Gospel: Constitution
Wisely, Dr. MacCracken kept the constitution short — just under 300 words — allowing his successors freedom to amend on the basis of experience. Through 1968, the constitution was altered seven times, and on the whole seems, in spite of misjudgment and human error, to have proved useful.
The constitution of the Hall of Fame provided simply that:
- The Senate of New York University shall appoint electors and run elections and amend election rules.
- There shall be about 100 electors, each for a six-year term, attention being given to geographical and occupational distribution.
- Elections shall be held every five years through 1970, and every three years thereafter, and by majority vote of the electors. Nominees must have been born in the United States and been dead for 25 years or more. (The waiting period was briefly changed to ten years, then back to 25, to 35, back to 25.)
- At the first election in 1900, 50 persons were to be admitted and their names inscribed on bronze tablets in the Hall; every five years thereafter, five more names added; and three more every three years, beginning in 1970. More names could be added at an election to make-up for any previous shortfall.
Arrangements are spelled out in a contract between the University and the “founder” of the Hall, Helen Gould, and in a series of additional conditions — the Rules — accepted and adopted by the University that year and beyond.