Board of Trustees minutes
Collection
Identifier: UA315
This collection contains the minutes from the meetings of the Board of Trustees, from the first meeting in 1886 to the final meeting in January 1932. The minutes include reports by the President, committee reports, faculty promotions, and budgetary matters, as well as resolutions and motions regarding faculty and Presidential appointments and salaries.
(six bound volumes)
None.
Permission to publish materials from this collection must be obtained from the Head of Archives and Special Collections.
0.75 Linear Feet
This collection of minutes from Board of Trustees meetings from 1886-1932 includes records of attendance, discussions, reports and presentations, committee reports, faculty promotions, election of new board members, letters written by the Board of Trustees, student petitions to the board, and financial matters. The earliest volume, which covers 1886-1906, is handwritten; volumes 2 through 6 are typed.
Many topics relevant to the development of the Georgia School of Technology are covered in these minutes. The earliest volume documents the selection of Atlanta as the site for the Georgia School of Technology, as well as the appointment of Lyman Hall as Georgia Tech's second President. Later volumes cover the efforts to expand the campus and finance its building, in addition to mundane matters such as salaries and faculty reappointments. Commencement programs, budget statements, correspondence and reports are bound into the later volumes along with the minutes. The minutes and reports of the final meeting provide a summation of the accomplishments of the Board and a set of recommendations to the incoming Board of Regents regarding the future of Georgia Tech.
Some of the later typed volumes overlap in their coverage. Unfortunately, minutes from the period between 1906 and 1916 are not extant.
The Board of Trustees for the Georgia School of Technology oversaw the building and growth of the school, elected its Presidents, hired its faculty, and set salaries for its employees. It functioned from 1886 to 1932, when it was replaced by the formation of the University System of Georgia and its Board of Regents.
Among the five original members of the Board of Trustees, originally called the Commission, were Nathaniel E. Harris (who later become Governor of Georgia) and Samuel M. Inman. Harris was elected president of the Commission, a position he would hold until his death in 1929; Inman was selected as treasurer. The Commission's first order of business was to select a site for the school. After a five-way split in the first ballot and much debate, the Commission finally voted for Atlanta on the 24th ballot on October 20, 1886. On April 5, 1888, the spring before the school was to open, the Commission elected Isaac S. Hopkins as the first President of Georgia Tech.
The Board of Trustees took care of its regular duties, including the oversight of building, growth, and hiring, during its years of operation. The group was also in charge of setting salaries for all faculty and staff, and deciding all academic matters, such as whether or not to accept women into the Evening School of Commerce in 1920.
By an act of the Georgia General Assembly on August 28, 1931, the University System of Georgia was created. The University System of Georgia was led by an eleven-member Board of Regents effective January 1, 1932, thus ending the need for the Board of Trustees.
Minutes are arranged chronologically, in six volumes.
A print copy of this finding aid is available in the Georgia Tech Archives reading room.
The immediate provenance of this collection is unknown (accession #2006.220).
(six bound volumes)
Sheldon Smith and Christine de Catanzaro processed these papers in October 2006.
Part of the Archives and Special Collections, Library, Georgia Institute of Technology Repository