Provost and Vice President Administrative Records - Addition
Scope and Contents
This collection contains administrative records from various iterations of the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and dates from 1937 to 2014. Its contents are generally focused on the administration of UNI's academic policies, procedures, and the provost's role in these matters. Types of content include correspondence, minutes, reports, proposals, and planning documents. The collection is arranged into seven series.
Series 1, Faculty Senate, dates from 1937 to 2001, and appears to contain the copies of Faculty Senate materials retained by the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President. Some of the materials in the series include handwritten annotations and notes. Frequent topics are curriculum, enrollment, committee reports, and various faculty and staff matters.
The second series, Board of Regents - Academic Planning, contains data and other supporting documents from UNI's departments and colleges related to the long-range planning process, as required by the Board of Regents. The series dates from 1978-1988 and includes correspondence, planning instruments, meeting minutes, draft reports and notes, and the official reports.
The third series, Reports, consists of both internal and external reports related to the university's academic operations. Included are self-study reports created by academic programs that include data about faculty and student populations in a given college/department, and information about majors/programs, as well as reports about curriculum and faculty salaries. There is also a trend analysis report, focused on data for the university's departments and divisions. This is located in Box 22. Please see the inventory below for a complete list of reports.
Series 4, Proposals, Programs, and Reviews, contains information primarily related to the creation of doctoral programs at UNI. Types of content include information about specific academic programs, faculty information, and correspondence about the possibility of certain graduate programs, and the research that went into the proposals. Also in this series are files related to a controversy surrounding the Educational Opportunity Program. Please note that those files are restricted.
Series 5, Committees and Councils, consists of records related to administrative bodies in which the Provost is involved. Represented are the Academic Master Plan Committee, the General Education Committee, the Administrative Council, the Graduate Council, and the Council of Provosts. Each grouping contains correspondence, minutes, reports, proposals, and more. Subjects include budgets, curriculum, legislation, admissions policies, course development, enrollment, and general committee business.
The sixth series, Collective Bargaining, focuses on the UNI United Faculty's efforts on behalf of the group. Included are master agreements, correspondence, and drafts.
The final series, Board of Regents (BOR), is comprised of incoming and outgoing correspondence related to the Provost's involvement with the BOR. Much of the content relates to proposed courses across the Regents institutions. It also contains subjects indexes for Board of Regents meetings.
Dates
- Creation: 1937-2014
Creator
Language of Materials
Materials entirely in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Most materials are open for research. Materials related to the confidentiality of personnel, student, medical, and other legally protected records are CLOSED to researchers for 70 years from the date of creation. Consult the archivist with any questions or concerns.
General Use, Reproduction, and Copyright Policies
Many items housed in the Rod Library Special Collections & University Archives, including unpublished images and manuscripts, may be protected by copyright, publication rights, trademarks, or model release rights which the library does not own and for which the library cannot grant permission or licensing. Materials currently under copyright are usually still available for research and limited reproduction under Fair Use laws. However, it is the sole responsibility of the patron to determine whether or not their use of a given material falls within Fair Use guidelines and to obtain permission for said use from the rightful copyright owner.
Sensitive Materials Statement
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy or similar laws, and the Iowa Open Records Law (see Iowa Code ยง 22.7). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of Northern Iowa assumes no responsibility.
Biographical / Historical
Over the course of the University of Northern Iowa's (UNI) history, the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President has existed in different forms and under different titles, while overseeing a variety of campus units.
The earliest mention of a similar office was in January 1933, when President O.R. Latham requested the appointment of a "Dean of Instruction." This dean would oversee a variety of academic functions, including admission, registration, grading, scholarship rules, creating the annual catalog and course schedule, supervising the instructional program, and more. Dr. Martin J. Nelson, then head of the Department of Education, was appointed to this position under the title, "Dean of Faculty, beginning in July 1934.
In 1959, Dr. William C. Lang assumed this role as Dean of Instruction. Over the course of Lang's tenure, the institution experienced enrollment growth and change, including its transition to the State College of Iowa and later, the University of Northern Iowa. With these changes came additional responsibilities under the Dean of Instruction, and new administrators were appointed. All of these positions became part of the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs in 1967, following the school's change to university status. "Provost" was added to the title and office in 1971.
In the 21st century, the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs serves as UNI's chief academic and operating officer, overseeing the university's academic programs and policies, as well as providing leadership support for faculty.
Extent
12.72 Linear Feet (31 boxes)
Arrangement
This collection's original order, including its groupings and file labels, were retained, as it was evident they were in some sort of arrangement upon their arrival at Rod Library. As such, despite content overlap with other collections within the Academic Affairs record group, these files remain a standalone collection. The materials' original groupings were kept together and placed into series named and created by the processing archivist. Please see the "Related Materials" section of this finding aid to view collections with similar subjects and materials. The files are arranged into the following series:
- Series 1: Faculty Senate
- Series 2: Board of Regents - Academic Planning
- Series 3: Reports
- Series 4: Proposals and Reviews
- Series 5: Committees and Councils
- Series 6: Collective Bargaining
- Series 7: Board of Regents
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This set of materials was donated by Patricia Woelber, Administrative Assistant to the Executive Vice President, in 2017.
Bibliography
- Lang, William and Daryl Pendergraft.A Century of Leadership & Service: A Centennial History of The University of Northern Iowa, Volume II Cedar Falls: University of Northern Iowa and UNI Alumni Association, 1995 (p. 312, 376, 408).
- "About the Provost." University of Northern Iowa."https://provost.uni.edu/about".Accessed April 16, 2021.
Processing Information
Collection processed and finding aid written by Archival Processor Tessa Wakefield, April 2021.
- Title
- Provost and Vice President Administrative Records - Addition
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script