078
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Title
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078
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Transcription
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THE REGENTS
The act of the legislature approved February 15, 1869, which established "The University of Nebraska" provided that The general government of the university shall be vested in a board of regents, which shall consist of the governor, the superintendent of public instruction, the chancellor of the university, all of whom shall be members by virtue of their offices, and three persons from each judicial district, who shall be appointed by the legislature in joint session.
The governor was ex officio president of the board. The term of service then fixed at six years has never been changed. This plan was doubtless adapted from Iowa, just as the first territorial assembly had adopted the Iowa civil and criminal code. The English deprecatingly admit that they "muddled through" the war. The records disclose that the experimentation in government of our state universities is scarcely entitled to the English faint praise. It has merely muddled along. The case of our Iowa examplar is typical—though in some other states the fumbling has been more frequent and effusive.
The act of the first general assembly, passed February 25, 1847, which established the State University of Iowa, provided that it should be governed and managed by fifteen trustees, to be appointed by the first general assembly for a term of six years, the superintendent of public instruction to be the presiding officer of the board. After an unfortunate experiment, permitted by the constitution of 1857, with a "Board of Education" elected by the people, but having incongruous legislative powers, an act of March 21, 1864, provided for a board of nine regents, of which the governor was president ex officio, the president of the university a member ex officio, and the other seven members were chosen by the general assembly, as before. This method of choosing the regents continued until the separate governing body was abolished by the act of 1909, which placed the university, the College of Agriculture and
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Rights
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