The numbering system for dockets and minutes of the Faculty and Senate varies over the years. Docket numbers were first assigned in 1911 to items of business for the faculty to consider. Generally the Faculty tended to consider one docket per meeting in consecutive numerical order. However, there are many exceptions to this rule. Faculty meetings were designated only by date. When the Senate was organized in late 1937, a certain confusion in the numbering system arose. Several faculty meetings were given docket numbers (351, 352, 353), while others were designated only by date. The first several organizational meetings of the Senate were designated only by date. The first regular Senate business meeting, February 21, 1938, was designated docket #353. From that meeting through November 14, 1948, each Senate meeting was designated by a docket number (353-429). Faculty meetings continued to be designated by date only. Docket numbers were not assigned to the Senate meetings of February 14, 1949, April 12, 1949, May 9, 1949, August 8, 1949, and November 14, 1949. But when the January 23, 1950, Senate meeting was designated docket 435, the aforementioned five meetings had obviously been taken into account.

At this point an important change in the numbering system occurred. Docket 436 was assigned to the faculty meeting of February 6, 1950. From this point forward, the faculty and Senate have used a common numbering system—that is, if a Senate meeting were designated docket 500 and the faculty met the next day, then the faculty meeting would be designated docket 501. Whichever body met next would receive 502, to be followed by 503, and so on. The term “docket number” was used for many years, until it gradually disappeared in the mid-1960s. From then on, faculty and Senate minutes have been designated by a number at the head of the page, without the word docket.

In late 1971, the Senate began a new docket numbering system to designate special items of business. Several items could be considered at each meeting. The old docket numbering system, then, has been completely replaced as a method of designating items of business. However, it survives as the means of numbering Senate and faculty meetings.

Minutes of Professor’s Meetings, from ca. May 1916 through August 9, 1937, may be found in Volume II.

According to C.S. Cory, College Registrar and Examiner, 1907-1949, “…no minutes of faculty meetings were kept until September 1, 1881. The earliest minutes are recorded in a note-book [sic] labeled Volume II….”