NASA Meeting, 1963

President Edwin Harrison was charged with monumental administrative tasks and decisions during his eleven years in office. The materials in this collection offer evidence to support the fact that he carried each and every responsibility with commitment and grace. Several issues stand out above the rest.

First and foremost is the explosion of campus construction during his term. Significant campus master plans can be found in Oversize Folder 2. The Georgia Tech Development Plan is housed in all of Box 7 and Box 8, Folders 1-4. Records and correspondence relating to constructions of specific buildings are usually arranged by the name of the building or major. These folders are located throughout the collection, but are most prevalent in the first 10 boxes and Boxes 17-20.

Along a similar vein of expansion, Southern Technical Institute, now known as Southern Polytechnic State University, outgrew the Naval Air Station in Chamblee ten years after its founding. In 1958, proposals were submitted from both DeKalb and Cobb counties to either keep or lure the school. Correspondence, reports, maps, and aerial photography (separated to VAUA3) document the timeline of the decision made by Georgia Tech and the Board of Regents. These materials are housed in Box 34, Folders 4-8, all of Box 35, and Oversize Folders 3-4.

The Joint Tech-Georgia Foundation was created to raise funds to supplement the lower-than-national-average faculty and administrative salaries. This was a successful cooperation from Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia in Athens. Documents pertaining to this organization can be found in Box 19, Folders 6-7.

With the dawning of the space age, Georgia Tech focused a great deal of their research and development on nuclear energy. Plans to build a nuclear reactor facility are housed in all folders of Box 17 and Box 18, Folders 1-7. The National Science Foundation awarded grants to build this facility and those proposals can be found in Boxes 24-28 and Box 29, Folders 1-2. Harrison was involved with many commissions, one of which was the Georgia Nuclear Advisory Commission (Box 11, Folder 11).

Georgia Tech celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1961 with many scheduled events and speakers. Correspondence, including letters of congratulations, relating to this can be found I Box 32, Folders 9-10 and Box 33, Folders 1-2. The most controversial speaker to appear was Chief Justice Earl Warren. His Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that separate public facilities were not equal, thus paving the way for integration. Many voiced their disapproval to Harrison on inviting him to speak. These letters are housed in Box 33, Folder 3.

The annual reports found in Box 39, Folders 5-16 are a small sampling of the campus departments. There is no consistent basis on why these reports were kept with Harrison's papers and why others are not.

The Board of Regennts series consists of correspondence, meeting minutes, and memos. Some topics covered in these documents include desegregation at Georgia Tech and objections regarding textbooks. These materials were originally a part of the Board of Regents records (UA017).