Earning my degree: Memoirs of an American university president

Earning My Degree: Memoirs of an American University President

Volumn , Issue , 2005, Pages

  Gardner, David ^a,b  

^a AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   (United States)

^b National Academy of Public Administration   (United States)

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EID: 84875181992     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Book

References (144)

1. Allan M. Carter, An Assessment of Quality in Graduate Education (Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1966), 107.
2. See Clark Kerr, The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967, esp. vol. 2, Political Turmoil (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003);
3. Robert Cohen and Reginald Zelnik, eds., The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
4. Memorandum from Dean of Students Lyle Reynolds to Chancellor Vernon I. Cheadle, December 2, 1968, a confidential report on the October 14 takeover of North Hall, plus comments on the black students' movement.
5. See University of California Bulletin, November 4, 1968, 65, for a summary of the chancellor's report on this incident.
6. This more complete account of the material mentioned in note 5 was widely available on and off campus and among the regents.
7. Speech by Governor Ronald Reagan to the Channel City Club of Santa Barbara, California, October 21, 1968 (author's files).
8. "Reagan and Cheadle on UCSB," Santa Barbara News-Press, October 22, 1968.
9. Cheadle's announcement of disciplinary action after the October 14 sit-in.
10. Robert Kelley, Transformations: UC Santa Barbara, 1909-1979 (Santa Barbara: Regents of the University of California and Associated Students-UCSB, 1981), 40-41.
11. Also see Robert A. Potter and James J. Sullivan, "The Campus by the Sea Where the Bank Burned Down: A Report on the Disturbances at UCSB and Isla Vista 1968-1970," submitted to the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, September 1, 1970, a publication of the Faculty and Clergy Observer's Program, Santa Barbara, California; and for a national perspective on student unrest at this time see The Report of the President's Commission on Student Unrest (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970), which includes my own testimony before the commission on protests within UC in general and at UCSB in particular.
12. Report of the Santa Barbara Citizens Commission on Civil Disorders, "What Occurred? Causes? What Can and Ought to be Done?" September 15, 1970, 5.
13. Kelley, Transformations, 49.
14. Potter and Sullivan, "Campus by the Sea," 76-96. While the conclusion noted in the text reflects the judgment of the police investigation and the coroner's inquest, the cause of Moran's death was thought by some not to have been conclusively shown.
15. Kelley, Transformations, 53.
16. Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, Less Time, More Options: Education beyond the High School (New York: McGraw Hill, 1971), 2.
17. See "A Progress Report to the Regents of the University of California on the Extended University," May 17, 1972, which included all of the information pertaining to this initiative at that time, including the operating principles and policies.
18. See Deseret News, August 28, 1973, editorial page. Also for details of the reorganization and the personnel involved, see University of Utah Review 7, no. 1 (October 1973).
19. For further information about the artificial heart implant, see Margery W. Shaw, ed., After Barney Clark: Reflections on the Utah Artificial Heart Program (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984).
20. Terrel H. Bell, The Thirteenth Man: A Reagan Cabinet Memoir (New York: Free Press, 1988), 4-5. Reprinted with the permission of The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, from The Thirteenth Man: A Reagan Cabinet Memoir by Terrel H. Bell. Copyright © 1988 by Terrel H. Bell. All rights reserved.
21. Personal letter from Ted Bell, April 10, 1981.
22. Statement of Terrel H. Bell, secretary of education, announcing the establishment of a national commission on excellence in education, August 26, 1981, contained in a Department of Education press release of the same date (author's files).
23. Bell, Thirteenth Man, 119.
24. Remarks of President Ronald Reagan to the members of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, October 9, 1981, the White House (author's files).
25. A portion of the author's remarks to President Reagan, October 9, 1981 (author's files).
26. See National Commission on Excellence in Education [David Pierpont Gardner, chairman], A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1983). Or see online at www.goalline.org/Goal%20Line/NatAtRisk.html.
27. Bell, Thirteenth Man, 120-121.
28. Author's letter to commissioners transmitting text of the final report of A Nation at Risk, April 12, 1983. The report underwent modest revisions before it was submitted to Secretary Bell near midnight on April 17.
29. Recollections of Milton Goldberg, the commission's executive director, who was present when Secretary of Education Bell responded to his reading of the report.
30. See A Nation at Risk.
31. From verbatim transcript of White House press conference of April 26, 1983, on A Nation at Risk (author's files).
32. From text of President Reagan's remarks on April 26, 1983, formally receiving the report, the White House (author's files).
33. Bell, Thirteenth Man, 130-131.
34. Siri J. Voskuil, "A Nation at Risk: Commission Members' Perceptions and Appraisals Fifteen Years Later" (Ph.D. diss., Marquette University, 1999), 137. This work is the most complete, fair, and accurate account I have read of the commission's work, its report, and the results; chapter 5 reviews and analyzes the comments of the report's major critics and the reaction to those by some commissioners.
35. Bell, Thirteenth Man, 131.
36. Text of radio address to the nation by President Reagan on A Nation at Risk, April 30, 1983, the White House (author's files).
37. Bill Peterson, "Inside the Education Department," Washington Post, May 5, 1983.
38. See Albert Shanker, "A Landmark Revisited," New York Times, May 9, 1993.
39. Voskuil, "Nation at Risk," 42-43. Christa McAuliffe was the teacher, one of the seven who died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger just after liftoff in 1986. See also Thomas Toch, In the Name of Excellence: The Struggle to Reform the Nation's Schools, Why It's Failing, and What Should Be Done (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
40. Voskuil, "Nation at Risk," 47.
41. U.S. Department of Education, Education Week, June 2, 1984. Here are the major proposed state reforms that followed the issuance of our report fourteen months earlier:
42. Edward B. Fiske, "35 Pages That Shook the U.S. Education World," New York Times, April 27, 1988. Entitled American Education: Making It Work (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1988), the conference report focused on "how far we've come and what still needs to be done."
43. For Voskuil's report of the commissioners' views of my chairmanship, see "Nation at Risk," 123-24.
44. Bell, Thirteenth Man, 151-52.
45. Author's letter to President Reagan, June 5, 1985 (author's files).
46. Letter from Ronald Reagan to author, July 12, 1985 (author's files).
47. William J. Bennett, Willard Flair, Chester Finn, Jr., Rev. Floyd Flake, E. D. Hirsch, Will Marshal, and Diane Ravitch, "A Nation Still at Risk," Policy Review, no. 90 ( July-August 1998): 2-9.
48. See Paul E. Peterson, ed., Our Schools and Our Future: Are We Still at Risk? (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 2003).
49. Bell, Thirteenth Man, 159.
50. For a review of the effects of A Nation at Risk twenty years later, see David T. Gordon, ed., A Nation Reformed? American Education 20 Years after "A Nation at Risk" (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Education Press, 2003).
51. See also Milton Goldberg, "Risk Chief Looks Back and Ahead,"
52. Chester Finn, Jr., "Are We Still at Risk?" San Francisco Chronicle, April 25, 2003
53. Ben Feller, "Results Are In on 'Nation at Risk,'" Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 2003; and numerous other op-ed and editorial comments in the nation's leading newspapers at about this time, the report's twentieth anniversary.
54. See especially Gerald Holton, "An Insider's View of 'A Nation at Risk' and Why It Still Matters," Chronicle of Higher Education, April 25, 2003, B13.
55. "Legislator Introduces a Resolution against Gardner's California Salary," Newsweek, March 14, 1983, 50.
56. See also Deseret News, March 17-18, 1983
57. "On the Spot," Time, March 14, 1983, 73
58. Ann C. Roark, "A Quiet but Savvy Gardner Steps Up to UC," Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1983.
59. Utah paid for the maintenance of the home and garden, and the cost of utilities. The costs of insurance and repairs to the home were also borne by the university, and the mortgage was made by the university at a 6.1 percent interest rate. The Utah arrangement was essentially the one approved for our Orinda home. See minutes of the Regents of the University of California, Committee on Finance, closed session, July 5, 1983 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
60. From the remarks I made to both the regents and the press upon my appointment as UC's president, March 2, 1983 (author's files).
61. Sacramento Bee, March 14, 1983, editorial.
62. Salt Lake Tribune, March 14, 1983.
63. See article 9, section 9, of the Constitution of the State of California. See also chapter 6 for a further explanation of this provision and its significance for UC.
64. For a comprehensive account of rankings, see Clark Kerr, The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967, vol. 1, Academic Triumphs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 403-42.
65. See minutes of the Regents of the University of California, Committee on Finance, February 17, 1983, for a report on UC's problems with federally funded research; of May 12, 1983, for salary comparisons of UC's faculty and administration; of September 16, 1983, for a report on UC's 1983-84 operating budget; and the Committee on Educational Policy on January 19, 1984, for a report on UC's expected enrollment.
66. See also "UC: No. 1 in the U.S., but Can It Last?" Los Angeles Times, April 21, 1983
67. "Don't Let UC System Decay," The Tribune, and San Diego Union editorial, June 7, 1983.
68. Angus E. Taylor, The Academic Senate of the University of California: Its Role in the Shared Governance and Operation of the University of California (Berkeley: Institute of Governmental Studies Press, University of California, Berkeley, 1998).
69. For further information on the workings of UC, see chapter 6.
70. The sources of nonstate funds were federal research grants, hospital revenues from UC's five medical centers, student fees and tuition, gifts and endowments, and auxiliary enterprises; residence halls, parking fees, intercollegiate athletics, bookstores, student unions, and other self-supporting activities. The state's share of the $3.1 billion was approximately $1.25 billion.
71. The UC statistics included in the text and in this note come from the University of California fact sheet for 1984, published by the University Relations Office of the Office of the President. The nine campuses of the university with the dates founded, size, and library holdings are indicated below:
72. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, closed session, September 16, 1983 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland). As the minutes report, some key positions were abolished: "most notably, the positions of Vice President of the University currently held by William R. Fretter, and of Vice President-Academic and Staff Personnel Relations currently held by Archie Kleingartner. Both Dr. Fretter and Dr. Kleingartner had announced in 1982-83 their intent to resign from these positions."
73. For Sinsheimer's recollection, see Robert L. Sinsheimer, The Strands of a Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 200.
74. Jack W. Peltason, introduction to David Pierpont Gardner, "A Life in Higher Education: Fifteenth President of the University of California, 1983-1992," Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (1997) [hereafter Oral History, UCB], vi-vii.
75. Martin Trow, in "UC Office of the President and Its Constituencies, 1983-1995," Oral History, UCB, 2002, 2:222-24.
76. These quotations and the others to follow from speeches at the inauguration can be found in "Speeches at the Inauguration of the Fifteenth President of the University of California, David Pierpont Gardner," June 1984, a pamphlet published and distributed by the Office of University Relations, Office of the President, Berkeley, California, with a covering letter from Regent Yori Wada, chairman of the Board of Regents.
77. For a complete description of UC's budget procedures, see the minutes of the Board of Regents, January 15, 1988, as well as comments and questions of certain regents regarding this matter (Office of the Secretary of Regents, Oakland).
78. It was not long afterward that Professor Malcolm Kerr of UCLA, who was at the Bellagio meetings, was appointed president of the American University of Beirut. Within a matter of months, he was gunned down and killed in his Beirut offices on campus. The university nonetheless remained open.
79. Steven A. Merksamer, in "UC Office of the President and Its Constituencies, 1983-1995," Oral History, UCB, 2002, 3:312-13, 316.
80. For faculty response to the 1984-85 operating and capital budgets recommended for UC by Governor Deukmejian in January 1984, see minutes of the Regents of the University of California, January 20, 1984, Faculty Representative Ralph Turner's comments, p. 6.
81. Clark Kerr, introduction to Gardner, "A Life in Higher Education: Fifteenth President of the University of California, 1863-1992," iii-iv. Minutes of the Board of Regents of the University of California, closed session, November 16, 1984, p. 10 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
82. For a more complete account of this project and its fulfillment, see Robert L. Sinsheimer, The Strands of a Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 257-64.
83. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, open session, January 16, 1985, pp. 6-7 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
84. By way of example, see David P. Gardner, "The Pacific Century," Science 237, no. 4812 ( July 17, 1987): 233.
85. Personal letter from Helmut Kohl to David P. Gardner (translated from German), March 9, 1988. Kohl's concerns have been borne out.
86. David P. Gardner, "Humanities and the Fine Arts: The Soul and Spirit of Our Universities," the David P. Gardner Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts, University of Utah, May 31, 1984 (published by the University of Utah, 1984) (author's files; also available from University of Utah archives).
87. Also "The Humanities and the Fine Arts: The Soul and Spirit of Our Universities," Center Magazine 17, no. 6 (November-December 1985): 5-10.
88. Copies of the Smelser report, "Report on Lower Division Education," are available from the Secretary of the Regents of the University of California, Oakland.
89. Also see Neil J. Smelser in "UC Office of the President and Its Constituencies, 1983-1995," Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (2002), 2:193-99.
90. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, October 16, 1986, pp. 9-10, 15 (Secretary of the Regents of the University of California, Oakland).
91. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, Committee on Educational Policy, July 16, 1992, pp. 7-8 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
92. Memorandum from Alix Schwartz to Christina Maslach, September 26, 2002.
93. Letter from Carlton Bovell to Anne Kilmer, July 4, 1992.
94. From introductory remarks by David Gardner (Office of the President, University of California, Oakland).
95. For a summary of the presentation, see also minutes of the Regents of the University of California, October 20, 1988, pp. 2, 3-6 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland). See appendix 1 for details.
96. See relevant enrollment data, Office of the President of the University of California, Office of the Budget, August 2, 2002.
97. For more detailed accounts of some of the programs discussed in this chapter, see "Profile 1985," published by the Office of the President, University of California, 1985; and "Looking Forward to a New Century, The University of California, a Special Report to the People of California," published by the Office of the President, the University of California, June 1988.
98. Letter from David Pierpont Gardner to chancellors, September 21, 1989, amending the student code and titled "Universitywide Student Conduct: Harassment Policy" (Office of the President of the University of California, Oakland).
99. Letter from Paul L. Hoffman, Edward Chen, Betty Wheeler, Ramona Ripston, Dorothy M. Ehrlich, and Linda Hills, representing California chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union to David Pierpont Gardner, August 8, 1990 (Office of the President of the University of California, Oakland).
100. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, May 20, 1988 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
101. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, November 20, 1987 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
102. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, June 15, 1990, p. 35 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
103. Text of David P. Gardner's remarks to the Regents of the University of California, September 20, 1990, pp. 4-5, 6 (Office of the President of the University of California, Oakland).
104. Letter from David P. Gardner to chancellors, March 8, 1990 (Office of the President, University of California, Oakland).
105. Letter from William B. Baker, vice president for budget and university relations, to William Frazer, senior vice president for academic affairs, August 23, 1990.
106. Letter from Ralph Nader to David P. Gardner, September 19, 1990.
107. Letter from David P. Gardner to Ralph Nader, October 4, 1990.
108. Letter from David P. Gardner to Joint Legislative Conference Committee on the Budget, State Capitol, Sacramento, California, June 5, 1991, p. 4.
109. Letter from David P. Gardner to Robert J. Campbell, September 4, 1992.
110. Letter from Donald L. Reidhaar to Regent William A. Wilson, August 24, 1977.
111. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, January 18, 1985 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
112. Remarks of Chief Minister Buthelezi, chairman of the African Black Alliance, minutes of the Regents of the University of California, special meeting, June 10, 1985 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
113. I did not respond to this comment by the Speaker, but I remember wondering if he really thought one's religion means nothing more than putting on or taking off a pair of shoes; I assumed any reference to this comparison would embarrass him, something I surely had no desire to do. Besides, I believed most people listening to our exchange would understand the inherent weakness of his assertion (as Pickens's comments suggest).
114. William Pickens, "The Appearance of University of California President David Gardner before the Assembly Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education Concerning the Issue of the University's Investments in Companies Doing Business in South Africa," May 14, 1985, pp. 1-4 (Pickens has the original of these recollections; copy in author's files).
115. Neil Smelser, in "UC Office of the President and Its Constituencies, 1983-1995," Oral History, UCB, 2002, 2:171-72.
116. Text of David P. Gardner's statement on university investment policy, minutes of Board of Regents meeting, San Francisco, June 21, 1985, pp. 4-5. See the same minutes for a complete account of this meeting and the particulars of the resolution I proposed as adopted by the board (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
117. The four newly appointed regents were Roy Brophy, Tirso del Junco, Leo J. Kolligian, and James Toledano (the alumni regent).
118. I was at Harvard's 350th birthday party (Foundation Day) on September 4, 1986, having been invited to represent and to bring greetings from the nation's public colleges and universities. Other speakers that morning included Paul Gray, president of MIT; Benno Schmidt, president of Yale; Lord Adrian, vice chancellor of Cambridge University; Derek Bok, president of Harvard University; and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
119. David P. Gardner, "Campus and Government Must Reach New Understanding," Times Higher Education Supplement (London), January 4, 1980, 6.
120. For a list of Tanner lectures since 1978, see Grethe B. Peterson, ed., The Tanner Lectures on Human Values (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2002), 23:331-41.
121. The tour included some twenty-three rooms devoted to the exploits of the country's President Kim Il Sung during the Japanese occupation of North Korea and Manchuria before World War II.
122. In his oral history my successor, Jack Peltason, also remarked its bias: "I've been covered by the rivals of the sixties, and I've been covered by the right wing, but I've never been so unfairly covered as I was by the San Francisco Examiner!"
123. ( Jack W. Peltason, "Political Scientist and Leader in Higher Education, 1947- 1995: Sixteenth President of the University of California, Chancellor at UC Irvine and the University of Illinois," Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley [2001], 521).
124. Clark Kerr, introduction to David Pierpont Gardner, "A Life in Higher Education: Fifteenth President of the University of California, 1983-1992," Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (1997), iv.
125. Letter from David P. Gardner to chancellors, "Policy on Associate to the President/ Chancellor," November 1, 1987 (Office of the President of the University of California, Oakland). Provisions for spouses included access to UC libraries and facilities along with UC parking permits, travel expenses, automobile allowances, travel insurance for UC business, workers' compensation coverage, and business cards with "Associate" title.
126. Letter from David P. Gardner to Meredith Khachigian, chairman, Board of Regents of the University of California, dated November 13, 1991, and given to the regents on November 14, 1991.
127. Laurie Becklund, "The Gardners: An Uncommon Partnership," Los Angeles Times, January 1991. This article was syndicated to newspapers across the country, and I received over 2,000 letters from persons who had read it and wished to express their feelings about it.
128. Kerr, introduction to Gardner, "A Life in Higher Education," iv.
129. Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, special meeting, April 20, 1992, pp. 6-9 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
130. San Francisco Examiner, June 7, 1992.
131. Russell Schoch, "A Harsh Spotlight on UC," California Monthly, June 1992, 13.
132. Drawn from my remarks at the meeting of the Board of Regents of the University of California, September 18, 1992. The board's minutes also include the text in full, pp. 3-9 (Office of the Secretary of the Regents, Oakland).
133. Clark Kerr, The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967, vol. 1, Academic Triumphs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 414.
134. Kerr, introduction to Gardner, "A Life in Higher Education," iv.
135. Glenn T. Seaborg, in "UC Office of the President and Its Constituencies, 1983-1995," Oral History, UCB, 2002, 2:144-45, 143.
136. Jack W. Peltason, introduction to Gardner, "A Life in Higher Education," viii-ix.
137. Marvin L. Goldberger, Brendan A. Maher, and Pamela E. Flatteau, eds., Research- Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change (Washington D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995).
138. Kerr, The Gold and the Blue, 1:406, 405, 407.
139. Graham and Diamond, Rise of American Research Universities, 193.
140. David S. Webster and Tad Skinner, "Rating PhD Programs: What the NRC Report Says . . . and Doesn't Say," Change 28, no. 3 (May-June 1996): 37-40. This analysis refers to campuses with fifteen or more programs rated and hence applies to all UC campuses except UCSF.
141. "Bay Area School Reform Consortium," a five-year summary report, Hewlett Foundation, Menlo Park, California, January 10, 2001.
142. "The Universities Project," a summary report, Hewlett Foundation, Menlo Park, California.
143. See David Pierpont Gardner, "Biographical Memoir: William Redington Hewlett," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 147, no. 2 ( June 2003): 162.
144. "Chairman's Statement," in Annual Report of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 1998 (Menlo Park, Calif., May 1999), x-xi.