Clark Kerr Quotes

7 Sourced Quotes

A university anywhere can aim no higher than to be as British as possible for the sake of the undergraduates, as German as possible for the sake of the public at large-and as confused as possible for the preservation of the whole uneasy balance.

Clark Kerr
The university and segments of industry are becoming more and more alike. As the university becomes tied into the world of work, the professor—at least in the natural and some of the social sciences—takes on the characteristics of an entrepreneur... The two worlds are merging, physically and psychologically... The campus and society are undergoing a somewhat reluctant and cautious merger, already well advanced. M. I. T. is at least as much related to industry and government as Iowa State ever was to agriculture.

Clark Kerr
One of the most distressing tasks of a university president is to pretend that the protest and outrage of each new generation of undergraduates is really fresh and meaningful. In fact, it is one of the most predictable controversies that we know. The participants go through a ritual of hackneyed complaints, almost as ancient as academe, while believing that what is said is radical and new.

Clark Kerr
The university has become the multiversity and the nature of the presidency has followed this change.... The president of the multiversity is leader, educator, wielder of power, pump; he is also officeholder, caretaker, inheritor, consensus seeker, persuader, bottleneck. But he is mostly a mediator.

Clark Kerr
The United States has, overall, the most effective system of higher education the world has ever known.

Clark Kerr
The employers will love this generation... they will be easy to handle.

Clark Kerr
I find that the three major administrative problems on campus are sex for the students, athletics for the alumni, and parking for the faculty.

Clark Kerr