Oral Histories

Interview of Foster H. Sherwood

UCLA vice chancellor of academic affairs and special assistant to the University of California president.
Subtitle:
UCLA Vice-Chancellor Academic Affairs
Series:
Z: Orphan Interviews pre 1999
Topic:
UCLA and University of California History
UCLA Administration
UCLA Faculty
Biographical Note:
UCLA vice chancellor of academic affairs and special assistant to the University of California president.
Interviewer:
Mink, James V.
Interviewee:
Sherwood, Foster H.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Abstract:
Sherwood's early education; student rioting in 1933; Sherwood's two years at the University of California, Berkeley; his father's influence on school and career choices; appointment as a fellow at the Brookings Institution; work with war agencies; Sherwood's experiences while working for the Office of Export-Import Price Control; works for the United States State Department; works for the Office of Strategic Services; becomes an instructor in the UCLA Department of Political Science; movement up the academic ladder; fellowship work at Nuffield College, Oxford University; teaching versus research; the loyalty oath controversy; working on the editorial committee of the University of California Press; leak in the review of Dean of Students Milton Hahn; problems with faculty review in the School of Business Administration; the Martha Deane case; Sherwood becomes chairman of the Department of Political Science; serving on the committee to find a chancellor; becomes vice-chancellor for academic affairs under Franklin D. Murphy; Murphy's management style; Charles E. Young; Sherwood leaves teaching to become a full-time administrator; reorganization of department following the Master Plan for Higher Education in California; Dean L. Dale Coffman demands complete autonomy for the School of Law; the School of Medicine becomes more supportive of the Academic Senate; Coffman removed as dean; salary scales in the professorial schools; Sherwood attacked for establishing an off-scale scale for the School of Engineering and for the School of Education; arguments against granting Ph.D.'s in the fields of education and nursing; nurses bring charges of sex discrimination against the University of Washington; graduate student grievances; members of the Societatis Verbi Divini come to UCLA; Paul A. Dodd; Edwin Pauley; relationship between Franklin D. Murphy and Norton Simon; financial problems in the construction of Melnitz Hall; Sherwood sets up a single-salary system for the medical schools throughout the UC system; students raise concerns about members of the faculty hiring out as consultants; the University of California and the California state constitution; Governor Ronald W. Reagan and the UC system; controversies over promotions and appointments; Sherwood provides stipends for department heads; Sherwood improves salaries of members of the budget committee; appointment of professors; resistance to David S. Saxon as UC president; Murphy's impatience with academic appointment procedures; Sherwood's 1956-57 sabbatical in London.