Clark Kerr (1911–2003) was an American professor of economics and academic administrator. A leader of 20th-century American education, his blueprint for California higher education had a significant impact across the U.S. and brought him renown abroad. However, his reputation was tarnished by his handling of the Free Speech Movement that swept the Berkeley campus in 1964.
Born in Stony Creek, Pennsylvania, Kerr attended Swarthmore College, Stanford University, and the University of California-Berkeley. He became an associate professor of industrial relations and was the founding director of the University of California-Berkeley Institute of Industrial Relations.
Kerr was chancellor of the University of California-Berkeley 1952–58 and then served as President of the entire University of California system 1958–67. In the latter post, he guided creating a three-tier system that guaranteed that a college education was available to all the state’s high-school graduates. This plan made California a leader in American higher education, and many other states emulated Kerr’s ideas.
Kerr’s years as the University of California’s President coincided with some of the most tumultuous periods of student protests. He was perceived as too soft on the Free Speech Movement student protesters in the 1960s. As the protests became increasingly bitter, Kerr was caught between liberal students and conservative politicians. In 1967 Ronald Reagan, then-California’s governor (and later President,) in his ex-officio role as the University of California regent, fired Kerr.
Kerr later headed the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and then chaired the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education. In these roles, he produced many publications covering every aspect of higher education.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Clark Kerr
The status quo is the only solution that cannot be vetoed.
—Clark Kerr
Topics: Change
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