Collections : [Columbia University Archives]

This series contains a collection of documents and serial publications from the prolific North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) and the Africa Research Group (ARG). Power structure research helped movement activists identify the alignment of international studies programs and federally-funded research with specific U.S. Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency, and military activities. This content enabled student activists to identify specific university policies and activities that had negative social and political impacts. The activists waged months-long and even years-long campaigns to convince other students to oppose and act against "the university-military complex".

This series contains hundreds of original documents collected by Columbia College student Stuart Gedal that analyze social issues and the Vietnam War, announce meetings, rallies, and demonstrations, and reflect the sometimes fractious internal debates among student movement activists. The materials reflect Gedal's slow but steadily growing enthusiasm for anti-war, civil rights and "Black Power" organizing. It also marks his own personal journey from aspiring attorney and liberal Democratic politician to full-time student movement organizer and militant activist.

This short series, contained in record carton 28, is organized alphabetically by subject. Most of these materials relate to infrastructural problems relating to the laboratory. For example, folder 28.26 relates contracting work done in the mid-1950s to supply the laboratory with sufficient electrical power; folder 28.31 relates efforts to procure a spectrometer for the lab around the same time. These subject files include correspondence, notes, blueprints, diagrams, and other office records.

In 1888 the Trustees appointed a special committee to establish a University Council, a body to bring about "a true University organization." Each faculty would elect two or three representatives who, together with the President and the Deans, would constitute the Council. In 1892 the University Council was given definite legislative and administrative powers (not just an advisory role) and continued to serve until 1968, when it was replaced by the University Senate. The Council, working with the President, managed the academic organization and operations of the University, including admission criteria, degree requirements, the academic calendar, the date and order of Commencement exercises. In addition to the meeting minutes, the volumes include lists of recipients of Ph.D.s, M.A.s, fellowships, and awards, as well as reports prepared by/for the Council. In the back of each volume, there is a name/subject index for each academic year included in the volume. University Senate committee minutes can be found in the University Senate records. Plenary minutes starting from April 28, 1995, are available on their website.

Central Files documents a wide range of people, topics and functions. The strengths of Series I include documentation of the administration and governance of the University; Columbia's academic affairs and the administration of the academic divisions of the University; research programs and institutes; affiliated institutions and relations with other institutions; the development of disciplines and professions; the University's relations with the surrounding community; development programs; gifts to the University, donor relations, and alumni affairs; student affairs and services; campus planning and architecture; awards and honorary degrees; and events and ceremonies.