Pragmatic Reformer as Romantic Radical? Clark Kerr and the University of California at Santa Cruz

Abstract

This chapter explores the reasons why the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) campus was founded as a collegiate university under the leadership of Clark Kerr, then president of the entire university. What were the reasons for Kerr to push for the creation of a collegiate model? What form did this take? Why did it essentially disappear in such a short period of time? Does the rapid change in the academic character of Santa Cruz mean that the experiment was a failure? Or can it be evaluated in ways that are more sympathetic both of the attempt to construct a collegiate model and the analysis of its performance? Within the context of exploring these questions, the chapter examines a number of issues: what is meant by the idea of the collegiate university, the use of Oxbridge as the ideal-type model of collegiality, the new universities founded in Britain in 1960 as possibly a more appropriate comparative reference point for the foundation of UCSC, and whether the research-led university can incorporate a commitment to the provision of high quality undergraduate education. The chapter, therefore, places the Santa Cruz experiment within a broad context that envelops many aspects of the Anglo-American tradition of higher education.