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The University of Michigan. Wilfred Byron Shaw
Читать онлайн.Название The University of Michigan
Год выпуска 0
isbn 4064066147426
Автор произведения Wilfred Byron Shaw
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
It was one of the University's greatest misfortunes that her first President was not permitted to work out his plans. The story of his removal is a sad one, though fortunately the issues were largely personal and did not involve fundamental University policies. When Dr. Tappan came to Michigan he found the Faculty and Regents entirely ready to co-operate with him; glad, in fact, to have a strong hand at last at the helm. The Board sympathized with his ideals and the Faculty seconded him loyally in all his efforts. This happy state of affairs continued from 1852 to 1858, when, in conformity with the constitutional provision of 1850, a new Board of Regents succeeded the one which had chosen him as President. This Board was not only entirely new, but it was composed of men who lacked what would seem to be the elementary qualifications for such a task; in fact, few if any of them had had any academic training whatever. Nevertheless this did not in the least embarrass them, and they proceeded at once to take a very active part in University life. It soon became evident that there was a great difference between their views as to the duties of the President, and those of Dr. Tappan, who assumed that, as executive officer, his authority in the internal affairs of the University and over the Faculty was, under certain limitations, comprehensive and effective. He could not see how the University could properly develop otherwise.
The new Regents, on the contrary, seemed to feel that not only the administration of the University finances but a great share of the legislative and administrative power rested with them; and they proceeded to act upon that assumption. They prepared a set of rules for the conduct of the University without consulting President Tappan, and appointed a series of executive committees which seriously limited his control. Certain of the Regents were particularly aggressive, especially Levi Bishop, the Detroit member of the Board, who for a long period wrote anonymous articles on the University in a Detroit paper, giving his biased view of all that happened in the Regents' meetings. The Ann Arbor Regent, Donald MacIntyre, whose banking office became the unofficial center of University affairs, also proved himself unfriendly to the President.
The Faculty, unfortunately, was divided in its sympathies. It may be said that Dr. Tappan possessed the defects of his qualities. He showed a certain lack of fellowship and understanding in dealing with some of his associates and assumed, perhaps unconsciously, an air of authority and an attitude of superiority which was resented. Where his pre-eminent position was unquestioned, as in his relations with the students and with the people of the State, the charm and graciousness of his manner and his parental kindness won him universal friendship and respect. Moreover Dr. Tappan was courageous, generous, and direct in all his dealings, in spite of that touch of condescension. He insisted strongly, however, on what he regarded as his prerogatives and exhibited a certain lack of diplomacy and forbearance in dealing with the Regents and Faculty, which under ordinary circumstances would have been regarded as the personal idiosyncrasy of a great man. But with a majority of the Regents definitely opposed to him from the first and with a growing Faculty cabal in support, it weighed heavily against him. His every action was criticized. Though he was a clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, and was affiliated with the Presbyterian church in Ann Arbor, he emphasized the University's non-sectarian character, and paid no attention to the denominational affiliations of the candidates in making appointments to the Faculty. He carried this policy so far that he took no active part in the affairs of his own church in Ann Arbor, a course which was resented by the Presbyterians, while it won him no friends in the other churches which he attended impartially. His European habit of serving wine at his table also was severely censured, particularly by the local Regent, who was a Presbyterian and a strong prohibitionist. Finally, his efforts to maintain a high standard in the Faculty by holding in subordinate positions men who had not proved their ability did not increase the number of friends among his colleagues.
A change was anticipated in 1864, when a new Board of Regents offered promise of a different order. Dr. Tappan therefore, in spite of many temptations to resign, continued to hold his position, largely because of the appeals of his friends, particularly students and alumni, to "stick it out." But certain members of the old Board, it was said, had stated that they would bring about his removal before the end of their term. The event proved their intention, for the retiring Board, on June 25, 1863, without warning, and only giving him a few hours to offer his resignation, summarily removed him from the offices and duties of President and Professor of Philosophy. At the same meeting Dr. Tappan's son was also removed from the position of Librarian, which he had held most successfully for some years, while Dr. Brünnow, who had married his only daughter, was dismissed from the Professorship of Astronomy, where he had contributed so much to the reputation of the University. The Board then elected to the Presidency and the Professorship of Rhetoric and English Literature Dr. Erastus O. Haven, who had served as Professor of Latin, and later of History and English Literature, from 1852 to 1856, and who had afterward been engaged in the publication of a religious paper of the Methodist Church in Boston. Dr. L.D. Chapin, Amherst, '51, pastor of the Ann Arbor Presbyterian church, who was among those considered for the Presidency, was elected to the Professorship of Moral Philosophy.
Dr. Tappan never returned to Michigan. He spent the rest of his life in Europe and died in Vevey, Switzerland, in 1881. He had come to Ann Arbor with high hopes, the fulfilment of a desire to take part in the "creation of an American University deserving the name," and his disappointment and disillusionment was a crushing blow. His spirit still lived, however, in the institution he loved and served, for we know now that no man has had so large a share as he in shaping the course the University was to take or insuring a proper direction of the first steps. When he came he found a small struggling college of 222 students; when he left there were 652 students in three flourishing departments and the beginning of a real University. Were he alive today he would realize that his great work was not in vain. The earnest invitation of the Regents that he be the honored guest of the University at the 1875 Commencement, which was declined because of failing health, must have softened bitter memories, particularly as the message of acknowledgment included a statement renewing the invitation for the following year and incorporated a resolution erasing all criticism from the Regents' record.
The situation which faced his successor was a delicate one. The removal of Dr. Tappan had created a storm which grew rather than decreased, and President Haven found an unfriendly community and a hostile student body awaiting him. Every effort, in fact, was being made to secure the re-election of Dr. Tappan as soon as the new Board of Regents was in authority. President Haven, however, who had known nothing of the circumstances which led to the removal of Dr. Tappan when he accepted the Presidency, showed great wisdom and tact in this emergency. He won the respect of every one by an announcement that he did not intend to stay unless re-elected by the new Board, and appealed for harmony and good feeling in the face of what was to all a difficult situation. At their first session the new Board of Regents considered the recalling of Dr. Tappan. Floods of letters had been received from alumni, students, and friends of the University, advocating such action, but the Regents felt that this course would be unwise as it would have involved practically a reorganization of the whole Faculty. The personal character of the trouble which resulted in the removal of Dr. Tappan, emphasized later by an injudicious statement issued at the suggestion of some of his friends, would have rendered such a course almost inevitable.
Dr. Haven was not a man of the powerful caliber of his predecessor but he proved a most satisfactory administrator during a trying period. Of a more conservative temper, he devoted himself to caring for the immediate affairs of the University rather than the problems of future development. He was born in Boston, November 1, 1820, and was graduated from Wesleyan University in 1842. After a few years spent in teaching, he entered the ministry of the Methodist Church, but resigned in 1852 to accept the professorship of Latin in the University. Like his predecessor, he had an extraordinary ability as a speaker, though he was more given to epigrams and felicities of expression, with which his speeches fairly sparkled. His characteristic humor, quoted by Professor Winchell in his Memorial Address, is illustrated by the following passage:
Might not a parasite on the back of an ox … having found out by actual measurement the circumference of the ox, and by mathematical calculation, the diameter of the ox,