Roger W. Heyns, Psychology: Berkeley
Roger W. Heyns, the Chancellor who came to Berkeley in 1965 to head a campus in turmoil from student protest and the responses to it, died of heart failure on September 11, 1995, while traveling in Greece. He was 77. With clear educational priorities, appeals to reason, and a warm, self-deprecating wit, Roger Heyns came (in President Clark Kerr's words “like a gift from heaven”) to lead the campus through what was perhaps the most divisive period in its history. When he resigned in 1971, he left behind a generous legacy of academic integrity, organizational stability, and personal civility. Religion had a significant influence on Roger Heyns' life and outlook. He grew up in a Dutch Calvinist family in Michigan and attended a church-supported school. Shortly after high school graduation an illness (treated as polio, later diagnosed as Guillain-Barre disease) kept him bed-ridden for 18 months, an episode that he said taught him patience and led him to change his college plans and attend nearby Calvin College. It was there, his oral history reveals, that he learned to integrate religion both with his intellectual concerns and his daily life. He was elected student-body president and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He met Esther Gezon at Calvin College, and they were married in 1941. They had three sons--Michael, John, and Daniel. In 1942, after completing two years of graduate study in psychology at the University of Michigan, he enlisted in the Air Force. Four years later, he resumed his graduate studies and in 1949 completed his doctoral work in social psychology. After a year of additional study at Harvard, he began his academic career at the University of Michigan where he taught social psychology and did research in three areas: ― 74 ―
problem solving in groups, the methodology of group observation, and affiliation motivation. He developed a measure of affiliation
motivation through use of the Thematic Apperception Test, which is still in use today. His findings produced two books: The Psychology of Personal Adjustment (1957) and An Anatomy for Conformity (1962), which he co-authored.
In 1957, he was appointed Dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, a position, he said which taught him that his comparative strength was in administration. Widely admired on the Michigan campus, he was honored by the University with awards for outstanding teaching and distinguished service. After four years as dean, he was appointed Vice President for Academic Affairs, a position he held unitl 1965 when, by unanimous vote of the Regents of the University of California, he became Berkeley's fifth chancellor. In the Berkeley of 1965, a new chancellor faced a highly charged atmosphere. The daily life of the campus had been shaken and made increasingly divisive by issues of race and war, student protest, and political maneuvering. The University's ability to govern its own affairs was seriously challenged, on campus by political activists who defied University authority, and around the state by angry alumni, legislators, and regents who wanted to dictate how that authority should be asserted. In his first year, Chancellor Heyns spoke more than 100 times on campus and around the state, explaining the nature of the challenge and the steps he was taking to meet it. He devoted his energies to four tasks: reestablishing the credibility of campus leadership, strengthening the staff on whose work the campus depended, preventing political activities from interfering with the teaching and research functions of the University, and responding to student concerns about their educational experience. The campus came under intense national and international scrutiny as the University and the City of Berkeley became a center of anti-war activity, and such protests became a rallying point in Ronald Reagan's campaign for Governor and later the Presidency. Chancellor Heyns approach to holding the campus together was guided by the values and rules that he believed should govern the common life of the University; most importantly, academic freedom and the integrity of academic processes. His courageous stands reflected his personal convictions. As he so often put it, the University is a social institution; its freedom is dependent upon the larger society. To protect that freedom ― 75 ―
from political manipulation, the University cannot become an instrument of social action that makes it a prize to be captured.
From small symbolic battles over the ability of the campus to set its own rules to large public confrontations with demonstrators,
and in public meetings with regents, faculty or legislators, Chancellor Heyns was willing to take the often unpopular measures
needed to protect the integrity of the University and to encourage the individual responsibility of faculty and students on
which campus freedom is ultimately based. That responsibility, he believed, included the fearless pursuit of knowledge, an
openness to ideas whatever their source, the willingness to listen to student grievances and respond with the sensitivity
that permits administrators to encourage individual student, faculty and staff initiatives.
The political crises on the Berkeley campus lasted for most of Chancellor Heyns six-year tenure. For those who were not in the center of it, it remains difficult to describe the intensity and dangers of those times. Although the political turmoil of the 1960s may be a faded memory now, many of Chancellor Heyns' initiatives are today a vital part of campus life. To respond to the concerns of students, he created the Office of the Ombudsman; he promoted various experiments in undergraduate education, and established in his office the Committee for Educational Development in order to respond to student initiative and to create new programs on its own. In 1966, he established the Educational Opportunity Program, one of the first student affirmative-action programs of its kind in the nation. He also introduced the first campus affirmative-action program for staff employees. With his strong support, the University created a new Graduate School of Public Policy, today one of the nation's best. Ever mindful of Berkeley's unique campus environment, he set aside Ecological Study Areas. In 1969, he ordered that the site of Moffitt Library and Campus Drive be redesigned to save a grove of redwoods in the center of the campus. He organized and oversaw a year-long celebration of the University's centennial in 1968. Among its lasting effects are the Robert Gordon Sproul Associates, a rapidly growing University support group, and the Berkeley Citation, an award given by the campus in lieu of honorary degrees, “for distinguished achievements, and notable service to the University.” When in his low key, self-deprecating way Chancellor Heyns announced his decision to resign, the reaction of both gown and town ― 76 ―
was one of genuine regret and affectionate understanding. His health, following a heart attack, had been restored. The campus
was in good shape. It seemed to him to be an appropriate time to accept new challenges. The American Council on Education
invited him to become its President. He moved to Washington, D.C., and served for the next six years as an influential national
voice for all of American higher education. In 1977, he became President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Palo
Alto, where he served until his retirement in 1993.
On his return to California, Chancellor Heyns renewed his ties with the Berkeley campus. With his close friend, Walter A. Haas Jr. he was co-chairman of Cal Sports 80's, a capital campaign for sports facilities, and he maintained a continuing interest in the University Library and the Young Musicians Program. For more than two decades, visitors to the Faculty Club at Berkeley have been reminded by the Heyns Room of this academic man who led the campus in the 1960s. On December 3, 1995, Chancellor Tien dedicated an additional and highly appropriate memorial--the Roger W. Heyns Grove of redwood trees that Chancellor Heyns had saved almost 30 years earlier. These trees stand in the center of the campus, a living symbol of the central and enduring role Chancellor Heyns played in the life of the University. The record of the Berkeley campus over the six years that Roger Heyns was Chancellor reflects the guidance of a remarkable administrator. Not only did he hold the campus together, he also changed its environment from one of confrontation and disrespect to one where academic norms were accepted. Those who knew the campus well recognized that the strength, counsel and independent activities of Esther Heyns played a major role in her husband's success. His vigorous support of the highest academic standards and the selection of faculty of highest quality in both teaching and research were reflected in the ratings of the Berkeley campus. In 1966, a study conducted by the American Council on Education rated Berkeley as “The best balanced distinguished University in the country.” Four years later, the Council's follow-up study of graduate education once again gave Berkeley the number-one ranking. Among the many people whose work earned this recognition, the one person most responsible was Roger Heyns. Chancellor Heyns strengthened the commitment to the University of those he worked with and for by his clarity of thought, his good humor, and his utter lack of a sense of self-importance. In this ― 77 ―
quiet way, he was an inspiring example of the life of virtue and intellect. Even his adversaries found it difficult not to
respond to him with warmth. His inner strength, his sense of proportion, and his caring touched people in a way that leaders
of large organizations rarely can and almost never do.
Earl F. Cheit
Robert H. Cole
Robert E. Connick
Clark Kerr
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