Series VI: Governance

Within the 7 Hollinger boxes of this series, a total of 2.916 linear feet, are found materials from the primary components by and through which the University operates, namely the Board of Trustees, President's and Officers Groups, and University Senate. Changes in the ways in which university business was conducted, such as the appointment of a Vice President for Finance, noted in Series V, resulted from Sawhill's managerial-mindedness. He placed early emphasis on creating "a more effective" Board of Trustees, Payne to Sawhill 5/27/75 and following, Box 28, folder 1. For the involvement of trustees in the School of Law's planning process arising from that school's improved financial base following the Mueller sale, see Sawhill to the Board of Trustees 12/6/76, Box 28, folder 2 along with the Historical Note and Series X, Schools and Divisions, School of Law section. In folder 2 Sawhill alerts the trustees to new marketing plans 4/6/77. In folder 3 perhaps his interest in trustee involvement had cooled over time, see Taggart Whipple to Sawhill 3/15/78.

Among the historical materials sprinkled through the Sawhill papers is a 9/74 report to the trustees regarding the status of the Dental Center, hand-edited by James M. Hester, Box 28, folder 7. The trustees' involvement in long range planning is reflected in Box 28, folder 9, Baruch to Sawhill 4/16/79. A long range planning sequence appears in Box 29, folders 14-20 and Box 30, folders 1-3. For budget issues and information presented to the trustees see Sawhill to the Financial Affairs Committee 1/26/78, Box 28, folder 15.

Sawhill, in reorganizing the Office of the President, created the post of Vice President for Academic Affairs in lieu of Chancellor, thus connecting more closely the oversight and conduct of academic matters with the President. One outcome was Sawhill's assuming from the departing Chancellor the chair of the weekly Deans meeting, Box 30, folder 14, Sawhill to the Vice Presidents 1/7/77 and to the Deans 1/7/77. Other academic matters jointly considered by the President and Deans Council were a 7/29/77 Sawhill memorandum identifying a marketing problem with "serious implications" for the University, Box 31, folder 1, Andrew Schaffer's review of a faculty committee report on financial exigency, Box 31, folder 9, 3/7/79 and Sawhill's prioritization of the humanities; his interim report to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 5/78 on the reorganization of NYU's Humanities Council addresses some results of that new focus, Box 32, folder 12.

The material covering the conduct and business of the University Senate is limited and somewhat routine. It might be surmised that many matters before the Senate were of less interest to the President than to the officers, deans and faculty delegates.