The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 525

Alexander Penn Wooldridge

years. If a longer term of service can be secured it should be done
according to law. The term of the present members of the board--
eight years-is clearly unconstitutional. If they are to hold for a
longer period than two years the state constitution should be
amended so as to authorize them to do so, and then they should
be elected by the people as the judges of our supreme court are
elected.?
On March 3, Cooper had a bill introduced in the state legis-
lature which, if passed, would change the board of regents. Also
presented was a memorial listing the faults Cooper found with
the university. This went farther than his letter to the News as
it gave names and details.
The original plan of the regents as outlined by Dr. Ashbel
Smith was a sound one. ... But there was this fatal difference be-
tween Mr. Jefferson's [University of Virginia] plan and Dr. Smith's.
Mr. Jefferson's choice decided the election of the professors while
Col. Smith's influence in this respect was practically nil, ... the
secretary of the board, Mr. A. P. Wooldridge, having brought about
according to his statement to me, the election of the majority of
those chosen. ... Dr. Smith concluded after this meeting of the
board, indeed, he had thought so before, that legislative provision
for a chancellor or president was needed. . . The failure of the
board of regents to meet this need is evidence of gross incompetency.
The result has been that the real management of the University-
no board of this kind being capable of close direction .. -has
fallen into the hands of a few men at Austin. ... I refer to Messrs.
Leslie Waggener, A. P. Wooldridge, and Dr. Thomas D. Wooten. ...
The question which the friends of the university ask is this: Do the
members of this cabal possess the qualities of mind and character which
are needed for the wise management of the University? ... Take
Dr. Wooten. He is a busy physician without any college training."
He is an estimable gentleman, but his ignorance of university life
and administration has made him but little more than an instrument
in the hands of his colleagues. .
Mr. Wooldridge, a successful banker, ... does not belong, unless
I wholly misjudge 'him, to the broad grand type of business man who
interest themselves in higher education for the advancement of hu-
manity.
Chairman Waggener is not a broad great man. ... His culture
and his opportunities have not fitted him for such a place as he holds.
7"Galveston Daily News, February 26, 1893, p. 7.
76Wooten was a graduate of the University of Louisville. "The Father of the
University," The Alcalde (November, 1913), 7.

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