A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

BOARD OF EDUCATIONAL SURVEY REPORT 107

tive autonomy. Therefore, the Survey Board recommends a reform
in the composition of the Board of Regents of the University. It believes that the two legislative members should be transferred to the
Board of Visitors, because that is the body which is the direct connecting link between the Government and the University. This change
is advocated without implying that the presence on the Board of Regents
of the chairmen of the Senate and House Committees on Education has
not in the past been helpful in securing favorable legislation, but in
recognition of the fact that their membership on the Board of Regents
has potentially the significance of political interference. The only exofficio members should be the Secretary of Public Instruction and the
Director of Education who are in charge of all public educational
activities below the college level, and the President of the University.
The Survey Board is also of the belief that the views of the faculty
on educational policy and administration can best find expression through
the President of the University. Hence it believes that the representative
of the University Council on the Board of Regents should be dropped.
The Survey Board approves of the retention of the two elected alumni
regents. It recommends that, in addition to the five for whom provision
has been made, four, or if the President has no vote, five additional
members receive their tenure by appointment of the Governor-General
with the advice and consent of the Philippine Senate. This reform
would, of course, be futile, unless the Legislature ceases to regulate by
statute those affairs of the University, which, by statute, it has placed
under the control of the Board of Regents.
An institution that is dependent chiefly upon legislative appropriations
for support will always find difficulty in planning ahead for necessary
educational and building expansion. In prosperous times, the Legislature is generous; in periods of economic depression, it is necessarily
parsimonious. If a university is to plan properly for the future it must
be assured of the major part of its annual income and of an annual
increase of income. The Board of Regents of the University of the
Philippines recommended in August, 1922, that a mill tax levy of three
and one-half tenths of 1 per cent be laid annually on the real property
of the Islands for the support of the University, and that public lands
be allocated to form the basis of an ultimate university endowment. The
bill, drawn in accordance with the recommendation, did not come to a
vote. The Board expresses its hearty approval of the principle contained in the recommendations as the best plan for a dependable and
permanent method of university support. It suggests, however, that a
fractional per cent of the total insular revenues or of the sales tax, would
be far more in keeping with the revenue system of the Insular Government.