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The UC Is California’s Brilliant, Infuriating Child

加州大学是加州聪明又令人愤怒的孩子
 ·  Zocalo Public Square  ·  原文

Do you have a brilliant child who makes you proud—but is also a pain in the butt?

你是否有一个让你感到骄傲却又令人烦恼的聪明孩子?

So does the Golden State.

金州亦是如此。

Its great, infuriating child is the University of California.

它伟大而令人愤怒的孩子是加州大学。

In her terrific new book, California Dreams: The Making and Remaking of the University of California , journalist and author Miriam Pawel (my former L.A.

记者兼作家米里亚姆·帕维尔(Miriam Pawel,我之前在洛杉矶工作过)在她精彩的新书《加州梦想:加州大学的打造与重塑》中写道:

Times colleague) tags all the bases of UC history, from the university’s 1868 founding in the Berkeley Hills through its expansion into a $60 billion educational and economic engine encompassing 10 campuses, six health systems, and three national laboratories.

《泰晤士报》的同事)对加州大学历史的所有基础进行了标记,从该大学于 1868 年在伯克利山成立,一直到其扩张成为一个价值 600 亿美元的教育和经济引擎,涵盖 10 个校区、6 个卫生系统和 3 个国家实验室。

But the book is really something more intimate: an examination of the fraught, familial relationship between our state and its world-class university system.

但这本书实际上是更亲密的东西:对我们国家与其世界一流大学系统之间令人担忧的家庭关系的审视。

Pawel tells the stories of university graduates, including UC system presidents Robert Sproul and Clark Kerr and (most wonderfully, for this reader) Kenneth Bailey, a pioneer in teacher education who was an important figure in the history of two different UC campuses.

帕维尔讲述了大学毕业生的故事,包括加州大学系统校长罗伯特·斯普劳尔和克拉克·科尔,以及(对读者来说最精彩的)肯尼思·贝利,他是教师教育的先驱,是加州大学两个不同校区历史上的重要人物。

She also conveys the stories of its campuses, with heavy emphasis on Berkeley and, unexpectedly, UC Irvine, to which this book is an extended love letter.

她还讲述了该校校园的故事,特别强调了伯克利分校和加州大学欧文分校,这本书是一封延伸的情书。

California Dreams is often quite moving, as it shows how the university shaped the ideas, ambitions, and people of California.

加州梦往往非常感人,因为它展示了大学如何塑造加州的思想、抱负和人民。

Among the book’s stars are the acclaimed farmer and writer David Mas Masumoto, who has become an important civic figure in the Central Valley.

这本书的明星人物包括广受好评的农民兼作家 David Mas Masumoto,他已成为中央山谷的重要公民人物。

Many of Pawel’s most memorable stories are told through the life of Milicent Washburn Shinn, a pioneer in the field of child psychology.

帕维尔的许多最令人难忘的故事都是通过儿童心理学领域的先驱米利森特·沃什伯恩·希恩 (Milicent Washburn Shinn) 的一生来讲述的。

She was one of 43 members of Berkeley’s undergraduate class of 1880, and became the first woman to receive a PhD from the university.

她是 1880 年伯克利分校本科班 43 名成员之一,并成为第一位获得该大学博士学位的女性。

The book chronologically charts the shifting arguments that Californians have had with each other about what they want their university to be.

这本书按时间顺序记录了加州人之间关于他们希望自己的大学是什么样子的不断变化的争论。

As the UC grew into arguably the world’s finest public university system, each new generation of institutional leaders feared that something has been lost.

随着加州大学成长为可以说是世界上最好的公立大学系统,每一代新一代的机构领导人都担心会失去一些东西。

Each new generation of politicians fought with the university.

每一代的政治家都与大学进行着斗争。

And each new generation of students complained that the university is lacking.

而每一代新一代的学生都抱怨大学缺乏。

All the arguing is the result of this fact: the UC is one of the few institutions important and interesting enough to connect all of California’s places and people.

所有争论都源于这样一个事实:加州大学是少数几个足够重要且有趣的机构之一,能够将加州所有地方和人民联系起来。

“In a state larger and more diverse in all aspects than many countries,” Pawel writes, “the University remained one of the few forces that transcended disparate regions and groups.

帕维尔写道:“在一个比许多国家更大、各方面都更加多样化的国家中,大学仍然是少数超越不同地区和群体的力量之一。

It was perhaps the only public institution that inspired widespread loyalty and admiration, even among those who were rejected.”

它也许是唯一一个能够激发广泛忠诚和钦佩的公共机构,甚至在那些被拒绝的人中也是如此。”

In this context, present-day Californians’ constant disputes about the UC are reassuring—proof that the university still matters.

在这种背景下,当今加州人对加州大学持续不断的争论令人安心——这证明大学仍然很重要。

Today’s fights—over “woke” politics, diversity, and the current ban on using SAT scores in admissions—seem familiar, and less divisive, when compared to the past.

与过去相比,今天的争论——围绕“觉醒”政治、多元化以及目前禁止在招生中使用 SAT 成绩的争论——似乎很熟悉,而且分歧也较小。

Pawel recounts how, during the Red Scare of the 1950s, the UC and its Board of Regents engaged in brutal ideological purges that make 21st-century cancellations look tame.

帕维尔讲述了 21 世纪 50 年代的红色恐慌期间,加州大学及其董事会如何进行残酷的意识形态清洗,使 21 世纪的取消课程显得平淡无奇。

At one point, all faculty were required to sign an anti-communist loyalty oath.

一度,所有教员都被要求签署反共忠诚誓言。

World-renowned scholars who refused were fired or walked away in protest, fracturing the faculty until courts intervened.

拒绝这样做的世界知名学者要么被解雇,要么走开以示抗议,导致教师队伍分裂,直到法院介入。

Long before current debates over campus free speech or political interference, the UC found itself in a vise, squeezed between Free Speech Movement student radicals and a conservative public outraged by campus disruption.

早在当前关于校园言论自由或政治干预的辩论之前,加州大学就发现自己陷入了困境,夹在言论自由运动学生激进分子和对校园破坏感到愤怒的保守派公众之间。

The anti-UC fury propelled Ronald Reagan into the governor’s mansion in 1967, where he engineered the firing of the university’s president, Clark Kerr, creator of California’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education.

1967 年,反加州大学的愤怒迫使罗纳德·里根 (Ronald Reagan) 入主州长官邸,在那里他策划解雇了大学校长克拉克·克尔 (Clark Kerr),克拉克·克尔是加州 1960 年高等教育总体规划的制定者。

And in the 1990s, the UC was the central front in a statewide battle over affirmative action that ran even hotter than the DEI debates of today.

在 20 世纪 90 年代,加州大学是全州范围内平权行动斗争的中心阵线,这场斗争甚至比今天的 DEI 辩论还要激烈。

That battle included a voter-approved measure in 1996 to ban the practice.

这场斗争包括 1996 年选民批准的一项禁止这种做法的措施。

That ban, in turn, reduced diversity throughout a system that was nowhere close to reflecting California demographics back then, and still lags in diversity today.

反过来,这项禁令减少了整个系统的多样性,而该系统远不能反映当时加州的人口统计数据,并且在今天的多样性方面仍然落后。

One reason why the UC has remained so controversial is that it is expected to do two contradictory things.

加州大学一直备受争议的原因之一是人们期望它做两件相互矛盾的事情。

First, it’s supposed to be exclusive.

首先,它应该是排他性的。

The UC screens the population of California (and the rest of the world) to identify, admit, and educate the most promising students; what Kerr called an “aristocracy of talent.” At the same time, the university is supposed to be inclusive, equity-producing engine of social mobility in a very unequal state of 40 million people.

加州大学对加州(以及世界其他地区)的人口进行筛选,以识别、录取和教育最有前途的学生;科尔称之为“人才贵族”。与此同时,在4000万人口极度不平等的状况下,大学应该成为具有包容性、公平生产的社会流动引擎。

The distance between UC exclusion and inclusion is illustrated every spring, when Berkeley forms a freshman class of less than 7,000 students from a pool of more than 130,000 applications.

每年春天,加州大学伯克利分校在超过 130,000 份申请中组建一个由不到 7,000 名学生组成的新生班,以此来说明加州大学的排斥与包容之间的距离。

The book suggests that the UC’s true superpower is its resilience—its ability to survive, absorb conflict, and adapt.

这本书表明,加州大学真正的超能力是它的韧性——它的生存、吸收冲突和适应的能力。

At least so far.

至少到目前为止。

Pawel does not reckon with how the UC’s success has made it the target of multiple threats from a hostile Trump administration, which uses the leverage of federal funding to demand the reversal of more progressive policies.

帕维尔没有考虑到加州大学的成功如何使其成为敌对的特朗普政府多重威胁的目标,特朗普政府利用联邦资金的杠杆作用要求扭转更进步的政策。

Near the book’s end, Pawel recounts a speech that writer Joan Didion, Berkeley Class of ’56, gave at the university’s 125th anniversary celebration in 1993.

在书的结尾处,帕维尔讲述了 1993 年伯克利 56 届作家琼·迪迪恩 (Joan Didion) 在伯克利大学 125 周年庆典上发表的演讲。

Didion talked about growing up in the once-small town of Sacramento, when the state was less rich, less educated, and less global.

迪迪安谈到了他在萨克拉门托这个曾经的小镇长大的经历,当时该州不那么富裕,受教育程度较低,也不太全球化。

“That California doesn’t exist anymore,” Didion said.

“那个加州已经不复存在了,”迪迪恩说。

“We joined the rest of the country, the rest of the world.

“我们加入了该国其他地区、世界其他地区的行列。

We wrenched ourselves from our provincial Eden into history, and as we did so, some of us kicking and screaming, this university did what it has been doing for 125 years now.

我们把自己从偏僻的伊甸园带入了历史,当我们这么做的时候,我们中的一些人又踢又叫,这所大学做了它 125 年来一直在做的事情。

It provided the bridge.

它提供了桥梁。

It provided the forum.

它提供了论坛。

It provided the safe house in which old and new California could be seen to be not irreconcilable.”

它提供了一个安全屋,让人们看到新旧加州并非不可调和。”

Indeed, California, old and new, has grown together with its university.

事实上,加州无论新旧,都与它的大学一起成长。

Today, the state and the campuses, paradoxically, are growing more open and diverse at the same time they grow more expensive and exclusive.

如今,矛盾的是,州和校园变得更加开放和多样化,同时它们也变得更加昂贵和排他性。

Perhaps California and the UC fight for the same reason parents fight with children: because they’re related, they’re too much alike.

也许加州和加州大学争吵的原因与父母与孩子争吵的原因相同:因为他们有血缘关系,所以他们太相似了。

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square and is founder-columnist of Democracy Local , a planetary publication.

乔·马修斯 (Joe Mathews) 为佐卡洛公共广场 (Zócalo Public Square) 撰写《连接加州》专栏,也是行星刊物 Democracy Local 的创始人兼专栏作家。

Primary editor: Eryn Brown | Secondary editor: Sarah Rothbard

主要编辑:Eryn Brown |二级编辑:莎拉·罗斯巴德

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