Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

continue to suggest the names of likely candidates fox the office under
consideration, he closed with this obsel-rration directed zgainat the con-
cept a£ forrral faculty govemnt:
As a matter of fact, fn nn experience covering a thfrd of a
century devoted to improving higher education, only once,
so far as 1 czn recall, did my min obstacle lie with the
trustees. It was the faculties who with their instinct for
self -preservation blocked the way,, , -71
The final meeting of the faculty in this series was held on
the 2nd October, called by Veblen a t Dr. Flexner's request. The group,
now augmented by Professors Herzfeld and Pkritt, abandoned its tentative
recotmendation, but still insisted it would be wrong to eppoint an under-
study. They wanted the Director to participate in the selection of his
successor, and therefore suggested that he confide his suggestions from
time to time to the Board and perbps even to the faculty. The letter,
again written by Riefler and Veblen, closed with the following paragraph:
In the meantime, 'we have one preeticzl suggestion to offer
toward deferring the problem for as long a time as possible.
We feel that the severity of the westher in Princeton in
February constitutes the greatest hazard to your continued
good health, Would it not.be possible for you to repeat
regularly the wacatio which you took last winter with such
satisfactory results? 92
In a response addressed only to Professor Veblen, the Director
expressed his gratification with tbe fzculty % decf sion, and said he would
canficie his thsnking to notes entrusted to Mrs. Bailey, so that he might
change his mind without troubling anyone. Re asked We-blen to "let Mr.
Riefler see this, and use your crvn discretion as to comieating it to
the other members of the faculty group."73
Heanwhile Flexner wrote to Dr, Aydelotte indicrtfng a relaxed
situation; the faculty had been havtng some sessions without the Director