ABSTRACT
Clark Kerr had a striking ability to use language to express his vision such as his wry remarks about the busy and difficult life of the administrator who "should never do today what he can put off till tomorrow". Kerr shared this talent with Hutchins, who excelled at crafting memorable quotes. Hastings Rashdall began his monumental history explaining that, contrary to what many people think, "universitas" did not mean "institution for the teaching or for the cultivation of universal knowledge". But it merely meant "a number, a plurality, an aggregate of persons" or a "legal corporation", the corporation of masters or of students. So Kerr knew that "university" meant plurality and that Karl Jaspers' reflections on the unity of the university were based on a false etymology. Kerr's vision of the "multiversity" spells out in detail what is expressed in a shorthand manner in Industrialism and Industrial Man: that the university is at the very heart of the economy.
