some length in this place.

The University has been truly fortunate for the most part in the men who
have composed the governing body. There have been times, it is true,
when relations between the Regents and the Faculties have been far from
ideal, but it is no less true that the history of the past eighty years
will show a remarkable spirit of co-operation and harmony between the
two bodies. Otherwise the University could not have become what it is.
While the Regents for the most part have not been men primarily
interested, or trained, in educational matters, they have taken their
duties seriously and have been unselfish in their service for the
institution, with no reward for their labors save the honor inherent in
their office. They have sought earnestly to understand the problems
before them, and, in whatever measures they took, to keep always before
them the welfare of the University as a whole. With the ever increasing
numbers enrolling as students and the consequent well-nigh irresistible
pressure for elementary and the so-called "practical" courses, they have
been strong enough and wise enough, and sufficiently sympathetic with
the scholarly preoccupations of the leaders of the constantly growing
Faculties, to maintain and encourage the higher aims of the University
as a center of learning. It is true that the Board is sometimes
criticized for taking upon itself functions which might with propriety
rest with the Faculties and their administrative officers, but there is
at least a legal justification for this in the legislative provisions
upon which the powers of the Board of Regents rest. Thus in the Act of
March 18, 1837, the Regents are empowered to "enact laws for the
government of the University," and to appoint the professors and tutors
and fix their salaries. The number of professorships was specified and
fixed at thirteen; though it was provided in the first organization
that;

the Regents shall so arrange the professorships as to appoint such
a number only as the wants of the institution shall require; and to
increase them from time to time, as the income from the fund shall
warrant, and the public interests demand; _Provided, always_, That
no new professorship shall be established without the consent of
the Legislature.

The immediate government of the several departments was to rest with
their respective Faculties, but;

the Regents shall have power to regulate t