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.