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[identification of item], [box #, folder #], Office of the President: Faculty Minutes, 1909-1998, UA 0011, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
This collection was formed from the merger of several groups of materials received from Fred Hilton in JMU Media Relations (accessions 93-0107, 93-0210), Gail May in the President's Office (accessions PR 99-1122, 00-0215), and Machelle Rader in the President's Office (PR 2005-0519). These accessions were combined under the collection number PR 99-1122.
The collection was minimally reprocessed in 2018 and is only comprised of the Faculty Minutes, 1908-1998, which originally formed part of the much larger aforementioned accession (PR 99-1122). A copy of the original finding aid is located in the collection control file. Additionally, general faculty meeting minutes that were interfiled with the Faculty Senate Minutes (FA 93-0305), and vice versa, were removed and integrated into this collection. Faculty Senate Minutes, UA 0001, remains a separate collection.
The State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg opened its doors to the first class of students on September 28, 1909. President Julian Burruss' first faculty hires included Cornelius Heatwole (Education), John Wayland (History and Social Sciences), Yetta Shoninger (Primary Methods), Althea Loose (Physical Education and Foreign Languages), Sarah Sale (Household and Manual Arts), and Margaret King (Geography and Nature Study). Subsequent faculty hires included Elizabeth Cleveland (English Language and Literature), Natalie Lancaster (Mathematics), Annie Cleveland (English and Foreign Language), Lida Cleveland (Music), and Evalina Harrington (Kindergarten Education).
Prior to the first day of classes, the first meeting of the State Normal and Industrial School faculty took place on Wednesday, September 22, 1909 in Science Hall, now Maury Hall. In addition to President Julian Burruss, eight faculty members were in attendance. John W. Wayland served as the first secretary.
The Office of the President: Faculty Minutes, 1909-1998, are comprised of six bound volumes of minutes and numerous folders of unbound minutes and memoranda of the faculty of James Madison University and its previous iterations. The bound volumes also include related tipped-in documents and correspondence. Loose documents, once laid in the bound volumes, were removed during an early processing campaign. These include draft minutes and other related and supplementary material. Photocopies of the original inserts were made and include annotations noting the location from where the original insert was removed. Abstracts created by Nancy Bondurant Jones provide brief synopses of general faculty meetings from 1927 through 1946.
The faculty minutes begin with the first meeting of the faculty of the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg on September 28, 1909 and continue through November 5, 1998. Gaps are present between the years of 1969 and 1998. Further, there were no official faculty meetings held during the 1997-1998 academic year.
The subject matter of the minutes reflect and document the happenings in the faculty meetings. Topics include approval of degree candidates, general announcements, enrollment numbers, curriculum and program proposals, student rules and regulations, salary increases, reorganization and administrative changes, the pass-fail initiative, faculty handbook revisions, the Jay Rainey case (September 12, 1969 meeting), and sit-ins and protests (May 9, 1970 meeting). Minutes of the Committee on Curriculum and Instruction are also interfiled.
A talk entitled "The Faculty Senate" dated December 12, 1967 given by Dr. Francis W. Warlow at a faculty dinner is included and appears to document some of the early discussions toward creating JMU's Faculty Senate.
The collection is arranged chronologically with folders of removed inserts and abstracts interfiled after their respective minute books.
Faculty Senate Minutes, 1967-2007, UA 0001, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.