Faculty Minutes
Collection
Identifier: UA317
This collection contains the minutes from the faculty meetings at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1888-1965, including discussions, decisions, rulings, and reports that occurred during these meetings. The collection also includes minutes from a variety of faculty committees.
(28 volumes)
Volumes 1 through 15 are open to research. Access is restricted to Volumes 16 through 28, due to regulations imposed by the Family Educational Records Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974. Please see an archivist for any questions related to access to restricted volumes.
Permission to publish materials from this collection must be obtained from the Head of Archives and Special Collections.
6.2 Linear Feet
This collection of faculty minutes includes a group of bound volumes containing the minutes from the original bi-weekly faculty meetings, along with minutes from faculty committees such as the Advisory Committee, Executive Committee, Administrative Council, and Committee on Standing. Other minutes, including those of the Student Council and Graduate Council, are also included.
The first Secretary of the Faculty, Professor of Mathematics Lyman Hall, was later to serve as Georgia Tech's second President; from the last years of the nineteenth century until his death in 1923, Thomas Pettus Branch, Professor of Mathematics and later the head of the Civil Engineering department, served as Secretary. In later years H.H. Caldwell, Lloyd W. Chapin, and W. L. Carmichael held the position.
These minutes, dating from October 1888-June 1965, include faculty rulings and discussions on issues such as, but not limited to: admission of students, disciplinary actions against students, student hearings held before the faculty (including the Insubordinate Seniors of 1901), suspension or expulsion of students, cheating, fraternity matters, sports schedules, excused absenses for special events, final exam schedules, school calendar, curriculum changes, new courses, course substitutions and transfer credit, appropriations for purchases and to student organizations, reports on Board of Regents meetings, and student fees.
The early volumes include significant information on the incident of the Insubordinate Seniors of 1901, in which the senior class was disciplined for returning two days late from Christmas vacation, as well as some correspondence and memoranda concerning schedules for football, basketball, and baseball games. During the years of World War 1 through the early 1920s, frequent references are made to the students' drill, Army Training Corps, and other military activities.
Volumes 1-19 (1888-1945) contain a handwritten index of all faculty and students noted within the minutes. The minutes also include most programs from Commencement exercises. In addition, some volumes contain invitations, correspondence, newspaper clippings, telegrams, and other printed material.
The faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology was formed just prior to the opening of the school in October 1888. The faculty held its first meeting on October 5, 1888. Although the full faculty has continued to meet regularly since that date, from its early days the faculty frequently divided into various committees. Many of the committees focused largely on topics related to students, particularly student discipline and behavior, students' academic standing, and achievements.
The school began with only five faculty members. By 1908, the faculty had grown to include seventeen full-time faculty as well as several adjunct professors; by the end of President Matheson's administration in 1922 the faculty numbered about 80. The size and quality of the faculty generally continued to increase along with the expansion of the school during the twentieth century. President Brittain worked to improve the quality of faculty and their salaries during his tenure. By 1948, during the Van Leer administration, the number of faculty exceeded 400. Again, during the early years of President Harrison's tenure in the late 1950s, another move was made to increase faculty salaries and quality. The tremendous expansion of the campus itself during this period as well as increases in funding were again reflected in the growth of the faculty.
Volumes are arranged in chronological order.
A print copy of this finding aid is available in the Georgia Tech Archives reading room.
Immediate provenance is unknown (accession number 2006.042).
(28 volumes)
Sheldon Smith and Christine de Catanzaro processed these records in December 2006.
Part of the Archives and Special Collections, Library, Georgia Institute of Technology Repository