CSU Chancellor Emeritus White engaging with students at Cal State Dominguez Hills
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CSU Chancellor Emeritus Timothy P. White Receives 2022 Clark Kerr Award

 

UC Berkeley Academic Senate honors former CSU chancellor for his contributions to the advancement of higher education.

CSU Chancellor Emeritus White engaging with students at Cal State Dominguez Hills

​​Photo courtesy of CSU Dominguez Hills (2015)​​

 

​CSU Chancellor Emeritus Timothy P. White was recently named a recipient of the 2022 Clark Kerr Award.

Awarded by the UC Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate, the Clark Kerr Award recognizes those who have made extraordinary and distinguished contributions to the advancement of higher education. One of two awardees, White was named along with San Diego Community College District Chancellor Emerita Constance M. Carroll 

Chancellor Emeritus White is honored for his distinguished service for both the CSU and UC systems, along with other public universities. As stated in UC Berkeley's award announcement, White's educational and academic career path exemplifies the brilliance of Clark Kerr's vision when creating the California Master Plan for Higher Education.

Born in Argentina, White immigrated to California as a child, and was the first in his family to pursue higher education. He attended Diablo Valley College, earned a bachelor's from Fresno State and master's from Cal State East Bay. He earned his Ph.D. in exercise physiology from Berkeley, and then served as a professor and chair of the Department of Human Biodynamics there, before moving to the University of Michigan as a professor and chair of the Department of Movement Science. 

As an academic leader, White served as dean, provost, and executive vice president at Oregon State University from 1996 to 2004, and from 2004 to 2008 he was president of the University of Idaho. As Chancellor of UC Riverside from 2008 to 2012, White led enrollment growth and strategic planning, securing gifts and financing for a new School of Medicine. From 2012 to 2020 he served as CSU chancellor, overseeing 23 campuses, with an enrollment of almost half a million students at the time of his retirement. One of White's lasting accomplishments was launching the Graduation Initiative 2025 effort to increase graduation rates for undergraduates and close the equity gap between underserved students and their peers. During White's tenure, enrollment, graduation rates, state investment and donor support reached all-time highs.

“I am humbled and deeply honored to receive this award, and this recognition would not have come about without the hard work of the leadership, faculty, staff and students of the California State University during my tenure," said White.

UC Berkeley's Academic Senate created the Clark Kerr Award in 1968 as a tribute to the leadership and legacy of UC President Emeritus Kerr. Past recipients have come from inside and outside the Berkeley community, including former California Governor and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute immediate past president and noted physicist Shirley Ann Jackson, and Columbia University President Lee Bollinger.

 

Learn more about Berkeley's Clark Kerr Award and Chancellor Emeritus White's legacy at the CSU.