Series XI: Schools and Departments

The contents of this series of 6.66 linear feet are concerned with the business of the University's academic units. All schools extant at that time are represented, as well as departments and divisions within them, along with a further set of divisions whose leadership reported essentially to the University's central administration. Those departmental and divisional files pertaining to Arts and Science interests follow that unit's files, while those identified as non-FAS are located following the School of the Arts materials. The impression of an institution driven by ambition, yet neither assured of its place in its "industry," nor economically stable, continues to be apparent in this section of the Borowitz Papers.

Each component of this series is organized alphabetically. Faculty meeting minutes have been transferred to the appropriate Record Groups. Noteworthy material is mainly found in the school-level and decanal files; material at the departmental and divisional levels tends to be routine. Here too, documents addressing individual personnel matters were removed.

First in the series, the Arts and Science materials, representing school, departmental and divisional matters, fill four Hollinger boxes and the greater portion of a fifth, Box 59 through Box 63, folder 17. The extent of this documentation reflects this unit's centrality within the University's academic structure, the complex and evolving nature of its structure at the time, and the Chancellor's involvement in its operation. Box 59, folder 2, and folder 7 contain separate narratives of school matters by the outgoing first Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) Dean, together offering an informed description of the composition of the unit and the range of responsibilities this new deanship entailed as it evolved.

The role and responsibilities of the Graduate Dean, a previously extant post, remained in flux; Box 61, folder 1 documents some of that history preceding Dr. Borowitz' tenure. Box 59, folders 16-17 and continuing through Box 60, folder 6, holds reports and other materials covering those Graduate School doctoral programs selected for NYSED Doctoral Review. These reviews, a NYSED initiative, were critical to a department's, and school's reputation, involving external reviewers from within and without New York State.

The impact of the sale of the University Heights campus on its undergraduate arts and science college, University College (UC), was profound. Dispossessed of its real property, UC and its tenured faculty were transferred to Washington Square in a merger with Washington Square College, the undergraduate arts and science unit at the Square. It fell to FAS' faculty and administration to restructure the two faculties and administrations and two distinct curriculums into one, some of which is documented in Box 61, folder 11.

Business schools concerns are contained in four folders in Box 63 and the totality of Box 64. The School of Business and Public Administration (BPA, the undergraduate college) and the Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) merged during this period, see Box 64, folder 14. Matters concerning the separate schools and the merged entity occupy Box 63, folders 18-20, and 22, (folder 21 contains a limited amount of material about the Institute of Retail Management, which was related to BPA), and Box 64 in its entirety. Agreement was also reached by the Business School and FAS deans about a new department of economics administratively located within FAS, the availability of undergraduate courses offered by that department to business undergraduate students, and working relationships between FAS and Business School economics faculty, Box 64, folders 4-5.

Matters pertaining to the School of Continuing Education (SCE) in these years fill one Hollister box. Structural questions, especially program overlaps with other university units and concerns about quality, and budgetary issues (matters of income and expense) were priorities for the university administration and deans of other units. The SCE deans and entrepreneurial faculty worked diligently throughout at developing and presenting a spectrum of offerings, Box 65, folders 1-8.

However, while "it has already been necessary to make some difficult and unwelcome decisions about University programs," Borowitz, 9/29/72, the local hand on finances seemingly remained a light one, Collins, 2/29/72, folder 8, Smith, 2/23/73, folder 7, Collins, 6/11/76, folder 15, Sawhill, 6/22/76, folder 15. President Sawhill, upon his arrival, quickly undertook "a series of wide-ranging discussions," concerning the future of SCE, 11/3/75, Box 65, folder 17. Following a response by the SCE deans, 11/21/75, a proposed reorganization scheme for SCE, which also gave birth to the University's Gallatin Division, was submitted by Dr. Sawhill to the University Senate, 1/22/76, Box 65, folder 15.

College of Dentistry matters as reflected in the Borowitz papers fill two Hollister boxes. It was a time of severe strain for the school. An April 11, 1975 Report, Box 67, folder 8, "Problems Confronting New York University College of Dentistry," specifies its major problems (downgrading of accreditation, poor facilities, lack of New York State financial assistance). These concerns underlay consideration by the University in the mid 1970's of operating the school as a contract college for NYSED, Box 76, folder 14, and are well-summarized in Hester, 8/15/74, Box 66, folder 4, and 10/3/74, Box 66, folder 3, and more generally in the two versions (1/75, 3/75) of a NYSED Report titled "Dental Education in New York State, " found in Box 46, folder 5.

For steps in the process of resolving this crisis, see Hester, 2/11/75, 3/7/75, Box 66, folder 3 and NYSED Recommendation, "Public Support of Non-Public Dental Schools," April 3, 1975, Box 46, folder 5, the contents of Box 67, folder 14, labeled "State Options Regarding Dental Schools," 6/74-7/75, an undated (9/75?) document headed "Reasons for and against Proceeding with the Construction of Dental Center," Box 66, folder 2, "Program Cost Analysis at the New York University Brookdale Dental Center, May 1975, Box 66, folder 8, and the following contents of Box 66, folder 2, Claxton, 4/26/76, Giddon, 7/6/76, and Sawhill, 8/9/76.

Hollinger boxes 68 and 69, and folders 1-2 of Box 70 hold the records of the School of Education in this collection. Much of this material covers routine matters, for example inter-school course overlap, Box 68, folders 4,5 and unit nomenclature, Box 68, folders 2,9. The School's attention to budget matters is reflected in the highly detailed annual fiscal reports its administration prepared, Box 69, folders 6-8. Future directions of interest to the School can be identified in its "Report on Planning for the New York University School of Education," 5/75, Box 68, folder 5 and its "Mission Statement," 3/29/76, Box 68, folder 3.

Material regarding the unit initially known as University Without Walls (UWW), a "temporary inter-school degree-granting unit, "Box 70, folder 6, appears in Box 70, folders 3-18. Documentation on some aspects of organizational matters and program start-ups is included, as is Dr. Sawhill's 1/22/76 recommendation to the University Senate that a permanent successor unit, the Gallatin Division, be established in conjunction with a plan for reorganizing the School of Continuing Education, folder 3, previously referenced in Box 65, folder 15.

The first 11 folders of Box 71 contain papers related to the School of Law and the Law Center Foundation. The School of Law material is limited, and primarily routine, however there is some correspondence indicating school efforts to maintain some authority independent from university administration, see salary levels, Hawley to Borowitz, 4/18/74, and Borowitz to Hawley, 4/23/74, and autonomy of the Law Library, McKay to Hester, 6/7/74 and Hester to McKay, 6/28/74, folder 1. The Law Center Foundation material, folders 6-10, documenting an evolving relationship between the University and the Foundation, is of particular interest.

School of Medicine material follows, in Box 71, folders 12-17 and Box 72 in its entirety. As with the School of Law, School of Medicine material mainly covers routine matters. Reflective of apparent efforts to maintain autonomy from the University administration, documents referring to probable matters of interest at the Square are more advisory than collaborative. These range from the availability of University Hospital emergency care as a faculty benefit at the Square, Wilmot to Borowitz, 11/8/76, Box 71, folder 15, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation delays in reimbursing its contracted services with the Medical Center for patient care at Bellevue Hospital, Bennett to Holloman, 7/1/74, Box 71, folder 17 and 9/12/74, Box 71, folder 16, the Medical Center's maintenance of personnel policies differing from those in place for the balance of the University, Bennett to Borowitz, 2/7/74, Box 71, folder 17, and a separate Affirmative Action plan, Box 72, folders 3,4, to the lack of availability to the central administration of information concerning Medical Center personnel and budgetary affairs, Borowitz to Bennett, 1/5/73, Box 72, folder 1. The text of Dr. Bennett's remarks at the Medical Center's farewell dinner for Dr. and Mrs. Hester appears in Box 71, folder 16. Some budget and financial material may be of interest; these documents appear in Box 72, folders 5-12.

Graduate School of Public Administration (GPA) documents appear in Hollister Box 73, folders 1-7. Renamed the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service in 1989, a GPA planning document dating from the mid 1960's appears in folder 3. A considerable portion of this modest collection is in the form of memoranda from Dean Dick Netzer to members of central administration, including responses to what he suggests are inappropriate attacks by the administration and/or other units on GPA's budget and curriculum.

Hollister box 73, folders 8-18 and box 74, folder 1 contains this collection's materials on the School of Social Work (SSW). It was a period of great turmoil for SSW. Minority student demonstrations over reduced scholarship funding attracted congressional attention, Box 73, folder 11. The Task Force on the University's Financial Emergency recommended that SSW be phased out, Box 73, folder 15, press release, n.d. A successful emergency fund-raising campaign, Box 73, folder 15, impelled the reversal of this recommendation. The dean in office when first steps to implement the phase-out recommendation were being taken resigned, and his successor died within the first year of his appointment, Box 74, folder 1.

The School of the Arts was established in 1965. Folders 2-15 in Hollister Box 74 contain records of its early development. As with the records for the more senior units, much of the material here covers routine administrative and curricular matters. Material found in folders 9-11 is concentrated on the affairs of the school's Alternate Media Center. Of particular interest is its project on Interactive Telecommunications conducted in Reading, Pennsylvania and first funded by the National Science Foundation in 1974.

As indicated at the beginning of this series, some divisions labeled non-FAS reported essentially to central administration, and limited amounts of documentation for, among others, the Institute of Afro-American Affairs, the Center for International Studies, Sunrise Semester, and Town Hall constitute the final portion of Series 11. All of the non-FAS divisional material is located in Box 74, folders 16-17 and Box 75, folders 1-14.