Faculty meetings have discouraged many an university scholar. Here is philosopher George Santayana reflecting on them at Harvard near the turn of the century (1800s). He is quoted in "Glimpses of the Harvard Past" (Harvard University), by Bernard Bailyn, Donald Fleming, Oscar Handlin and Stephan Thernstorm.

The Faculty meetings were an object lesson to me in the futility of parlimentary institutions. Those who spoke spoke badly, with imperfect knowledge of the matter in hand, and simply to air their prejudices. The rest listened. If there was a vote, it revealed not the results of the debate, but the previous and settled sentiments of the voters. The uselessness and the poor quality of the whole performance were so evident that it surprised me to see that so many intelligent men - for they were intelligent when doing their special work - should tamely waste so much time in keeping up the farce.