Education in California

Is Clark Kerr's Legacy Eroding?

Clark Kerr designed a system of higher education to which students from all walks of life have access. In the face of steep budget cuts to California schools, that legacy now may be threatened.

By Marie Felde and Nancy Chapman

Spring 2004 | Clark Kerr, a towering figure in higher education, died last December at the age of 92. As first chancellor of Berkeley, he made lasting improvements to student life on campus; as president of the University of California, he was chief architect of the master plan that guided California public higher education for four decades and is still a national model.

Although born in an era when fewer than 5 percent of America’s 18-year-olds attended college, the former Pennsylvania farm boy believed that all students were entitled to a college education, whether or not their families could afford it. On a national level, his vision is credited with launching what has become the Pell Grant program, the foundation of need-based federal support for college students.

A professor of economics and industrial relations and a masterful labor negotiator, Kerr joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1945 as a flood of post-war servicemen and women enrolled. What this generation of students did with the opportunities afforded them by the GI Bill of Rights would have a deep impact on Kerr’s insistence on universal access to higher education.

Kerr rose to prominence on the faculty during a particularly tense time in the university’s history. As the Cold War heated up, the University of California Board of Regents threatened to fire all professors who refused to sign a loyalty oath.

Some faculty members did refuse to sign, and Kerr, then a junior member of the Academic Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure, was a forceful and reasoned advocate for the faculty position before the UC Regents. In 1952, Kerr was the faculty nominating committee’s choice for the first chancellor of Berkeley.

Clark Kerr (1911-2003) speaks at a special convocation held at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre in December 1964. Steven Marcus photo

It was a fortunate choice for Berkeley students, for whom Kerr cared deeply. He greatly improved student facilities on campus in all spheres of student life, especially housing. In 1952, students were expected to find lodgings in privately operated rooming houses off campus. Through Kerr’s efforts, several university-owned residence halls were built near campus, accommodating 25 percent of all undergraduates.

He also changed a longstanding university policy that banned political speech on campus (twice he had to ban Adlai Stevenson from speaking on campus while Stevenson was running for the presidency); built a new, modern student union (the current Martin Luther King, Jr., Student Union) to give students a larger place to congregate; built tennis courts, student playing fields, and the recreational center in Strawberry Canyon; added cultural facilities (Zellerbach Hall and the Playhouse); constructed proper paths throughout campus; and established more counseling services.

Kerr served as chancellor until 1958, when he was elevated to president of the University of California system. He served in that role until 1967. It was an era of tremendous growth, planning, and student unrest.

California in the late 1950s and early ’60s faced economic decline, huge projected growth in higher education enrollment, and a new governor weary of educators bickering over academic program turf and resources, said John Douglass, senior research fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education.

There are similarities between the period leading up to the 1960 master plan and today, he said, in terms of significant state budget problems, an inadequate tax system, and large-scale growth in the demand for higher education enrollment.

When Kerr became UC president, UC Berkeley and UCLA were the university’s primary campuses, with specialized instruction offered at other campuses located around the state. By the time he left in 1967, the nine-campus UC system was in place, and enrollment had doubled to 87,000 students. Kerr oversaw the addition of the UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Cruz campuses during his tenure.

“I stood for diversity within the University of California. Rather than having one or two enormous campuses, we should have several campuses distributed around the state of reasonable size, serving the major communities of the state. Each one should be different—have its own personality, its own special character, its own sense of identity,” Kerr said.

As UC president, he also spearheaded the negotiation of California’s Master Plan for Higher Education. Adopted by the state Legislature in 1960 with only one dissenting vote and signed into law by Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, it assured access to public higher education for all California students and defined the roles of the UC campuses, California State University, and California’s system of community colleges. The master plan won Kerr a spot on the cover of Time on Oct. 17, 1960.

The plan resolved much of the competition between schools and led to expanded educational resources in a public higher education system known for excellence, accessibility, and relative affordability. It has been used as a model in education planning around the world.

As Kerr summed up his UC tenure at a 1967 news conference, he spoke of his accomplishments: “In the history of the university, we’ve never turned away a qualified student from the State of California; I hope we never do. It will be a sad day when that happens.”

That day may be imminent. Although California Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) butted heads with Kerr in the 1960s when he was UC Berkeley’s chancellor and she was a student active in the Free Speech Movement, she now expresses appreciation for his contributions to California higher education and a concern about its future.

“We are currently gutting his legacy,” said Goldberg, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, referring to continuing budget cuts for higher education.

“We need the leadership of someone like Clark Kerr right now to argue from the bully pulpit that higher education is important.”