University of California President Richard C. Atkinson announced today the establishment of the Clark Kerr Lecture Series on the Role of Higher Education in Society.

The series honors Kerr, who served as president of the university between 1958 and 1967. He is now president emeritus of UC.

“Clark Kerr is the nation’s most distinguished statesman of higher education, renowned internationally not only as a scholar and academic leader, but as an insightful researcher and writer on the role of higher education in society,” Atkinson said. “He did more than anyone else to put the UC system on the road to what it has become today – the world’s leading commonwealth of intellect.”

In addition to serving as president of UC, Kerr headed the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and then the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education from 1967 until 1979. Kerr came to UC Berkeley in 1945 as an associate professor of industrial relations and was chancellor at Berkeley from 1952 until 1958.

The Kerr Lecture recipients will present lectures at one or more UC campuses and will be expected to submit manuscripts related to their lectures suitable for publication. They will visit the Center for Studies of Higher Education at UC Berkeley, or other campuses for one semester to do research and write.

Recipients will be selected once every two years, beginning in academic year 2001-2002.

The lectures will be supported initially by the UC Office of the President, with $600,000 to be allotted over 10 years. The university will seek a permanent endowment to support the lectures.