Clark Kerr's University of California

This volume provides an intellectual history of Kerr's vision of the multiversity, as expressed in his most famous work, The Uses of the University, and in his greatest administrative accomplishment, the California Master Plan for Higher Education. Building upon Kerr's use of the visionary hedgehog/shrewd fox dichotomy, the book explains the rise of the University of California as due to the articulation and implementation of the hedgehog concept of systemic excellence that underpins the master plan. Arguing that the university's recent problems flow from a fox culture, characteried by a free-for-all approach to management, including excessive executive compensation, this is a call for a new vision for the university--and for public higher education in general. In particular, it advocates re-funding and re-democratiing public higher education and renewing its leadership through thoughtful succession planning, with a special emphasis on diversity. Gonale's work follows the ups and downs of women and minorities in higher education, showing that university advances often have resulted in the further marginaliation of these groups. Clark Kerr's University of California is about American public higher education at the crossroads and will be of interest to those concerned with the future of the public university as an institution, as well as those interested in issues relating to leadership, diversity, and succession planning.

Cristina Gonale is professor of Spanish and professor of education at the University of California, Davis. Her areas of expertise include education policy and governance, educational leadership, history of higher education, history of the University of California, and diversity and inclusiveness issues. Her writings on higher education have appeared in such journals as Science, Academe, The Communicator, Women in Higher Education, and Journal of Hispanics in Higher Education.

González (education and Spanish, U. of California, Davis) provides an intellectual history of Clark Kerr's (1911-2003) concept of the 'multiversity,' as discussed in his most prominent work, The Uses of the University, as well as what is considered his greatest achievement: the California Master Plan for Higher Education. The author calls for a new vision of the university and public higher education overall in terms of management, funding, succession planning, and an emphasis on diversity. She also notes that university advances have frequently resulted in women and minorities becoming further marginalized. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)