Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Barnard Archives and Special Collections. The Barnard Archives and Special Collections approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron. Copyright for the materials generated by the Barnard Office of General Counsel is owned by Barnard; copyright for third-party materials is not owned by Barnard, unless work for hire of outside counsel.
Personnel records of faculty and staff (including search, tenure/promotion, and disciplinary/grievance records) are restricted for 75 years from date of creation. Three folders contain private arbitration involving explicitly named personnel, and are marked as restricted; this restriction will be lifted in 2064. One folder contains disciplinary letters sent to employees and is marked as restricted; this restriction will be lifted in 2071.
Single photocopies or scans may be made for research purposes. In Series 1, Folders 1-6, names of tenants must be redacted or made anonymous to protect the identities and addresses of tenants.
Office of General Counsel Collection, 1968 - 2024; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College.
Records were transferred from the Office of General Counsel in 2002. Additional records were transferred in 2011 from the Provost's Office. Additional records were acquired through a large transfer of administrative materials in 2024.
Accruals are expected.
This collection was processed and the finding aid written by Dinah Handel in February, 2015. A large accrual was processed and the finding aid was updated by Maia Hirschler in November 2024.
Reporting directly to the president, the Barnard College General Counsel is the chief legal officer of the College and serves as legal counsel to the President and Board of Trustees (Barnard.edu/generalcounsel). The Office of the General Counsel (OGC) ensures that the College is compliant with federal, state and local laws and regulations, along with other responsibilities. The General Counsel reports directly to the President of the College (Barnard.edu/generalcounsel). Barnard's first General Counsel was appointed in the early 1980s, though the office may have been called the Office of the General Secretary before it became OGC (Barnard Bulletin, February 3, 1995; Smith College).
OGC is responsible for negotiating contracts with the four unions representing Barnard employees. This includes the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents Barnard's security, housekeeping and maintenance workers, and United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110 (formerly District 65, renamed in 1992), which represents the College's clerical workers (Columbia Spectator, October 24, 1985).
In 1985, OGC developed Barnard's first formal maternity leave policy for faculty (Columbia Spectator, March 20, 1985). In 1988, the General Counsel was named a vice president of the College and took over some of the responsibilities of the Vice President for Student Affairs, including supervision of Barnard Health Services, student residential life, Barnard Food Services, commuter concerns, and other college activities (Columbia Spectator, January 26, 1988). OGC was also responsible for negotiations of the intercorporate agreement of the College with Columbia University (Columbia Spectator, January 26, 1988).From 1993 to 1994, General Counsel Kathryn J. Rodgers briefly served as interim president of the College (Columbia Spectator, November 15, 1993).
After Rodgers's departure in 1995, the role was restructured so that the Office of Health Services, the Office of College Activities, and Food Services were supervised by the Dean of the College and the Dean of Student Life (Columbia Spectator, January 17, 1995). At the time, OGC's responsibilities included working with the College's bylaws and the Board of Trustees; finance and administration, including doing tax assessments; issues with the bursar, including collection matters and student bankruptcies; facilities, including vendor and construction contacts; and personnel, including labor contract negotiations and grievances. In December 1995, when Local 2110's contract expired, a breakdown of negotiations led to one of the longest strikes in a university setting, which lasted through the spring and fall semesters of 1996 (Columbia Spectator, January 21, 1999).
In 2023, OGC was responsible for negotiations with the newly-formed Barnard RA Union (Columbia Spectator, October 23, 2023). As of June 2024, the Office of Nondiscrimination and Title IX now reports to OGC (Bwog, June 15, 2024). OGC also produces codes of conduct and policies for the student body, faculty and staff of the College, including rules about postings, political activity, and campus demonstrations. These policies have come into greater focus in light of the 2024 student protests against the genocide in Gaza.
Sources:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230922085821/https://barnard.edu/general-counsel
https://web.archive.org/web/20241106155335/https://garden.smith.edu/people/kathy-rodgers-70
https://web.archive.org/web/20230601090212/https://barnard.edu/human-resources/twu-local-264-faq
https://web.archive.org/web/20230601090212/https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu
https://web.archive.org/web/20241106155747/https://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu//
https://web.archive.org/web/20240617124446/https://bwog.com/2024/06/barnard-announces-senior-staff-member-turnover-and-administrative-structural-changes/
This collection contains materials from the Office of General Counsel (OGC) from the late 1960s through the present, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1980-2002, primarily during the tenures of General Counsels Kathryn J. Rodgers (early 1980s-1993/4) and Michael Feierman (1995-2010). The materials attest to the various functions of OGC, including dealing with tenant complaints, managing real estate and mortgages, negotiating with labor unions representing Barnard employees, and addressing policy issues, such as the admission of transgender students at Barnard.
There is significant correspondence with union representatives from UAW 2110/District 65 as the union tried to negotiate contracts with the College. The materials include memos, correspondence, notes, strike contingency plans, opinions of counsel, agreements, mortgages, and research files. The collection also includes digital copies, in PDF format, of various policies and codes of conduct that OGC has produced since around 2011.
Arranged in four series:
Series 1: Real Estate and Financing, grouped by topic and then chronologically
Series 2: Labor Relations: arranged roughly chronologically
Series 3: Research Files, Memoranda, arranged alphabetically by topic and then chronologically
Series 4: Codes of Conduct and Policies, arranged alphabetically by policy and then chronologically (Digital materials)
Includes tax abatement assessments, complaints against the college as a landlord, sale of real estate, Dormitory Authority materials (financing for construction)
Financing/loans for construction projects
Financing/loans for construction projects
This series includes TWU and District 65/UAW 2110 negotiations, proposals, final agreements, strategy and notes of the Office of General Counsel (including strike contingency plans), and strike ephemera, including flyers produced by students and by the Union. The series as a whole documents the College's resistance toward labor movements on campus. The highlight of the series are the materials about the 1996 Local 2110 strike.
Includes District 65/UAW 2110 negotiations, proposals, final agreements, strategy and notes of general counsel's office (including strike contingency plans), strike ephemera. The file documents the beginnings and early negotiations with District 65/Local 2110. Early issues of negotiation included whether all employees had to belong to the Union, wages, and tuition benefits.
Three folders contain private arbitration involving explicitly named personnel. Personnel records of faculty and staff (including search, tenure/promotion, and disciplinary/grievance records) are restricted for 75 years from the date of creation
Includes memoranda and research on tenure denial, anti-trust lawsuit, transgender admissions policy, dormitory housing and discrimination, and Barnard babysitting/bartending
Codes of Conduct and Governance, 2023
Discrimination and Harassment, 2023 - 2024
General Grievance Procedures, 2011
Policy on policies, 2019
Political Activity and Demonstrations, 2015 - 2024
Maintenance of the Public Order, undated
Workplace Violence and Threatening Behavior, 2014 - 2022