Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Dean's Files series (41 linear feet) comprises the bulk of the record group, spanning the years 1904 to 1991 and 2002-2014, and includes the records of Deans Cooley, Sadler, Anderson, Crawford, Brown, Attwood, Van Wylen, Ragone, Duderstadt, Vest, Atkins and Munson, Jr.

The Committee Records series (7.8 linear feet) dates from 1887 to 1984 and contains nearly complete runs of the minutes of the Executive Committee from its inception in 1936 to 1984 and of the Standing Committee for the period 1887 to 1983. The Standing Committee, composed of the dean, assistant dean, and chairmen of the various departments, was created in 1906 to replace an earlier advisory committee that consisted of five faculty members and the dean as an ex-officio member. The Standing Committee was responsible for approving appointments, buildings and rooms, repairs to buildings, and apparatus and equipment. The Standing Committee series includes minutes of meetings and correspondence that give a broad view of issues that were of interest to the students and faculty in engineering. The early minutes, for example, express the concern that engineering education was too technical and did not provide a broad liberal education.

The Executive Committee was formed in 1936 as part of the Standing Committee. Its duties were to investigate and formulate educational and research policy and to consider matters of budget, promotions and appointments, and plant extension. The minutes of the Executive Committee relate to student petitions about requirements, faculty appointments, sabbaticals and sick leaves, travel expenses, building expansion, and curriculum development. Although fairly routine in the later years, the resolutions regarding research contracts with private companies included in the early minutes provide an overview of the research projects faculty members engaged in and of the relations between industry and the College of Engineering. A subject and name index for the period 1936 to 1946 provides easy access to the Executive Committee minutes. Also included in this series is a 1926 report on entering students by the Committee on the Study of Engineering Education and a 1930 file of the Committee on Engineering

Also included are minutes of the Administrative, Curriculum and Standing Committees. The Committee on Discipline minutes (1913-1923) provide an unusual record of some engineering students' infractions, academic and otherwise, and of punishments meted out by the committee. Several of the Dean's Topical Files include files on various committees.

The Faculty Records series (5.5 linear feet) covers the years 1873 to 1986 and consists primarily of minutes of faculty meetings and faculty biographies; other materials include photographic rosters of the engineering faculty and a small amount of correspondence, reports, and miscellaneous material. Included in the reports is an undated report written by Professor DeVolson Wood, who taught at the University from 1857 to 1872, regarding needs of the Department of Engineering for an additional professor and appropriation requests and research reports written by faculty members in the 1870's and 1880's.

Minutes of faculty meetings span the period 1895 to 1968 and deal for the most part with curriculum development and student requirements. Biographies of faculty members consist of questionnaires filled out by professors in the 1950's and 1960's in which they describe their educational background, teaching and industrial experience, consulting work and other activities outside of academic appointments, professional society membership, and related subjects. These biographical sketches provide substantial information on the subject of outside research by faculty members.