Clark Kerr Lectures
About Clark Kerr
Clark Kerr (1911-2003) joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1945 as an associate professor of industrial relations. A labor economist, Kerr attended Swarthmore before enrolling at Stanford University and then Berkeley to earn his doctorate. He acquired his first faculty position at the University of Washington before coming to Berkeley.In 1952, he was appointed to the newly created position of UC Berkeley chancellor and, from 1952-1958, guided the scope and organization of that position and helped direct the campus's physical growth. In 1958, he became president of the UC system. He spearheaded the negotiation of California's Master Plan for Higher Education, a 1960 document that endures to this day and is considered a model plan by many states and other nations.
While leading the UC's expansion to three new campuses, Kerr also wrestled with growing campus unrest including the Free Speech Movement. Under pressure by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, the UC Board of Regents fired Kerr in 1967. He went on to lead the influential Carnegie Commission on Higher Education from 1967-1973, and then its successor the Carnegie Council on Policy Issues in Higher Education until 1979. Combined, the Commission and the Council produced over 150 seminal reports and books on the condition and future of higher education. He completed his memoirs, The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967, shortly before his death in 2003.
Selected Publications
Industrialism and Industrial Man: the Problems of Labor and Management in Economic Growth (with John T. Dunlop, Frrederick H. Harbison, Charles A. Myers). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960.
The Uses of the University. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1964. (Godkin Lectures, 1963). Fifth edition, with additional chapters and new preface, 2001.
Marshall, Marx, and Modern Times: The Multi-Dimensional Society. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
Education and National Development: Reflections from an American Perspective during a Period of Global Reassessment. Nairobi, Kenya: University of Nairobi (afropress ltd.), 1979.
The Future of Industrial Societies--Convergence or Continuing Diversitiy? Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983.
The Many Lives of Academic Presidents: Time, Place & Character (with Marian L. Gade). Washington, D.C.: Association of Governng Boards of Universities and Colleges, 1986.
The Guardians: Boards of Trustees of American Colleges and Universities, What They Do and How Well They Do It (with Marian L. Gade). Washington, D.C.: Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, 1989.
The Great Transformation in Higher Education: 1960-1980. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.
Troubled Times for American Higher Education: The 1990s and Beyond. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
Higher Education Cannot Escape History: Issues for the Twenty-first Century. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
Academic Triumphs. Volume I of The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
Political Turmoil. Volume II of The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
| Statements About Kerr & the Lecture Series |
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"Clark Kerr is the nation's most distinguished statesman of higher education, renowned internationally not only as a scholar and academic leader, but as an insightful researcher and writer on the role of higher education in society. He did more than anyone else to put the UC system on the road to what it has become today - the world's leading commonwealth of intellect." — UC President Richard Atkinson, on the announcement of the Kerr Lectures "The Kerr Lectures are intended to draw on the legacy of Kerr's scholarly examination of higher education and its growing importance in what he termed the 'knowledge society.' Its establishment at the Center for Studies in Higher Education by President Richard Atkinson is appropriate not only because of Kerr's long and intimate relationship with the Berkeley campus, but also because he helped establish the Center in 1956 under an initial grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The lectures promise to bring a high profile and thoughtful consideration of the future of higher education. The announcement of the Kerr Lectures on the Role of Higher Education in Society is a major step forward for the Center and a unique tribute to Kerr." — John A. Douglass, CSHE Senior Research Fellow "The Clark Kerr Lecture Series on the Role of Higher Education in Society will continue several of the threads that have been woven into the work of Clark Kerr himself over the past half-century and more. He has written and spoken widely concerning the role of higher education in developing citizens for a democracy, in providing a well-trained labor force and new knowledge for a complex economy, in ensuring widespread opportunities for advancement in an increasingly meritocratic society, and in encouraging personal growth and satisfaction for all individuals through liberal education. The interaction of universities and society, the boundaries of each, the external conditions and support necessary for a thriving academic enterprise, all have been topics of his interest, and the establishment of the Lecture Series will ensure continued attention to these important issues in the years to come." — Marian Gade, Clark Kerr's long-time research associate "Higher education is confronting new challenges from the impact of technology to major changes in governance structures. The Kerr lectures will create a principal forum for the most creative commentators, both here and abroad, to confront these and other pervasive alterations in the environment of post-secondary education." — I. Michael Heyman, Chancellor Emeritus, UC Berkeley |
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Last modified: 15 April 2006 | e-mail