Translation glossary: Yolanta Vlaykov

The entry for "rector" in the Oxford English Dictionary supports this, saying that there is such an office in English, Scottish and some "Continental" universities ; but with no mention of a U.S. usage related to universities, only "In modern use also sometimes applied to the holders of ancient chapelries and perpetual curacies, and in Scotland and the United States to Episcopal clergymen having charge of a congregation."

In my experience, smaller colleges and universities in the U.S. usually have a "President" as their chief officer, and it is this word which might fit the context of your question better than "Chancellor".

Larger universities and, particularly, state university *systems* (consisting of several seperate universities and campuses) are headed by a "Chancellor", while each seperate unit in the system will be headed by a "President".

Beneath the President of a particular university will be several "Deans" --Deans of the faculty, of the School of Liberal Arts, of Students, of Academic Affairs, etc.-- as many as the resources of the institution will bare, since we're talking about a self-perpetuating Bureaucracy here, usually spending other people's money and working on the "Peter Principle". Typically, the highest level of the administration of any university (or university system) is the most outrageously paid, frequently bringing down saleries of 10 times or more what the junior faculty or departmental secretaries (who actually keep the university functioning) earn.

Indiana University, the one I have been most familiar with over the last 40 years, is the "flagship" and largest university in the Indiana State University system (which consists of a dozen or so other state Universities, colleges and sub-campuses).

The whole system is headed by a Chancellor (who resides in Bloomington, where the main I.U. campus is) who presides over the whole system (subject to the approval of a "Board of Trustees").

Each seperate university or campus in the system has its own President, but there is only one Chancellor for the system.

In any event, I am 99.999% certain that "Rector" is incorrect, in U.S. usage.

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Note added at 22 mins (2004-01-09 15:05:46 GMT)
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Elvira, if you can give me more context, perhaps I can help you decide whether you are dealing with a "Chancellor" or a "President" at the particular university you have there.

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Note added at 40 mins (2004-01-09 15:23:48 GMT) Post-grading
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"in Romania this guy is in charge of the whole system in a university, so it corresponds to your chancellor."

Again, it would not be correct to use "Chancellor" for a small college or university or even a medium-sized university (**in the U.S.**).

I think that the essential requisite for a university having a Chancellor would be if it were made up of several different --and more or less distinct-- other universities (in, say, a state system) or, at least, "schools".

I did my undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University, which is not a particularly large one (about 3,000 students, in the sixties), but which was headed by a "Chancellor" (and didn't have a "President").

This was either because "Chancellor" sounds much more prestigeous than "President" or because that university was organised around several different and more or less autonomous "schools" (of Liberal Arts, Law, Medicine, Business, etc.), each of which was headed by a Dean, the Chancellor over them all.

On the Other hand, I *believe* that many quite large universities (Harvard, Princeton, etc.) are headed by a President and may not have an officer termed "Chancellor".

Historically, "Chancellor" of course came into a university context because the earliest European (continental) universities were connected with the cathedral chapter of the city they were in (Paris, Bologna, Montpillier, Orleans, etc.), and, in most places, were originally placed under the direction of the "Dignatary" (officer) of the chapter who was most directly concerned with reading and writing --and this was the "Chancellor" of the chapter.

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