Proceedings of the Board of Regents (1914-1917)

APRIL MEETING, 1915

15I

To the Honorable Board of Regents:Under date of March 29 Secretary Smith has asked that
I give an opinion as to the legality of certain changes in the
administration of the Phillips Scholarships proposed by a
joint committee of the Greek and Latin Departments of the
University. These recommendations are made in a communication addressed to the President under date of March
25th, I915, and signed by Professors Henry A. Sanders and
Campbell Bonner.
The proposed changes in the method of administering
the trust under the Phillips will are made desirable, if not
indeed necessary, by reason of changes in the conditions relating to admission to the University which have come about
since the Phillips will became effective. I have been unable to learn when the will was executed or when Mr. Phillips died, but the general understanding seems to be that the
will became effective at least twenty years ago, and at a time
when many students were offering Latin and Greek for admission to the University, and when consequently examinations were given in these subjects to many entering students.
As pointed out in the communication of Professors Sanders
and Bonner, there has been almost a complete change in this
respect. So few students now present Greek that it would
be possible to give examinations to only a very few
entering students. As one of the purposes of the creation
of the trust fund was to encourage excellence in Greek during the high school period, it is manifest that the plan can
no longer be carried out precisely as it was made by the
testator.
The pertinent provisions of the Phillips will are set
forth on pages I04 and Io5 of the proceedings of the Regents for 1915. The changes proposed in the Sanders-Bonner communication will affect only the first two clauses of
the trust provision. As to the first clause, the proposed
change in substance is that examinations at entrance shall
be required only in Latin, but that the student may at his
option also take examination in Greek. This unquestionably involves a slight departure from the plan made by Mr.
Phillips. It is possible that an over-technical court might
hold the change a violation of the trust. But I am strongly
of the opinion that this would not be the correct legal view
to take of the situation. 'The fundamental purpose of the trust
in question is to encourage the study of the so-called classical'
languages. Since the will became effective conditions have