Richard C. Atkinson’s eight-year tenure as president of the University of California (1995–2003) reflected the major issues facing California itself: the state’s emergence as the world’s leading knowledge-based economy and the rapidly expanding size and diversity of its population. As this selection of President Atkinson’s speeches and papers reveals, his administration was marked by innovative approaches that deliberately shaped U.C.’s role in this changing California. These writings tell the story of the national controversy over the SAT and Atkinson’s successful challenge to the dominance of the seventy-five-year-old college entrance examination. They also highlight other issues with national significance: U.C.’s experiments with race-neutral admissions programs; the challenges facing academic libraries and the University’s pioneering activities with the California Digital Library; and the University’s involvement in new paradigms of industry-university research. Together, these speeches and papers open a window on an eventful period in the history of the nation’s leading public research university and the history of American higher education.
The Pursuit of Knowledge Speeches and Papers of Richard C. Atkinson
About the Book
Table of Contents
Foreword by David S. Saxon
Editor’s Note
A Brief History of the Atkinson Presidency, 1995–2003
SEVENTEENTH PRESIDENT
Remarks on Receiving the University of Chicago Alumni Medal
The Golden Fleece, Science Education, and U.S. Science Policy
Remarks on Appointment as President of the University of California
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
The Future of the University of California: A Personal View
The Role of the President of the University
Robert Gordon Sproul
Tradition at the University of California
Diversity: Not There Yet
THE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY AND ITS RESPONSIBILITIES
The Numbers Game and Graduate Education
Opportunities for Chinese and American Universities in the Knowledge-Based Economy
The Globalization of the University
Academic Freedom and the Research University
A New World of Scholarly Communication
ACHIEVEMENT VERSUS APTITUDE
Standardized Tests and Access to American Universities
The California Crucible: Demography, Excellence, and Access at the University of California
Statement on the Vote by the College Board Trustees to Revise the SAT I
College Admissions and the SAT: A Personal Perspective
Farewell Remarks to the Board of Regents
Regents’ Resolution in Honor of Richard C. Atkinson
Index
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