Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Processing History
Historical Background
Chronology
Collection Scope and Content Summary
Collection Arrangement
Separation Note
Appraisal Note
Processing Note
Related Collections
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
Title: University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Jack W. Peltason records
Creator:
Peltason, J.W. (Jack Walter)
Creator:
University of California, Irvine. Office of the Chancellor
Identifier/Call Number: AS.031
Physical Description:
35.6 Linear Feet
(41 boxes and 2 oversize folders) and 2.2 unprocessed linear feet
Date (inclusive): 1969-1993
Date (bulk): 1984-1992
Abstract: This collection comprises records documenting Jack W. Peltason's work as the second chancellor of the University of California,
Irvine, a position he held from 1984 to 1992. Included are records relating to Peltason's administrative duties, community
involvement, and professional activities, as well as memorabilia and records related to his inauguration.
Language of Material:
English
.
Access
Most of the collection is open for research immediately upon request. However, because the collection contains personnel records,
some materials are restricted. In Series 1, Administrative Records, and Series 4, Personal and Professional Files, restricted
materials have been identified and separated, and they are marked as such in this guide's contents listing. Series 2, Correspondence,
contains personnel records interfiled throughout the series, so unrestricted materials in this series can only be made available
with advance notice. Finally, materials in Series 7, Audio Recordings, must also be requested in advance so use copies can
be made. Researchers who wish to request access to materials in Series 2 and Series 7 should contact the Department of Special
Collections and Archives.
In addition, this collection contains unprocessed additions which may contain restricted materials. Please contact the Department
of Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the University of California. Copyrights are retained by the creators of the records and their
heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the University Archivist.
Preferred Citation
University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Jack W. Peltason records. AS-031. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine
Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Acquisition Information
Transferred from the Office of the Chancellor, 1993-2008. Additional material transferred in 2014 from Aldrich Hall.
Processing History
Processed by Dawn Schmitz, 2009.
Historical Background
Jack. W. Peltason was the second chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, serving from 1984 to 1992. A distinguished
political scientist and constitutional scholar, Peltason was also one of UC Irvine's founding faculty.
Peltason was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 29, 1923. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University
of Missouri and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1947.
His first academic position was at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he taught from 1947 to 1951. In 1951
he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he rose to the position of dean of the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1960.
It was during this time that Peltason co-authored his classic textbook
Government by the People. Since its first publication in 1952, the book has been issued in numerous editions and is considered a fundamental text
on American democracy for political science students.
As a member of UC Irvine's founding faculty, he was appointed dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Science in 1963 when
the campus was still in the planning phase. As dean, he had responsibility for approving academic plans for each division
and recruiting faculty to a campus that had not yet been built. In 1964 he was named UC Irvine's second vice chancellor of
academic affairs. In this position he played a leading role in guiding the creation of the university's original academic
plan.
In 1967 Peltason returned to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as chancellor, a position he held until 1977.
He then became the chief spokesman for higher education as the president of the American Council on Education in Washington,
D.C., from 1977 to 1984.
Peltason returned to UC Irvine in 1984 to become the campus's second chancellor. Early on he established the UCI Medal to
recognize the contributions of university and community members to the campus; the Medal has since been awarded to numerous
distinguished individuals and is the campus's highest honor.
During his eight-year term UC Irvine underwent unprecedented physical growth, increased funding for endowed chairs and distinguished
professors, initiated community partnerships, and attracted major institutes, notably the UC Humanities Research Institute
in 1987 and the National Academies of Sciences & Engineering in 1988.
In 1992 Peltason was appointed president of the University of California during a major budgetary crisis. He was able to stabilize
the UC budget through an agreement with Governor Pete Wilson.
When he retired from the presidency in 1995, Peltason passed up deferred salary and pension funds and instead donated the
$230,000 towards an endowment. As a result, the Jack and Suzanne Peltason Scholarship provides merit-based awards to help
UC Irvine political science majors advance their educational careers. In 2007 an anonymous donor pledged more than $1 million
to UC Irvine for the creation of the Jack W. Peltason Endowed Chair, which goes to a faculty member within the Center for
the Study of Democracy.
Following his retirement, Peltason was active in many community and professional organizations, even after being diagnosed
with Parkinson's disease in 2002. As of 2009 Peltason could still be found having lunch at the University Club on the UC Irvine
campus with his wife, Suzanne. The couple has three children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Chronology
Chronology
1923 |
Born in St. Louis, Missouri |
1943 |
Graduates from the University of Missouri |
1944 |
Receives master's degree from the University of Missouri |
1946 |
Marries Suzanne Toll |
1947 |
Receives Ph.D. from Princeton University |
1947-1951 |
Serves on faculty, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts |
1949 |
Understanding the Constitution, written with E.S. Corwin, first published by Sloane |
1951-1964 |
Serves on faculty, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
1952 |
Government by the People, written with J.M. Burns and Thomas E. Cronin, first published by Prentice-Hall |
1960-1964 |
Serves as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
1963-1964 |
Serves as dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Science, University of California, Irvine |
1964-1967 |
Serves as vice-chancellor, academic affairs, University of California, Irvine |
1967-1977 |
Serves as chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
1977-1984 |
Serves as president, American Council on Education, Washington, D.C. |
1984-1992 |
Serves as second chancellor of UC Irvine |
1984 |
Establishes the UCI Medal as the highest honor awarded by the campus |
1988 |
Secures the final funding to build the Irvine Barclay Theatre through a partnership between UC-Irvine, the city of Irvine,
and major donors
|
1988 |
Establishes the UC Irvine "Think Tank" on cultural diversity |
1991-1992 |
Total funding for UC Irvine is $600,000,000, up from $322,000,000 at the beginning of his term as chancellor (1984-1985) |
1992-1995 |
Serves as president of the University of California |
2005 |
Awarded the Clark Kerr Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education by the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate |
2007 |
Endowed chair in UC Irvine's Center for the Study of Democracy named for him |
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection comprises records documenting Jack W. Peltason's work as the second chancellor of the University of California,
Irvine, a position he held from 1984 to 1992. Included are records relating to Peltason's administrative duties, community
involvement, and professional activities, as well as memorabilia and records related to his inauguration.
The collection includes incoming and outgoing correspondence from the Office of the Chancellor, typescripts and drafts of
speeches he delivered, briefing materials on labor issues, records of initiatives related to increasing diversity on campus,
meeting materials for the Council of Chancellors of the University of California, and planning materials for his transition
to the presidency of the University of California. Many records such as correspondence, memoranda, agendas, and meeting minutes
document Peltason's involvement in professional and community organizations. Also included are memorabilia; inauguration planning
materials such as committee notes, protocol manuals, and scripts; and inaugural documentation such as an audio recording and
event programs. The collection also includes an audio recording of an interview with Peltason conducted for an oral history
project of the American Political Science Association, an organization of which he was a longtime active member.
The collection includes some records from the previous administration, that of Daniel G. Aldrich, as well as the records of
Dennis Smith, who served as acting chancellor of UC Irvine between October 1992 and June 1993.
Collection Arrangement
This collection is arranged in 7 series.
- Series 1. Administrative records, 1969-1993, 3.1 linear feet
- Series 2. Correspondence, 1985-1993, 16 linear feet
- Series 3. Council of Chancellors meeting materials, 1982-1989, 2 linear feet
- Series 4. Personal and professional files, 1984-1992, 10.1 linear feet
- Series 5. Inauguration materials, memorabilia, and awards, 1984-1990, 1.2 linear feet
- Series 6. Speeches, 1984-1993, 2.8 linear feet
- Series 7. Audio recordings, 1985-1991, .4 linear feet
The collection also contains two unprocessed additions:
Accession 2014.016. Unprocessed addition 2014, 1982-1987, 2 linear feet
Accession 2014.039. Unprocessed addition 2014, 1984-1989, 0.2 linear feet
Separation Note
Personal papers of Jack W. Peltason that were not created during his tenure as chancellor were separated and added to MS-F019,
Jack W. Peltason Papers. The following publications were removed from this collection and cataloged separately in the UC Irvine
Libraries catalog
ANTPAC :
- American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
Higher Education-Economic Development Connection: Emerging Roles for Public Colleges and Universities in a Changing Economy. Washington, D.C.: American Association of State Colleges and Universities, 1986.
- American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
Issues in Higher Education and Economic Development. Washington, D.C.: American Association of State Colleges and Universities, 1986.
- Boyer, Ernest L.
The Condition of Teaching: A State-by-State Analysis. Princeton, N.J.: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1988.
- Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Eighty-Second Annual Report. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1987.
-
Journal of Orange County Studies 2 (1989).
Appraisal Note
Personal financial, tax, and medical records of Jack W. Peltason and his wife, Suzanne T. Peltason, were not retained. The
following publications found the chancellor's personal and professional files that were already available in the UC Irvine
library were also not retained:
Scheiber, Harry N., ed.
Federalism: Studies in History, Law, and Policy: Papers From the Second Berkeley Seminar on Federalism. Berkeley: Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 1988.
Boyer, Ernest L. and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
College: The Undergraduate Experience in America. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
Processing Note
In order to facilitate access, the collection was minimally processed. Most dates are approximate. Most of the materials are
in their original folders or were taken out of binders and placed in new folders. (An exception to this is Series 2, Subseries
1, the chronological files of outgoing correspondence, which were kept in their binders.) Since materials have not been re-foldered,
many folders contain their original labels and are therefore not labeled with titles identical to those found in the contents
listing in this guide, which were written to aid the researcher by adding further description. Moreover, some of the folders
in Series 5, Personal and Professional Files, are labeled on each folder's side rather than the top owing to the type of filing
cabinet in which the files had been stored and used. To facilitate access, folders were numbered during processing so numbers
written in pencil on folders match those in the guide.
When they arrived in the University Archives, most of the materials were generally grouped in the series identified in this
guide; however, similar materials were not always found in consecutive boxes. During processing, the collection was
not completely re-arranged, so materials in the same series are still in boxes that may not be consecutively numbered. Researchers
will find that navigating the materials in this collection will be facilitated by keeping a copy of the contents listing with
them during their research.
Related Collections
A large proportion of the records generated by the Peltason administration were filed by the Central Records Unit of the University
of California, Irvine. These can be located in AS-004, Central Records Unit Records. For researchers interested in Peltason's
work as a scholar or as the president of the American Council on Education, please see MS-F019, Jack W. Peltason Papers. Both
collections are located in the Department of Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
For researchers interested in Peltason's 10-year term as chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, please
see Jack W. Peltason Papers. Series Number: 24/01/020. University of Illinois Archives, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Audiocassettes -- 20th century.
Chancellors
College administrators -- California -- Irvine -- History -- Sources
Peltason, J.W. (Jack Walter) -- Archives
University of California, Irvine. Office of the Chancellor -- Archives
University of California, Irvine -- Archives
University of California, Irvine -- Administration -- Archives