Guide to the Faculty Collection
RG 3.7.2

Summary Information

Repository

Sarah Lawrence College Archives

Title

Faculty Collection

ID

RG 3.7.2

Date [inclusive]

1928-2016

Extent

3.0 linear feet 3 record cartons

Language

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

Sarah Lawrence College Archives July 2016

Conditions Governing Access note

Administrative records are closed for 20 years from the date of creation or death of the individual(s) mentioned. The Archives reserves the right to deny photocopying. See Archivist for further information.

Processing Information note

Processed by Stephanie Coleman, July 2016.

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Scope and Contents note

The Faculty Collection is an artificial collection, created by the College Archives to document a variety of aspects of the administration, structure, governance, activities, and functioning of the faculty body at Sarah Lawrence College. The collection includes documentation on how the faculty body operates, faculty group divisions, the faculty bylaws, and the faculty handbook. Personnel documentation of faculty is not included in this collection, but can be found in the Faculty, Staff, and Administration Files collection.

The Faculty Collection is particularly strong in administrative documentation. Here you can find information on how and why faculty groups are arranged in to their current divisions, honors bestowed upon individual faculty, and academic activities and programs sponsored by individual groups. Of particular note are the administrative and curricular documents in various disciplines from the early 1950s to the late 1970s as well as documentation on the revision process and progressive development of the Faculty Bylaws. The artificially compiled faculty lists and information on Teaching Chairs also provide significant details on the standing of past faculty members.

The Faculty Collection is arranged into four series:

Series I. Academic Disciplines Administration

Series II. Bylaws

Series III. Faculty Handbook

Series IV. General

All items in this collection are arranged chronologically unless otherwise stated in the series description.

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Series Description

Series I. Academic Disciplines Administration is organized into two subseries,  Subseries A. Restructuring and Proposals and  Subseries B. Faculty Divisions.  Subseries A. Restructuring and Proposals contains documentation on the structure of the faculty body as well as proposals and recommendations for restructuring the faculty body into groups by discipline, particularly in the early 1970s. Materials are primarily correspondence, faculty meeting minutes, and memos.   Subseries B. Faculty Divisions includes documentation on Faculty Division I – Creative Arts, Division II – Natural Science and Mathematics, Division III – Humanities, Division IV – Language, Literature and Writing, and Division V – Social Science. For each division, folders may contain division meeting minutes, correspondence, curriculum offered, and general activities taken on by the individual groups. Materials in these subseries are alphabetically organized into groups based on the type of material and arranged chronologically within each group.

Series I is comprised primarily of documentary evidence of the faculty body structure as it is divided into academic disciplines. The documents offer insight in to how academic disciplines are organized into divisions, changes to division titles, and in some cases the eradication of divisions, such as the short-lived Division IV – Black Social Change, which existed only for one year in 1970.

Series II. Faculty Bylaws is arranged into two subseries,  Subseries A. Faculty Bylaws – Revised and  Subseries B. Faculty Bylaws – Revisions, Correspondence, and Proposals.  Subseries A. Faculty Bylaws – Revised contains the final revised versions of the bylaws. There are revised versions of the bylaws for virtually every year from the 1930s to 2016; however, there is a lack of documentation from 1985 to 2000. For documentation on bylaw changes in these years, see Dean of the College Records – Barbara Kaplan – Faculty Bylaws.  Subseries B. Faculty Bylaws - Revisions, Correspondence, and Proposals contains background and supporting materials related to the process of revising the bylaws including revision notes, recommendations, faculty meeting minutes, and correspondence.

Series II constitutes the bulk of the Faculty Collection. Materials in each subseries are organized chronologically.

Series III. Faculty Handbook includes copies of the Faculty Handbook under the various titles it held over the years, which include the “Faculty Digest,” “Facts for Faculty: A Guide to Sarah Lawrence College,” and “The Faculty Handbook.” This series is arranged chronologically and contains documents from the year 1965 to 2015. As of the 2007-2008 academic year, Faculty Handbooks were no longer printed and made available only in PDF format.

Series VI. General materials are arranged alphabetically based on the subject of material and further arranged chronologically within each subject and folder. This series includes artificially compiled faculty lists, documentation on Teaching Chairs, lectures series, workshops, and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in addition to other general items relating to the administration and activities of the faculty body.

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Related Materials

See also

For further materials relating to Sarah Lawrence College Faculty please see the Faculty, Staff, and Administration Files collection and the Dean of the College Records – Barbara Kaplan – Faculty Bylaws.

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Controlled Access Headings

Genre(s)

• Clippings (information artifacts)
• Correspondence
• Curricula
• Handbooks
• Minutes

Subject(s)

• Academic Freedom
• College teachers’ unions

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Collection Inventory