Well, I thanks to the wonders of email, I found out some things about the sculpture. Pat Willard, who writes for the awesome “Around the Quad” newsletter, was kind enough to answer my question and provide the following info:
The author of this sculpture is a Lithuanian artist V.K. Jonynas. He is pretty famous, and even has his own museum.
The title of the sculpture is “Education”.
The sculpture was knocked down by a truck that backed into it. Very Khrushchevian :).