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ternal checks of accounts and operations; they should all maintain such a system.

(11) Property accounting is on an unsatisfactory basis in many of the land-grant institutions. Since millions of dollars are vested in both permanent and movable property, it would seem that an accurate inventory of physical holdings would be maintained everywhere. Yet only a limited number of the colleges have modern systems of perpetual inventories; in the remainder where periodic inventories are made they are frequently superficial and perfunctory. In some instances inventories are conducted at such wide intervals as to destroy their real value.' 'If their business affairs are to be conducted upon a sound basis, it is incumbent upon the institutions to install improved practices in property accounting and inventory taking.

(12) While an orderly procedure for handling purchasing has been generally established in the land-grant colleges, illogical arrangements exist in some cases where educational officers or faculty and administrative committees instead of the central business officer are charged with the approval of requisitions. A number of colleges compelled to make their purchases through central State agencies are hampered by long-distance control. There are even instances in which the authority over purchasing is divided between State officials and local institutional officers. Encroachment of State agencies upon institutional purchasing is due in large measure to the failure of the institutions to organize proper procedures and to establish centralized institutional control over this important function.

(13) The failure of many land-grant institutions to centralize control, provide a systematic procedure, and adopt definite regulations over travel, has resulted in confusion of practices and in the imposition of restrictions of every conceivable character. In a number of institutions authority over travel has been taken entirely out of the hands of local officers and assumed by State governments. The State exercises partial direct control in other cases. There now remain only 25 institutions that still retain complete control over travel by members of their staffs, a situation worthy of the concern of the administrative officers of all institutions, since travel of the staffs for educational purposes constitutes an important element of staff management. Expenditures for travel are made largely out of public funds. It is essential that the institutions themselves establish a proper system of centralized control and that a definite policy be adopted covering the issuance of travel orders. No travel should be sanctioned except when required by public interest or institutional needs. Control over all travel should be vested in the chief executive officer under limitations prescribed by the governing board.

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(14) A wide variety of plans, procedures, and arrangements for conducting auxiliary enterprises, service departments, and supervised organizations prevails among the different institutions. Not only do the methods of operating these projects vary as between institutions, but within the same institution. The outstanding fault found in most cases is that fiscal control and management have not been centered in the chief business officer; projects have been placed under the control of faculty or administrative officers and committees who have neither the time nor the inclination to exercise business-like supervision! In the case of many institutions, no attempt has been made to organize central service departments, although economies would result therefrom. In other institutions no satisfactory method of handling the finances of supervised organizations has been put into force. That the failure to proceed along sound business principles in the management of service and auxiliary enterprises is resulting in wasteful administrative practices is evident from the chapter of this report that discusses each of these enterprises in detail.

(15) An important need confronting the land-grant institutions is that they retain complete control over the financial affairs of athletics and that all athletic business be conducted through regular institutional channels. All moneys should be collected and disbursed by the chief business officer. This plan is not being followed in all the colleges. In some institutions a committee or board of faculty members has been delegated responsibility for collecting and disbursing athletic moneys. In others the authority has been vested in specially appointed officers, such as graduate managers and athletic directors, while some institutions still permit student athletic organizations to exercise control and handle the funds. Boards of trustees should take definite steps toward the reorganization of the financial administration of athletics in such cases.

(16) The machinery for the administration of the physical plants. is extremely inefficient in a number of the institutions. Centralized authority over the assigning of building and room space is frequently lacking. The result is that it is impossible to determine whether plants are being utilized to their fullest capacity. This involves the keeping of accurate records concerning the actual amount of classroom and laboratory space contained in the plant. In many institutions no such detailed records are kept. Without such data waste is certain to result in space distribution and difficulties will be encountered in the assigning of rooms on a systematic basis.

PART IV.-WORK OF THE REGISTRAR

The maintenance of accurate records of the student body is closely interrelated with the educational programs and the academic functions of modern institutions of higher education. Such records provide information of inestimable value in determining the efficacy of curricula offerings, in deciding the effectiveness of instructional processes, and finally in revealing whether the institutional objectives and aims are being achieved.

The duties of the registrar, upon whom falls the responsibility of keeping the records, are manifold. They include maintenance of records on accredited and nonaccredited high schools; examination. of credentials for entrance; enforcement of admission requirements; recording of enrollments by colleges, by departments, by curricula, by classes, by resident and nonresident status, and by degree and nondegree courses; recording of geographic destribution of students; density of college population; of migration of students; of scholastic standing and grades of students; of fulfillment of requirements for degrees; and collection and collation of a great amount of other statistical data regarding every student attending the institution. The following pages present a detailed study of the work of the registrars of the land-grant institutions.

Admissions

In recent years educators have devoted much time to the question of requirements for admission to college. The standards that at one time seemed to be satisfactory are now being questioned. Owing to the lack of uniformity in marking, the scholastic records of students fail to furnish a satisfactory basis for determining the student's qualifications for admission to the freshman class. So much is now being said in reference to intelligence tests and admission on the basis of ability that it hardly seems safe to predict what changes may be made in the future.

The purpose of this section is to record the standards and methods as to admissions used by different institutions in the hope that it may serve a useful purpose in the further study of this problem.

Admission to the Freshman Class

Number of units required for admission in 1927-28.—All the landgrant institutions report that they require of students graduating from 4-year high schools at least 15 units for admission to the freshman class. There seems to be a general agreement as to the number of units required and the specified units in English and mathematics. Institutions that admit students from the senior high school on 12 units in most cases will accept any 3 from the junior high school so as to conform to the usual requirement. For prescribed units by subjects and for the maximum units accepted in each group see Tables 1 and 2.

TABLE 1.-Requirements for admission to the freshman class in land-grant institutions as to courses required, including the amount of credit and the maximum credits allowed in each course (for the year ending June, 1928)

Required courses and number of units required in each course

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English

Mathe-Foreign

Social

Physics and bio

matics language science

logical science

Professional and vocational

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5

5

10

10

4

5

10

4

4

4

2

3

7

4

4

4

1011⁄2

4

312

4

4 82

08844

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1 No institution reported the maximum number of units in "other subjects."

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