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Founded in 1841, the College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA) is the liberal arts college of the University of Michigan, encompassing over 100 academic departments and non-departmental centers, programs, institutes, museums, and laboratories. The record group includes correspondence, meeting minutes, memoranda, reports, proposals, subject files, and program materials from the administrative offices of the dean and the academic units that make up the college.

The records of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA) of the University of Michigan date from 1846 with the first meeting of the literary college's faculty. They now span more than a century and a half and comprise 549.4 linear feet (in 550 boxes), 3 volumes, and 169.9 GB of minutes, correspondence, memoranda, reports, and subject files detailing the activities of the college from its early beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century to its present status as the largest of the university's colleges.

The administrative records of the college have come to the library in six major accessions beginning in 1942 with small periodic accessions thereafter. In addition, the college has periodically deposited bound record copies of the minute books of the meetings of the LSA faculty. Covering the years 1846 to 2007, the minute books (oversize volumes, boxes 204 to 209, and box 388) are the most important source of information about the college, especially for the period before World War I because few other extant records document the activities of the university's liberal arts college.

University of Michigan department responsible in part for the development of materials for the teaching of English as a second language. The English Language Institute records contain correspondence, notes from staff meetings, publications, reports, photographs, and administrative records, especially records of South East Asia Regional English Program and the Ford-Japan Project. The records also include files of directors Charles C. Fries and Robert Lado and administrator George E. Luther. Also includes photos of Institute staff, students, and activities, including international students at the University of Michigan and the institute's South East Asia Regional English Project (1957-1965).

The records of the English Language Institute encompass the period, 1940-2012, and contain 11 series: Correspondence; C.C. Fries Correspondence; Books; Manuscripts and Publications; Scrapbooks; Project Files; Administrative Files; South East Asia Regional English Project (SEAREP); Ford-Japan Project; Publications; and Photographs. The bulk of the collection deals with routine business such as student requests for admission, inquiries from throughout the world regarding the operation of the Institute, requests for linguistic materials available from the Institute, and staff meeting minutes. There is an abundance of information on the relationship between the English Language Institute, its staff and similar institutions both at the University of Michigan and elsewhere; including the University of Michigan International Center, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the English Language Institute in Mexico, the Ford Foundation, the Inter-American Educational Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, the Linguistic Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, and the U.S. Office of Education. Also in the collection are extensive files of directors Charles C. Fries and Robert Lado and administrator George E. Luther.