College of Arts and Sciences Records of The Dean

The records of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences date from 1927 through 2001 and fill 56 records center cartons. The bulk of the records dates from the late 1960s through the mid-1990s. They are divided into four subseries: files of assistant and associate deans and administrators, Program Review files, subject files, and departmental and academic programs files.

The files of the assistant and associate deans and administrators, approximately four linear feet in volume, relate largely to routine administrative matters including freshman advising, New Student Week activities, parental concerns, policies and procedures.

Program Review files date between 1985 and 1990 and relate to the procedure of formal departmental or academic program evaluation initiated at Northwestern University in the mid-1980s. Required of all major departments and administrative units of the University, Program Review entailed both internal and external critiques of departments and resulted in reports of comparative strengths and weaknesses. These files include College copies of departmental and program reports as well as correspondence relating to the administration of Program Review procedures.

Subject files date between 1927 and 2001 and fill nearly twenty-nine cartons. These files contain topically arranged administrative correspondence and reports pertaining to the operation of the College and feature large volumes of material relating to the following: Northwestern administrators and schools, academic programs, admissions, alumni, departmental annual reports, appointments and contracts, budgetary matters, departmental chairs, committees, computing resources, curriculum, endowed chairs, faculty, freshman advising, freshman seminars, gifts, grades, laboratories, lectures, new student orientation, payroll, personnel, policy, faculty recruiting, research, salaries, senior year events, summer session course offerings, teaching assistants, and teaching loads.

Departmental and academic programs files date from 1959 through 2000 and contain administrative correspondence, reports and related documents generally pertaining to faculty appointments and staffing, curricular offerings, enrollments, physical space requirements, teaching assistants, budgetary matters, policy and procedure.