far as concerns state educational regulation. The law which was passed at the last session of the legislature and which went into effect July 1, 1909, abolished the three separate governing boards of the State University, the State College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, and the Normal School, and established in their stead one State board of education to consist of nine members of whom not more than five should be of the same political party. No more than three alumni of the above institutions may be members of the board at one time, and but one alumnus of each institution. The powers of the board are plenary as to the election and dismissal of pres- idents, instructors of all kinds and as to the control of property. It is mandatory for the board of nine to appoint a finance committee of three from outside its membership holding office for three years. The board itself is upon an honor basis, except for actual traveling expenses and a per diem of $7.00. The mem- bers of the finance committee receive an annual salary of $2,500 each. It is the duty of the finance committee to visit each institution at least monthly. The board and the finance committee have offices at the state house. This law follows ten years of direct agitation and failure of bills introduced in four successive legislatures, but the idea of it dates back as far as 1857, when the present state constitution was adopted. At that time a state board of educa- tion, embracing all the educational interests of the state including the common schools, was tried for a period of five years and then abolished. Historically, therefore, Iowa lias had a vision of correlating the educational interests of the state almost from its infancy, and the present la v, as finally adopted, represents the better elements of measures advocated by educators and legislators through all this period. The Board of Education in Iowa, though in office less than four months, has already caused it to be felt that their great mission was efficient educational development, rather than primarily the practise of economy or parsimony. Their decisive action in enlarging the buildings and equipment of the engineering de- partments of the College of Mechanical Arts and of the University, and their fostering of an advanced school of education at the University to complement the generously sustained State Normal College, gives assurrance of broad and pro- gressive correlating policies. With a body of nine men thus studying the co- ordination of state educational interests, having in the finance committee a group of experts in the organizing and finance side, and in the Presidents and faculties a group of experts on the educational side, it may be expected that correlation will progress wisely, and that Iowa will demonstrate to all skeptical witnesses the success of her pioneer venture in the field of centralized control of state educa- tional institutions.