The Great Transformation in Higher Education, 1960-1980

By Clark Kerr

Subjects: Higher Education
Series: SUNY series, Frontiers in Education
Paperback : 9780791405123, 383 pages, February 1991
Hardcover : 9780791405116, 383 pages, February 1991
Out of print (Hardcover)

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Table of contents

Foreword

Prologue—Transformations

I. The American System in Perspective

Introduction to Part One
1. The American Strategy among Several Alternatives—Five Strategies for Education, and Their Major Variants

2. Heritage—Education in the United States: Past Assignments and Accomplishments

3. Structure—The American Mixture of Higher Education in Perspective: Four Dimensions

4. Functions—The Pluralistic University in the Pluralistic Society

5. Vignette—Remembering Flexner

6. Vignette—Disagreeing with Hutchins

7. Performance—Goals for and Effectiveness of Systems of Higher Education

II. The Unfolding of the Great Transformation: 1960-1980

Introduction to Part Two

8. Ex Ante—The Frantic Race to Remain Contemporary

9. In Transitu—What We Might Learn from the Climacteric

10. Ex Post—The Climacteric in Review

11. Vignette—Faculty: The Moods of Academia

12. Vignette—Students: The Exaggerated Generation

13. Vignette—Society: Industrial Relations and University Relations

14. Vignette—A Possible Residue The Intellectual versus Society: A Source of Conflict?
III. Governance and Leadership under Pressure
Introduction to Part Three

15. Changing Loci of Power—Governance and Functions

16. Changing Administrative Styles—Administration in an Era of Change and Conflict

17. Holding the Center—Presidential Discontent

18. Vignette—New Complications: The Multicampus System

19. Vignette—Enter the Federal Government: The Evolution of the Federal Role

20. Vignette—Reenter the States The States and Higher Education: Changes Ahead

21. An Eternal Issue—Caesar and God
IV. Academic Innovation and Reform: Much Innovation, Little Reform

Introduction to Part Four
22. Rebuilding Communities of Scholars—Toward the More Perfect University

23. Who Should Lead? Liberal Learning: A Record of Presidential Neglect

24. Vignette—How Hard It Is: Foreword to Great Expectations and Mixed Performance

25. An Urban versus a Rural Society—The Urban-Grant University: A Model for the Future

26. Vignette—A Residual Role for Higher Education Education and the World of Work: An Analytical Sketch

27. Vignette—The Longer Term: Review Article, "An Agenda for Higher Education"

28. The Eternal Verities—Universities: Open to Truth and Merit

Epilogue—Reflections

Description

Clark Kerr, former President of the University of California and a leader in higher education policymaking, offers his views of the turbulent decades when colleges and universities scrambled to provide faculty and facilities for the burgeoning student population, only to be faced later with economic depression and subsequent conservatism. From his unique vantage point, Kerr offers insights into the role of higher education—its performance under pressure, its changing climate, its efforts to serve the multiplicity of demands made upon it, and its success or failure in meeting those demands.

Clark Kerr is President Emeritus of the University of California and former Chancellor and Professor Emeritus of Economics and Industrial Relations at Berkeley. He chaired and directed the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education as well as the National Commission on Strengthening Presidential Leadership under the auspices of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. Dr. Kerr, author of The Uses of the University, currently co-chairs a Task Force on State Policy and Independent Higher Education for the Education Commission of the States.

Reviews

"This is a first-rate source of historical information from one who was personally involved in most of the issues. Clark Kerr pulls together the many currents that were running through the community of higher education in these post-war years to clarify the relevance and importance of these institutions to the ongoing of American society. He shows the enormous value to this country and to the free world of the great American universities, and he underlines the necessity for maintaining and enhancing these institutions to assure America's place as a leader of thought and social action in the free world. " — William Friday, President Emeritus, The University of North Carolina