ABSTRACT
When, in 1910, Slosson ranked the University of California (UC) among the top universities in the country, he urged it to keep itself free of discrimination in order to fulfill its destiny as a great cosmopolitan university. He urged the university by stating that, due to the many nationalities of its members, the UC was in the best position "to buckle the belt of civilized nations around the globe". The elimination of Berkeley's Department of Home Economics was part of a trend affecting major research universities. This elimination was the logical conclusion of Clark Kerr's plan to place the UC among the top institutions of higher learning in the country. Kerr's hedgehog vision had a blind spot: he could not see the adverse consequences of his push for competitiveness. The trouble with hedgehogs is that they have visions, and visions, besides having blind spots, have lives of their own.
