Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

See the Conversations with History Blog See a webcast of this interview: Gardner
Photo by Jane Scherr

This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas. This interview was cosponsored by the Center for Studies in Higher Education and its University of California History Digital Archive. Archival photos are courtesy of Dr. Gardner.

Welcome to a Conversation with History. I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today is David Pierpont Gardner. For forty years, Dr. Gardner has set a standard of excellence for leadership in higher education and in the nonprofit sector. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. His dissertation, The California Oath Controversy, was published by the University of California Press in 1967. Dr. Gardner held positions in the California Farm Bureau and was President of the UC Berkeley Alumni Association. In the mid-1960s he was a vice chancellor at UC Santa Barbara, and then a vice president of the University of California from 1971 to 1973. He was president of the University of Utah and professor of education there from 1973 to 1983. He was president of the nine-campus University of California and professor of higher education at its Berkeley campus from 1983 to 1992. From 1993 to the present, he has been president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. From 1981 to 1983 he chaired the U.S. Department of Education's Commission on Excellence in Education, which produced the seminal report, A Nation at Risk.

1. Growing Up in Berkeley ... family ... work ... music ... religion
2. Research... the loyalty oath controversy ... lessons for the university
3. The Role of President of the University ... locus of authority ... public trust ... California's fourth branch of government
4. Leadership ... "getting one's arms around" the institution ... being a historian ... understanding current dilemmas ... mediating between inside and outside ... case study: the budget
5. Public Educator ... believing in democracy ... writing for the people
6. Issues ... working with state legislators ... increasing campus diversity ... living with ambiguous policy
7. Lessons Learned ... lessons for students ... responsibility of educators ... the good fight

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