Controlled Washington

Roland H. Hartley is currently campaigning for his third term as Governor of Washington. A former timber operator, he has never been known as a champion of progressive education, or even of that handy motto "education-for-all." Rugged Governor Hartley has, however, run things to his taste, notably six years ago when his Board of Regents ousted President Henry Suzzallo of the University of Washington (TIME, Oct. 18, 1926). Last week, like a lumberman smashing a log jam, he shook up the university once more. President Suzzallo, now head of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, must have watched with interest, for many of the logs that went bobbing away were educational machinery that he had built.

Washington's reorganization, as announced by President Matthew Lyle Spencer who is kept well under control by the Hartley-appointed Board of Regents, is from 13 schools and colleges into four: the College of Arts & Sciences, College of Technology, Law School, Graduate School. Washington's Forestry School is considered the best west of the Mississippi. Its reduction to a department is expected to result in decreased enrollment, ultimate elimination. Other schools or colleges to be eliminated or consolidated: Music, Home Economics, Fisheries, Fine Arts, Journalism, Library, Nursing. Business Administration. The Deans of Men and Women become "personnel officers." It is felt that these changes portend the end of co-education in Washington.

Washington degrees will be reduced to three: in Law, Arts, Sciences. Extracurricular activities will be minimized, optional courses curtailed, the whole curriculum made more rigid, the student workday lengthened. Vocational education, except in Law, is to be gradually reduced in accordance with Governor Hartley's lack of sympathy for it. Reason given for the whole change is the need for economy. The university administration's overhead comes to $125,000 a year. President Spencer has refused to say how much the consolidation would reduce this. Said Matthew Hill, best-known Washington alumnus: "Oppressive taxes and the public's willingness to accept any economy gives Hartley the opportunity he has wanted for eight years, to reduce the University to a liberal arts college. He would eliminate it entirely if he could get away with it."

Actual administrator of Washington is not President Spencer but William Neal Winter, regent and business manager in stalled by Governor Hartley. Regent Winter is a practicing Spiritualist, with a "control" known as Hugo. Last week Washingtonians were wondering publicly, "Who has control today, Hartley or Hugo?"

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