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Student Life at CMU

A guide to studnet life collections in the University Archives

Introduction

There is a rich history of activism by members of the CMU community. Below you will find a selection of our collections that best document their stories, grouped together based on who created them.

Use the arrow buttons to navigate through the groups and learn more about these collections. For more information, you can contact us using this form.

Institutional Record Collections

Student Government Records

The Student Government Records contain both administrative and financial records kept by the Student Government through the years 1917-1987. The majority of these records belong to the Student Council, which was the legislative body of the Student Government. This collection also includes meeting minutes from the years 1921-1980, and various copies of the Student Government’s constitution and by-laws. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Board of Trustees Records

The Records of the Board of Trustees are housed in eight boxes and arranged into five series. The activities of the Board of Trustees are documented through the work of its committees, and therefore the majority of this collection consists of meeting minutes, reports, and correspondence. Although the Board of Trustees began in 1903, the majority of the documentation in this collection begins around 1962. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences Records

This collection contains records of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences which are arranged in three series; Series 1: College of Humanities and Social Science, which contains records created by the College as a whole; Series 2: Departments, which contains records produced by the Economics, English, History, Philosophy, Modern Languages, Political Science, Psychology, Social Science, and Statistics departments, as well as some records from the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College; and Series 3: Publications, which houses publications produced by the departments of English and History. The collection spans the period from 1913 through 2007. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Carnegie Mellon University Women's Center Records

This collection contains six years of records from The Carnegie Mellon University Women's Center. The Carnegie Mellon University Women's Center celebrated its grand opening on January 26, 1990. The Women's Center works in collaboration with organizations in the surrounding area such as Women's Health Services, Pittsburgh Action Against Rape(PAAR), the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force (PATF), and the Women's Place (Pittsburgh's shelter for battered women). For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Commission on the Status and Needs of Women at CMU (COSNW) Collection

The Commission on the Status and Needs of Women at CMU Collection contains records dealing with the pursuit of women's rights and equality within the workplace and student body at Carnegie Mellon University. This collection includes surveys and reports that evaluate the positions of women at the university as faculty, staff, and students. The collection also includes many financial records that illustrate the budgetary aspects of the Commission. There are also many newspaper clippings that focus on the Commission, all of which have been photocopied for preservation purposes. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Office of Student Affairs Records

The Office of Student Affairs Records oversees much of the non-academic student life at Carnegie Mellon University. The collection contains promotional and informational materials related to the various events and programs the division and its departments have organized and sponsored throughout the years. The collection includes informational materials related to on-campus housing; planning materials and promotional fliers for ongoing events like Black History Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Campus Week, Orientation, Spring Carnival, and Sweepstakes; correspondence, informational pamphlets, and schedules for programs like Pre-College, Student Health Services, and the Safe Zone program; and a collection of printed materials produced by the Office. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

General Photograph Collection

The General Photographs Collection consists of consists of 40 linear feet of prints, transparencies and negatives, mainly black and white, documenting the history of Carnegie Mellon University from the early 1900s to the 2000s. Most photographs are undated. Subjects include Carnegie Mellon University faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni, benefactors, and visitors; academic programs, research centers and university offices; events, athletics, student activities, reunions, commencements, and other activities; and campus scenes, campus architecture, and Pittsburgh views. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Faculty Record Collections

Earle Swank Papers

Earle Swank worked at Carnegie Mellon University for 40 years, starting as an English professor and retiring after serving 20 years as Dean of Student Affairs. He was well-liked by the students and was able to use his influence to see the University through the socially turbulent 60s and 70s. His papers are housed in eight archival boxes and arranged into seven series. Generally, these papers include business correspondence, minutes, reports, and newspaper clippings. The majority of the collection comes from Swank's correspondence as Dean of Student Affairs and case files of the Disciplinary Committee from 1919 to 1980. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Faculty Senate Records

This collection is comprised of six series: committees, administrative, financial, miscellaneous general faculty, faculty handbooks, and publications. Committees are organized alphabetically by subject and contain such subject matter as minutes and reports from various meetings on student affairs, admissions, campus life, and faculty affairs. The administrative series is comprised of information on faculty welfare and tenure as well as a subseries comprising the files and memoranda of the executive board. The miscellaneous series contains memoranda on different council meetings. The faculty handbook series contains the revisions of different faculty handbooks throughout the faculty senate's history. It also contains information on the faculty benefit plans and healthcare. The publications series contains copies of "Publications, Artistic Productions, and Professional Activities" books that list the scholarly output of CMU faculty, as well as the "Biographical Information on Faculty and Senior Research Personnel" which briefly lists biographical information, research interests, and scholarly output of faculty. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

FOCUS: Faculty and Staff Newspaper

This collection contains print versions of, FOCUS: the Faculty and Staff Newspaper from 1971 to 2008 as well as discs from 2000 to 2008 containing website and indesign data. The FOCUS Manual, a guide written by FOCUS founder and editor from 1971-1994, David Demarest, described that FOCUS, “seeks and ‘independent’ stance: the option to publish pieces critical of university policies.” The manual also notes, “FOCUS was initiated at the request of the Faculty Senate to replace the precursor “Faculty Bulletin” that consisted mostly of administration announcements. The senate wanted a publication that would allow ‘conversation among faculty, and between faculty and other members of the campus community, [in order to] contribute to the creation of a ‘real’ campus community.” From 1971 until 1994 Demarest and a number of other leftist faculty worked to produce a faculty publication true to the manual’s mission statement. In 1975 the paper rebranded from exclusively a faculty publication to one of faculty and staff. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Shirley Angrist Papers

The Shirley Angrist Papers primarily contain reports, statistical data, correspondence, and meeting minutes related to Dr. Angrist’s research on Women’s related issues at Carnegie Mellon University and Margaret Morrison Carnegie College.  For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Edward R. Schatz Papers

This collection contains the administrative papers of Edward R. Schatz, Ph.D. stored in 20 record center boxes (20 cubic feet). The collection comprises correspondence, memoranda, reports, contracts, proposals, minutes, legal material, publications, speeches, notes, surveys, grants, blueprints, press releases, and data spreadsheets. The Schatz papers contains reports that center on the quality of student life, and the status and needs of women and minorities at Carnegie Mellon. This collection also contains several folders on the merger of the Carnegie Institute of Technology with Mellon Institute in 1967 to form Carnegie Mellon University, including the by-laws and faculty constitution. Other subject matters documented in the collection are Carnegie Mellon’s response and plan to address affirmative action and student demonstrations, the creation and administration of the Computation Center, the relationships built between the university and local hospitals and businesses, and the long-range and strategic planning process and decisions made by university administrators. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Student Record Collections

The Tartan

The Tartan is the student newspaper of Carnegie Mellon University. First published in 1906, the weekly publication documents life and events on campus. For more information or to access the nearly-complete digital collection of the paper, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Carnegie Mellon University Student Publications Collection

This collection is composed of material created and published by Carnegie Mellon Students. It includes humor magazines, literary reviews, newsletters, and magazines published by student interest groups. There are currently 28 titles represented in the collection. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Campus Activism and Advocacy Collection

For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Black Lives Matter Collection

This collection contains cardboard signs supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. These signs were posted on the exterior of the Hunt library in response to the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.

Vincent Eirene Papers

While not a CMU student himself, Vincent Eirene is a Pittsburgh-based activist who led a series of student protests around the creation and work of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) starting in 1985. Eirene believed that the SEI's connection with the Department of Defense was inappropriate for a university. Materials include a photocopied "scrapbook" created by Eirene of clippings and other materials that document his protests against SEI from 1985 to 1990. Other materials include press releases, newspaper clippings, booklets, programs from Anti-SEI events, and correspondence. For more information, you can explore the collection's finding aid here.