Education

Richard C. Atkinson served as the University of California's seventeenth president from 1995 to 2003. The Atkinson years were a time of dramatic expansion and landmark issues for UC. Enrollments, research programs, and funding all grew rapidly to new highs. The University faced the imperative of pursuing diversity in the post-affirmative action age, created new paradigms for industry-university cooperative research, and challenged the validity of the SAT I, the nation's most widely used college entrance examination.

The speeches, lectures, and other papers gathered here document these and a variety of other issues. The principal theme of this collection is the University of California itself, and the role it plays as a public research university in a diverse, dynamic, and knowledge-based society. We hope you will enjoy this introduction to the events and challenges of the Atkinson presidency.

Academic Quality
Achievement versus Aptitude
Education
Race and Diversity
The Atkinson Presidency
The Research University
The University and the Economy
University Admissions
University of California

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Opportunity in a Democratic Society: Race and Economic Status in Higher Education

(2006)

In July 1995, the University of California s Board of Regents voted to ban consideration of race and ethnicity in admissions and employment—a ban that was extended to all state agencies when the voters of California approved Proposition 209 in November 1996. This paper discusses the national controversy over affirmative action and analyzes the experience of the University of California as a case study in how an elite public university responded to the end of nearly three decades of affirmative action. It concludes that profound social and demographic change in American society since the 1960s, especially the growth of income inequality, requires a rethinking of affirmative action, and of how the goal of diversity can be achieved in elite public universities.

The Future Arrives First in California

Atkinson, Richard

(1999)

Article on challenges facing the University of California.

Investing in California's Children

Atkinson, Richard

(1998)

Remarks at the California Senate Fiscal Retreat, an annual policy forum for California political leaders sponsored by the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee and the UC California Policy Seminar.