“Fired with Enthusiasm”: KUCR Covers an Historic Political Drama Set at UC Riverside

KUCR History is Good for You

On April 20th, 1967, Governor (and iconic future U.S. President) Ronald Reagan came to UC Riverside for a tumultuous meeting of the UC Regents. The focus of the meeting was the primary author of California’s Educational Master Plan, the first Chancellor of UC Berkeley and twelfth President of the University of California, the brilliant and controversial Dr. Clark Kerr. Dr. Kerr had been beset by multiple controversies, including anti-war protests, the free speech movement, and charges by Reagan and his appointed Regents that he was too lenient with unruly students. An intense meeting ensued, with flaring tempers and heated rhetoric, punctuated by the quietly compelling erudition of President Kerr, who had hoped to sway the Regents and retain his position. It was not to be, and Dr. Kerr later described what happened on that fateful day by saying he had been “fired with enthusiasm.” Looking back, it’s clear that the vectors of conflict that collided 48 years ago at UC Riverside changed education in California forever and predicted the reshaping of American politics in the decades to follow. The 21-year-old KUCR Co-Founder and News Director Bill Elledge, who came to study history at UCR from Iowa, was there that pivotal day, covering the station’s first major story, with pro-level interviews, reportage and commentary, only 7 months after its inaugural broadcast.