Angry Aftermath at Cal

The firing of Clark Kerr as president of the University of California was sudden and unexpected. But last week's reaction from Cal's faculty and students was entirely predictable: it was visceral and angry.

In a rare mood of harmony on the Berkeley campus, students massed near loudspeakers, sent up cheers as they heard their professors denounce the regents' dismissal of the university president. Assembled as the Academic Senate, 1,000 faculty members approved a resolution terming the action "reckless and precipitate" and amounting to "destructive political intervention" that "threatens the survival of the university as an institution of distinction." Professors applauded after Berkeley Chancellor Roger Heyns declared that "Clark Kerr was one of the reasons I came to this university," and insisted that his firing had "the appearance of a political reprisal," which was "deplorable."

"Senseless Action." The Berkeley student government fired off letters to 14 regents who had voted to dismiss Kerr, saying that their action had been "senseless and illogical." The firing was later denounced at a rally of 7,000 students at U.C.L.A., which was addressed by Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy, who later said he felt "a sense of deep sadness" over Kerr's dismissal. Similar protest rallies attracted 6,000 students at Berkeley, 5,000 at the Santa Barbara campus, 3,500 at Riverside. The university's nine chancellors met in Los Angeles, pledged to continue Kerr's fight against any university tuition as proposed by Governor Ronald Reagan, and to fight any "erosion of quality and education" caused by budget cuts.

Outside California, top officers of the American Association of University Professors, which had honored Kerr in 1964 as a defender of academic freedom, said his dismissal "has profoundly shocked the academic community." Dr. Samuel Gould, president of New York State's university system, called Kerr "an outstanding educator" and described the firing as "unfortunate."

At his first major press conference since the firing, Reagan calmly fielded barbed questions, insisted that the action had not been politically motivated. "I voted as one member of the board of re- gents," he said. "I would not initiate such a procedure and certainly did not feel that, in my first meeting as a regent, this was something that was properly on the agenda." Added Reagan: "This Governor has no intention of ever overruling the regents."

Grave Disservice. Two of California's major newspapers, the Hearst Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the Chandler-controlled Los Angeles Times (both families are represented on the board of regents), agreed editorially that Kerr's dismissal had been motivated by his longtime failure to quell student rebellion. The Times proposed that "doom criers," who talk about the university facing "a crisis from which it may not recover, do grave disservice to the university and to those who must cope with its problems." So far, at least, there was little evidence that Kerr's dismissal would have much, if any, immediate effect on the quality of Cal's teaching. None of the protesting professors had offered to resign. So long as there was no mass exodus, it seemed unlikely that many potential faculty recruits would be dissuaded from heading west to join the nation's most prestigious state university.

Kerr himself did not lack for new things to do. Last week he was named by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching-to head a blue-ribbon study of higher education in the U.S., with the option of making it either a part-time or full-time job. As Kerr's interim successor, one of his longtime aides, Senior Vice President Harry Wellman, 66, stepped determinedly into the job of acting president. A member of the Cal faculty since 1925, Wellman holds a Berkeley Ph.D. in agricultural economics, is considered by the faculty a strong defender of university autonomy. Insisting that he will not be "a mere housekeeper," he vowed to "maintain and strengthen the non- political character of the university" while the regents undertake a nationwide search for a successor to Kerr--a task that could well take months.

* A sister group to the Carnegie Foundation, which last week issued a major report on educational television (see SHOW BUSINESS).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.