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Guide to the Records of the Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley, 1952-[ongoing]
CU-149  
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Collection Details
 
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  • Collection Summary
  • Information for Researchers
  • Administrative Information
  • History
  • Scope and Content of Collection

  • Collection Summary

    Collection Title: Records of the Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley
    Date: 1952-[ongoing]
    Collection Number: CU-149
    Creator: University of California, Berkeley. Office of the Chancellor
    Extent: circa 200 boxes
    Repository: The University Archives.
    University of California, Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
    Phone: 510) 642-2933
    Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
    URL: https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/visit/bancroft/university-archives
    Abstract: The Records of the Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley, 1952-[ongoing], includes records for the chancellorships of Clark Kerr, Glenn T. Seaborg, Edward W. Strong, Martin Meyerson, Roger Heyns, and Albert H. Bowker. The collection includes the administrative records of the Office, including records generated by vice-chancellors and immediate office staff.
    Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English
    Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

    Information for Researchers

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Materials in this collection may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
    All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html .

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Records of the Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley, CU-149, University Archives, University of California, Berkeley

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog
    Bowker, Albert H. (Albert Hosmer), 1919-2008
    Heyns, Roger W. (Roger William), 1918-1995
    Kerr, Clark, 1911-2003
    Meyerson, Martin
    Seaborg, Glenn Theodore, 1912-1999

    Administrative Information

    Arrangement

    The records are arranged in a subject based system, each section having a numerical code. Except for Series 2, the various series are accompanied by a paper alphabetical index to this filing system, giving the code number, which may then be traced in the finding aid. Materials are to be requested by box number, however. Series 2 represents materials accumulated under one of these file codes, 893-Student revolts and related issues, 1964-1972, which apparently had been kept separately because of its size and complexity.
    Series 1:
    Records, 1952-1961.
    Series 2:
    Student revolts and related issues, 1964-1972.

    Series 3:
    Records, 1962-1966.
    Series 4:
    Records, 1967-1971.
    Series 5:
    Records, 1972-1980.

    History

    The Berkeley Chancellorship was established in 1952. The President of the University was the chief administrative officer at Berkeley until July 1952. Between July 1945 and 1947 delegation of 'full authority, under the president, to administer the [academic] departments on the campus' was granted to a provost-at that time Monroe E. Deutsch. Following the retirement of Deutsch in 1947, the President again assumed direct administrative control of the campus until July 1952, when the first chancellor was appointed and directed to assume operating jurisdiction over the colleges, schools and other organizational units on the Berkeley campus in accordance with the policies of the Regents and of the President of the University.
    Beginning with this date, therefore, the records of the Office of the Chancellor, represent the highest level records for the Berkeley campus. At the same time it must be said that the process of decentralization begun in the early 1950s continued for many years: it was not until 1960 that each campus had control over the administration of admissions offices, not until 1961 that each campus had authority over campus publications and graduate divisions. While campuses could nominate candidates to faculty positions, and while in 1954 the Regents acted only on appointments and promotions to tenure rank faculty, it was not until 1966 that chancellors were given authority to make tenure appointments and promotions of faculty and to approve all in-scale merit salary increases. And only in 1966 could chancellors award and execute construction contracts and appoint architects.
    These records represent all phases of activity of the Chancellor's immediate office, not of just the Chancellor himself. Correspondence, memoranda, reports, etc., of the holders of various vice-chancellorial positions will also be found in these files, as well as interaction with academic schools, colleges and department, organized research units, the faculty (including the Academic Senate), student organizations, with campus and systemwide administrative offices, and with extra-university organizations such as the City of Berkeley.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The Records of the Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley, 1952-[ongoing], includes records for the chancellorships of Clark Kerr, Glenn T. Seaborg, Edward W. Strong, Martin Meyerson, Roger Heyns, and Albert Bowker. The collection includes the administrative records of the Office, including records generated by vice-chancellors and immediate office staff. Correspondence, memoranda, reports, etc., of the holders of various vice-chancellorial positions will also be found in these files, as well as interaction with academic schools, colleges and department, organized research units, the faculty (including the Academic Senate), student organizations, with campus and systemwide administrative offices, and with extra-university organizations such as the City of Berkeley.
    Series 1: Records, 1952-1961, includes the chancellorships of Clark Kerr and Glenn T. Seaborg. Clark Kerr was the first Chancellor at Berkeley, from 1952 to 1958, and assumed operating jurisdiction over the colleges, schools and other units on the Berkeley campus. He worked to determine the organization and scope of the office, to formulate long-range academic and physical development plans, and to improve relations with the city of Berkeley. He had been on the Berkeley faculty since 1945, as professor of industrial relations and director of the Institute for Industrial Relations, and left the chancellorship in 1958 to become the 12th president of the University after the retirement of Robert Gordon Sproul. Glenn T. Seaborg was the second Chancellor and served from 1958 to 1961. He had been the Associate Director of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory since 1954 and he left the Berkeley campus to become the chair of the Atomic Energy Commission. He had received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1951. Under his leadership academic and physical development plans for the campus came to fruition.
    Series 2: Student revolts and related issues, 1964-1972, contains material on various student protest movements from 1964 to 1972 and the administrative response to those movements. Also included are extensive files pertaining to the Board of Educational Development and its intent to address curriculum issues and to institute experimental courses. This series contains material filed under the filing code number 893: Student revolts and related material. These files were maintained separately from other records of the Office of the Chancellor, crossing over the chronological break between series 3 and series 4, and were transferred to University Archives as a separate group.
    Series 3: Records, 1962-1966, covers the chancellorships of Edward W. Strong, Martin Meyerson (acting chancellor), and the beginning of the tenure of Roger W. Heyns. Edward William Strong, professor of philosophy, was named chancellor in 1961 after holding administrative positions at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, as chair of the department of philosophy and of sociology and social institutions, as associate dean of the College of Letters and Science, as vice-chair of the Berkeley division of the Academic Senate, and as vice-chancellor for academic affairs. Strong did not survive the Free Speech Movement and its immediate aftermath, and left the office in December 1964, returning to his teaching duties. Martin Meyerson served as acting chancellor from January to July 1965. He came to Berkeley in 1963 and was professor of urban development and Dean of the College of Environmental Design. Taking office during a contentious period, he advanced efforts to develop new teaching methods and to improve relationships among students, administration and faculty. Roger William Heyns became Chancellor in July 1965. He had been at the University of Michigan where he served as the Dean of the College of Literature, Science and Arts and as the Vice-president for Academic Affairs. Once he arrived at the University of California, Berkeley, Heyns became a consensus builder among the various groups on campus. He established the Office of the Student Ombudsman and the Educational Opportunity Program, one of the nation's first student affirmative-action programs. Also during his tenure, the Graduate School of Public Policy was established and work was completed on Moffitt Undergraduate Library, the Space Sciences Laboratory, and the University Art Museum. This series of records documents only the first two years of his tenure as Chancellor, which lasted until 1971.
    Series 4: Records, 1967-1971, includes records documenting the final four years of the chancellorship of Roger W. Heyns.
    Series 5: Records, 1972-1980, includes records documenting the chancellorship of Albert H. Bowker. Bowker came to Berkeley to become chancellor after a career on the mathematics and statistics faculty at Stanford University and then eight years as chancellor of the City University of New York. His years as Berkeley's chancellor were marked by tightening budgets for the state and the University, leading Bowker to establish the UC Berkeley Foundation and the beginnings of a major fund-raising program for the campus. Private funds were raised for the Bechtel Engineering Center and an addition to Minor Hall, the optometry building. His term also saw the creation of Women's Intercollegiate Athletics as a separate department, parallel to the men's sports program. In 1973 Bowker drafted a report to the Regents entitled "Berkeley in a Steady State," which outlined a model for renewing campus facilities, called for student participation in Chancellor's advisory committees, and discussed issues facing the campus in light of a new era of reduced state budgets.