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A Guide to the Records at the Indiana University Archives

Electronic finding aid encoded by Dina M. Kellams

Summary Information

Repository
Indiana University Archives
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives

Creator
Indiana University. University Interests Committee.

Title
University Interests Committee records, 1926-1929

Collection No.
C81

Extent
1 cubic foot

Language
Materials are in English.

Abstract
The University Interests Committee, which had been organized in 1912, moved into action in the 1920s to lobby the state legislature for funds on behalf of Indiana University and to generate interest in the University among civic and community leaders throughout Indiana. Collection consists primarily of correspondence between University Interests Committee members, special representatives, county organizers, the university president, alumni, university supporters, and state legislators. Also contains questionnaires assessing support for the lobbying campaign and a few records of the Women's University Interest Committee.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research. Advance notice required.

Historical Note

The University Interests Committee, which had been organized in 1912, moved into action in the 1920s to lobby the state legislature for funds on behalf of Indiana University and to generate interest in the University among civic and community leaders throughout Indiana. Lobbying became necessary at this time because in 1925 the state legislature adopted legislative appropriation as the method to be used in determining funding for public higher education in the state (previous budgets had been based on a percent of the mill tax collected).

In anticipation of the 1927 appropriations process, the University Interests Committee organized a statewide network of alumni, students, and community leaders to identify key legislators, assess their attitudes toward Indiana University, and press them to be favorable to IU in the allocation of funds. W.A. Alexander, who had headed the Memorial Fund Campaign, played an important role in the work of this committee as did the Memorial Regiment, an organization composed of participants in the Memorial Fund Campaign who had united earlier in 1926 to offer further volunteer service to Indiana University.

The University Interests Committee set up the same kind of network for the 1929 legislative session.

A Women's University Interest Committee paralleled and overlapped with the University Interests Committee throughout this period.

Arrangement/Organization

Organized in three series: Correspondence, Administrative files, and Women's University Interests Committee.

Scope and Content Note

The University Interests Committee Collection consists of 12 folders covering the years 1926 to 1929. It is organized in three series: Correspondence, Administrative files, and Women's University Interests Committee.

Correspondence forms the bulk of the collection and is arranged chronologically in three broad groupings. The first consists of correspondence between several committee members on the Bloomington campus and potential leaders for the statewide organizational system the committee hoped to establish. The second includes correspondence between committee members and committee representatives, county chairs, and state legislators (including letters from President Bryan to state legislators). The third includes correspondence of William A. Alexander on behalf of the University Interests Committee in organizing for the 1929 legislative session. Arrangement within each chronological grouping is alphabetical by recipient and includes responses along with the initiating correspondence.

The Administrative files series consists of two folders. One folder contains questionnaires completed by Committee representatives as well as some miscellaneous reports. The questionnaires include data on legislators, community leaders, IU alumni, and newspapers in the Indiana towns and cities in which the representatives lived. The second folder contains lists of county chairmen and chairwomen, Memorial Regiment representatives, and state senators and representatives.

The final series, Women's University Interests Committee, consists of a single folder of minutes and reports of meetings and some correspondence of the Women's University Interests Committee. The Women's University Interests Committee was organized in June 1926 and worked both independently and as part of the University Interests Committee.

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Indiana University. University Interests Committee --Archives.
  • Indiana University. Women's University Interests Committee --Archives.
  • Indiana University --Finance --History --20th century --Sources.
  • Indiana University. Women's University Interests Committee.
• • Topics
  • Lobbying --Indiana --History --20th century --Sources.
• • Places
  • Indiana --Politics and government --Sources.

Administrative Information

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