Study Explores the Leadership Skills of Past University of California Presidents Clark Kerr and David Gardner

CSHE > News > Study Explores the Leadership Skills of Past University of California Presidents Clark Kerr and David Gardner

A new CSHE paper by Cristina González, a faculty member and former administrator at UC Davis and research associate at CSHE, explores the different leadership styles of two prominent UC presidents who helped to set the trajectory that has made the UC system so successful. Clark Kerr and David Gardner brought very different approaches to their duties, and each exemplified the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their respective leadership styles.

The paper examines the intellectual history of Kerr’s famous book The Uses of the University, including the influence of José Ortega y Gasset’s ideas about higher education, with a view to exploring Kerr’s vision for the university and how that vision might be expanded to take account of present challenges, in particular, diversity. The paper, which calls for leadership renewal and succession planning, pays special attention to the two types of administrators defined by Kerr--the visionary hedgehog and the shrewd fox.

The 7th Century B.C. Greek poet Archilochus wrote: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” According to González, Kerr was a classical hedgehog, a leader who took a long view. Gardner, on the other hand, was a quintessential fox, a leader with a talent for adjusting to changing circumstances. Kerr saw himself as one of the last hedgehogs but thought that modern universities were facing such complex conditions that they needed foxes to lead them. González says that universities need both foxes and hedgehogs to lead them and that they must actively prepare a diverse new generation of both kinds of leaders to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

The paper examines in depth how Kerr and Gardner tackled a wide variety of obstacles, helping to create the University of California as we know it today. Ultimately, Kerr was undone largely because of an inability to understand the emotions of students during the civil rights era. His gifts for rational analysis were undermined by the passion of the students. Understanding the depth of feeling surrounding issues related to diversity, Gardner took steps to meet the students’ needs, resulting in the backlash leading to Proposition 209.

The issues faced by Kerr and Gardner are the very ones facing the University of California today.

For access to the study, see: http://cshe.berkeley.edu/publications/publications.php?s=1

CONTACT:
Dr. Cristina González, University of California Davis
crigonzalez@ucdavis.edu

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