Series VI: Governance
Scope and Contents
This series derives its content from the machinery through which the University conducted its business. Within its 3.33 linear feet are materials from primary operating systems (Board of Trustees, President's and Officers' Groups, University Senate), and documents descriptive of initiatives driving their evolution. Faculty union organizing efforts and the transfer of institutional direction from Dr. Hester to Dr. Sawhill had important internal effects, while federal rulemaking governing universities receiving federal funds, for example in the arena of affirmative action, was an important external stimulus for internal change. Materials for/from the above-identified groups as well as a variety of Councils and Commissions, some structural, some topical, are included. The presence of certain materials may signify particular interests of the Chancellor. Agendas may be helpful in identifying and tracking selected topics.
Formulating institutional agreement on the functions of the (University) Senate was an important governance matter. Box 38, folder 1, contains Report Number Two of a special senate committee on senate powers, 4/10/74, and a response by Dr. Borowitz, 4/30/74. In its report the committee addressed to the Senate its analysis of the question of "proper division of authority among the Board of Trustees, President and Chancellor, Senate, and individual schools," presenting for its consideration a set of "Alternative Models for Development of the Powers of the Senate." Dr. Borowitz, in turn, spells out "philosophical as well as practical difficulties" in administering the University under the proposed model.
Consideration of some of these concerns, including Senate powers, was ongoing. The 3/15/76 agenda for the President's Weekly Meeting carries a listing of a report on governance by Dr. Borowitz, Box 37, folder 5. "A Report on Governance," by Dr. Borowitz appears again, on the 8/25/76 agenda of the President's Joint Meeting of Deans and Vice Presidents, Box 37, folder 4, where a text is also located.
University financial matters occupied the Budget Advisory Group between October 1972 and July 1975. A chronological set of agendas, many annotated or "doodled" on by Dr. Borowitz, many with attachments, permits a survey of issues the group considered, Box 33, folder 14, and Box 34, folder 1. An alphabetical, handwritten list suggests that in addition to officers, there were 70 participants, mainly faculty, along with a few students, Box 34, folder 1. A note in Dr. Borowitz' hand on an undated memorandum (summer '75) marks its termination, Box 33, folder 14.
Continuing attention to university financial matters by the University Senate can be observed in the deliberations and transactions of its Budget Policies Committee, Box 38, folders 11-12, and Box 39, folders 1-5. This committee functioned throughout Dr. Borowitz' term. A name change, from Budget Policies Committee to Financial Affairs Committee, took place effective 9/76. Agendas, again many annotated or "doodled" on by Dr. Borowitz, memoranda, and reports appear; chronological sets of minutes have been transferred to RG 14. The committee's level of involvement can be evaluated by assessing the directness of Chancellor Cartter's memorandum to it of 2/22/72, addressing the dimensions of the University's financial difficulties, and Committee Vice-chair Dr. Ernest Bloch's memorandum of 12/1/72, reporting on deans' responses to a Borowitz query about school budget-making practices, Box 39, folder 5.
A spectrum of educational matters and the machinery employed and/or created to address them can be tracked through the transactions of the Senate's Educational Policies Committee, Box 39, folders 6-9, Councils and Commissions, All-University Commission on Student Evaluation of Undergraduate Courses, Box 34, folders 8-10, Councils and Commissions, Commission on Undergraduate Education, Box 35, folders 2-8, and Councils and Commissions, Graduate Commission, Box 36, folders 1-9.
The emergence of a representational body of middle management staff, with roots in the student unrest era of the late 1960's, is somewhat detailed in Box 34, folders 4-7.