186
Eckles: This is recorded on the morning of July 17,
1972. Interview between President Emeritus
Frederick L. Hovde and R. B. Eckles of the
Department of History in the Executive
Building at Purdue University. This inter­view
is for the Purdue University Archives.
Hovde:
Well, President Hovde, we were talking last
time about legislature and relations with
the state. Let's start out this morning
with problems the president encounters
with his faculty.
Well, obviously, in colleges and universities
the function of the president and the
board of trustees is to do everything within
their power to enable the so-called faculty
or the theachers of the institution to do
hheir jobs most effectively. If you assume
that the sole purpose of the institution is
of course, to teach and to do research and to
preserve knowledge and to discover new
knowledge. Then those things that contribute
to the search and the work toward those
objectives is of course the work of the manage­ment
and the administrat~on. For my part,
my relationships with the faculty as a whole,
the faculties of the divisions of the uni­versity.
r, and with faculty members as individuals
has always been very cordial and very happy.
In general I personally have always had great
admiration for the first-class teacher and
scholar, the scientist, the creative mind,
and wherever it existed in the University,
I always liked to do whatever I could to help
that individual ' or group of individuals.