Stanford University, Bing Overseas Studies Program, records, 1955-2016
Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Stanford University. Bing Overseas Studies Programs
- Extent:
- 137.5 Linear Feet
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item] Stanford University Bing Overseas Studies Program, Records (SC0117). Stanford University Archives, Stanford, Calif.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Records pertain to the administration of the office at Stanford and the overseas campuses in Great Britain, Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, and other locations and include correspondence, memoranda, financial records, minutes, academic records, orientation handbooks, and photographs. Also includes architectural drawings and insurance inventory and valuations of pictures and furnishings in Harlaxton Manor, Grafton, Stanford's first "Stanford-in-Britain" campus.
- Biographical / historical:
-
The Overseas Studies Office was established in 1958, and Robert A. Walker, a professor of political science at Stanford University and chairman of the Committee on General Studies, was appointed director. The first campus was set up in Beutelsbach, German in 1958 and shortly thereafter, in October of 1960 two additional locations in Tours, France, and Florence, Italy, were opened. Later, as demand grew, centers were opened in Britain at Harlaxton in 1966, in Austria in October 1966, and at Salamanca, Spain in October 1968.
These study programs proved inordinately popular until the late 1960s, when enrollments began to decline. In August of 1973, Mark Mancall, formerly a professor of history at Stanford, took over as director of the program with a difficult task ahead of him. He was faced with declining enrollments, rising costs overseas, and a budget cut by more than a third as part of the university's three-year belt-tightening program instituted in 1975. In addition, many of the programs were drawing increasing criticism regarding academic integrity, academic relevance to the particular locale, and methods of selecting professor for faculty positions. Under Mancall's leadership, the programs became more community-based with students living in a variety of housing options, rather than based around a single campus-building, and new programs were opened in Haifa and Mexico City.
Subsequent directors included Tom Heller, Russell Berman, Amos Nur, Norman Naimark, and Robert Sinclair. The program was renamed the Bing Overseas Studies Program in 2005.
- Acquisition information:
- Administrative transfers, Overseas Studies, 1974-2018.
- Physical location:
- Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 48 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/spc.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Materials in Addenda, 2019-096 and Addenda, 2024-138 are restricted for 75 years from date of creation. Materials are otherwise open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.
- Terms of access:
-
While University Archives is the owner of the physical and/or digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item] Stanford University Bing Overseas Studies Program, Records (SC0117). Stanford University Archives, Stanford, Calif.
- Location of this collection:
-
Stanford University Archives, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6064, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022