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d. That the President should have consulted with the Trustee of the University as to ways and means of severing Dr. Ross's connection with the institution calls for no justification. Such consultation may be assumed as inherent in the relations of Trustee and President. The appointment was made subject to her approval and its continuance or termination was naturally subject to her consideration. Nor is it strange that differences of opinion as to ways and means of procedure in a case of this kind should have arisen between the Trustee and President.

e. To Dr. Ross personally and in the letter accepting his resignation the President expressed kindly appreciation of Dr. Ross's work as a student and teacher and of his character as a man. Those matters are aside from the vital question in hand and might be passed by without comment were it not for the fact that they were used by Dr. Ross to confuse and obscure real issues. It was wholly irrelevant what the President thought of Dr. Ross in other regards than the one in question, namely, that of his relation to academic dignity. Dr. Ross could hardly have remained seven years at Stanford University or anywhere else, if a great deal of good could not have been said of him by those who were associated with him. It must be said further that these statements were made in reliance upon Dr. Ross's expressed intention to withdraw quietly and without embarrassment to the University authorities. It was in deference to the spirit of this wish and out of desire not to occasion him unnessary inconvenience or hardship that the terms of his withdrawal were made the subject of discussion and were made easy by the cooperation of the Trustee with the President.

This explanation applies also to a particular letter of the President