Synopses & Reviews
One of the last century's most influential figures in higher education, Clark Kerr was a leading visionary, architect, leader, and fighter for the University of California. Chancellor of the Berkeley campus from 1952 to 1958 and president of the university from 1958 to 1967, Kerr saw the university through its golden years--a time of both great advancement and great conflict. This absorbing memoir is an intriguing insider's account of how the University of California rose to the peak of scientific and scholarly stature and how, under Kerr's unique leadership, the university evolved into the institution it is today.
In this first of two volumes, Kerr describes the private life of the university from his first visit to Berkeley as a graduate student at Stanford in 1932 to his dismissal under Governor Ronald Reagan in 1967. Early in his tenure as a professor, the Loyalty Oath issue erupted, and the university, particularly the Berkeley campus, underwent its most difficult upheaval until the onset of the Free Speech Movement in 1964. Kerr discusses many pivotal developments, including the impact of the GI Bill and the evolution of the much-emulated 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education. He also discusses the movement for universal access to education and describes the establishment and growth of each of the nine campuses and the forces and visions that shaped their distinctive identities.
Kerr's perspective of more than fifty years puts him in a unique position to assess which of the academic, structural, and student life innovations of the 1950s and 1960s have proven successful and to consider what lessons about higher education we might learn from that period. The second volume of the memoir will treat the public life of the university and the political context that conditioned its environment.
Synopsis
"This is a major piece of work going far beyond California in interest, and you cannot doubt that I am an ardent supporter. Truly, on this occasion we can say that we will never see his like again."and#151;John Kenneth Galbraith, professor emeritus Harvard University
"In this account of his role in shaping the and#145;privateand#8217; life of the University of California and#151;its internal, academic, and administrative sideand#151; Clark Kerr has given us much more than a witty, insightful, down-to-earth history of the University of California in its most active growth phase; he has provided an extraordinary chapter in the history of higher education in this country. But then, what else would one expect from one of the wisest and most courageous educational leaders of our time?"and#151;William G. Bowen, President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, President Emeritus of Princeton University
"This book not only contains the memoirs of one of the greatest university presidents of the 20th century, it also gives an illuminating, first-hand account of what is surely the centuryand#8217;s most spectacular achievement in higher education: the rise of the University of California system."and#151;Derek Bok, President Emeritus of Harvard University
"This is a wonderful book at many different levelsand#133;.Clark Kerr and#151;statesman, scholar, and thoughtful citizen of the academic commonwealth and#151; brings to his writing the modesty, generosity, commitment to principle and openness to many points of view, the humane values and sense of mission that have always marked his extraordinary leadership." and#151; Hanna Holborn Gray, President Emeritus of The University of Chicago
Synopsis
The founding articles of the University of Chicago contained what was for the era a shocking declaration: andldquo;To provide, impart, and furnish opportunities for all departments of higher education to persons of both sexes on equal terms.andrdquo; In a time when many still scoffed at educating women, the university was firmly co-ed from the very start. One of its first hires was Marion Talbot. Ready for the adventure of a lifetime, she set her sights on Chicago at a time when the city was still considered all but the Wild West. Talbot eventually became the University of Chicagoandrsquo;s first Dean of Women, influencing a generation of female students.
Originally published in 1936, More than Lore is a unique firsthand account of the early days of the university, capturing the excitement and travails of life on an academic frontier. Talbot shares gossip from the faculty lounge, relays student antics in the dorms, and tells stories from the living rooms of Hyde Park. Itandrsquo;s also a fascinating look at life as an early twentieth-century college woman, with scandals over improper party invitations and underground sororities, petitions calling for more female professors, and campaigns to have students be known as andldquo;university womenandrdquo; instead of andldquo;college girls.andrdquo; With Talbot as our guide, we reenter a lost world where simply to be a woman was to be a pioneer and where the foundations of the modern undergrad experience were being established.
About the Author
Clark Kerr (1911-2003) was President of the University of California and a giant in public education. His books include The Uses of the University (1995), Higher Education Cannot Escape History (1994), Troubled Times for Higher Education (1994), and The Great Transformation in Higher Education (1991).
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Foreword by Neil Smelser
Preface
Part I. Introduction
1. Getting to Know Berkeley
2. A Giant Astride the University: An Appreciation of Robert Gordon Sproul
Part II. The First Chancellor at Berkeley, 1952-58
3. Answering the Big Question: Who Will Take Berkeley's Place in the Academic Big Six?
4. Defining a Chancellor's Sphere of Action
5. "The Best Balanced Distinguished University"
6. Getting Ready for the Tidal Wave
7. Improving Facilities for Student Life at Berkeley
8. A New Physical Development Plan for Berkeley
9. Responding to Some Post-Loyalty Oath Legacies
10. Reprise and Prelude: Three Struggles over the University's Orientation-1870, 1900, and 1950
Part III. The Presidency of the University: Overarching Issues, 1958-67
11. A New Agenda for the Reorientation of the University
12. A Master Plan for Higher Education in California
13. Moving from Unitary to Pluralistic Decision-Making (1957-59)
14. A Second Look at Decentralization (1965) and a Failed Proposal
15. Reconsiderations
Part IV. Nine Campuses
16. Creation of Three Campuses
17. Original Directions and Problems at the New Campuses
18. Mass Transformations and Administered Alterations
19. Innovations and Reactions at Santa Cruz
20. Reconsiderations on Attempts at Academic Change
21. Transformations at Davis and Santa Barbara
22. Transformations at Riverside and San Francisco
23. A Place in the Sun for UCLA
24. Clouds Obscure Berkeley's Sun
Part V. Universitywide Innovations
25. Academic Affairs
26. Student Life
27. Structural Adjustments
Part VI. Outcomes at the End of the Century
28. Pure Gold
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Honor Roll of University Leaders
Appendix 2. University of California Administration and Governance
Appendix 3. Indicators of Growth in the University of California
Appendix 4. Documentary Supplements
Notes
Acknowledgments
Credits
Index