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A Guide to the Records at the Indiana University Archives

Finding aid prepared by Elia Van Lith.

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
Foster Quad (Indiana University, Bloomington). Student Government.

Collection No.
C275

Extent
2.4 cubic feet (3 boxes)

Language
Materials are in English

Abstract
Indiana University's Foster Quad Student Government was established shortly after the opening of the dormitory in 1962. The collection consists of minutes, agendas, bills, subject files, publications, and correspondence.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research. Advance notice is required for access to collection.

Administrative History

Construction on John Watson Foster Quadrangle began in January, 1961 and was completed in July, 1963. However, the housing crisis was so severe that 400 male students moved into Shea and Martin Halls at the start of the 1962 Fall semester. They were joined the following January by nearly 500 female students when Harper Hall and Gresham Cafeteria were finally opened. It took another nine months for all of the lounges to be furnished and the heating system to be installed. Foster Quad was designed to house 1189 students in a six-building “mini-university,” complete with dining hall, recreation areas, café/diner, classroom, laundry facilities, library, and its own branch of the IU Student Bookstore. Foster was dedicated on May 4, 1966, during the Founder’s Day Ceremonies along with the newly completed Briscoe, McNutt, and Willkie Quadrangles.

Foster Quad Student Government was established directly following the opening of the quad and was immediately admitted to the Residence Halls Association. The Indiana University Student Government (now IUSA) was more reticent to allow FQSG a seat on the Student Senate, but the issue was resolved quickly, and Foster was admitted to IUSG on March 26, 1963.

The Board of Governors is the legislative arm of the Foster Quad Student Government and is comprised of twenty-three governors, each one representing a floor in one of the five residence halls and elected by the students living on that floor. The Executive Council reports to and is in attendance at the BOG meetings; however, Executive Council members do not have a vote. The Executive Vice-President presides over BOG meetings, while the Judicial Board Chairperson serves as parliamentarian.

The Executive Board is elected every spring semester by the entire Foster Quad Student Body and consists of seven voting members and six non-voting members. The voting members are: President; Executive Vice-President; Financial Vice-President; Communications Vice-President; Programming Vice-President; Administrative Vice-President; and Executive Secretary. The non-voting members are: Recreational Sports Coordinator; IUSA Senator; President of the Black Student Union; President of the Foster International Living/Learning Center (FILLC); Foster Against Driving Drunk (FADD) President; and Social Coordinator. Members of both the BOG and the EC serve on a multitude of committees, including the Steering Committee, Special Affairs Committee, Community Council, Foods Committee and the Center Store Board.

In February of 1965 Foster Quad established its own student run radio station, “Radio-Foster WFQR.” Initially broadcasts only reached Harper Hall, but with the installation of an amplifier and completion of the FM tuner the station was soon broadcasting to the entire quad, 24 hours a day. For a time, Foster Quad also had its own newspaper, the Penetrator.

The 1970s saw the FQSG continue to grow. The creation of the Foster Project or Foster Seminar Program was the first attempt on campus to teach classes in the Residential Halls. Eventually the Foster Project became the campus-wide Residential Education Program, teaching classes on topics such as evolution and the use of drugs, Existentialism, and rock lyrics, among others. Foster Quadrangle also created the successful Community Council system which allows students and administrators to work together to make the decisions that affect life in Foster. Like the Residential Education Program, the Community Council system spread to encompass the entire Residence Halls Association.

Significant Foster Government accomplishments in the 1980s and 1990s include the chartering, building, and opening of Foster’s weight room, the establishment of a successful aerobics program in 1986, and two years later the passing of a smoking ban for the Foster Center Store. During this time the FQSG continued to play an important role on campus, supporting annual activities like United Way’s Miss-a-Meal, Red Cross blood drives, Little 500 events, and Miss Gay IU. Foster also supported such nationwide and campus groups as the Hip Hop Congress and OUT.

Arrangement

Collection is organized into three series: Board of Governors, Foster Quad Center Store, and Subject files.

Scope and Content Note

The Foster Quad Student Government records, 1961-1997, are organized into three series: Board of Governors; Foster Quad Center Store; and Subject files. The Board of Governors series is further arranged into seven subseries. Material dating from 2000 and later was printed from a CD – filed at the end of Box 3 – containing files retrieved from a computer in the Foster Quad Student Government offices. Where the date of creation is not obvious in these documents themselves the last date on which they were modified has been recorded in pencil on the documents. There was little to no apparent original order among the folders at the beginning of processing, so an artificial order has been imposed. Original folder titles have been kept whenever possible.

Series one, Board of Governors, spans the years 1972 to 1992 and is further organized alphabetically into seven subseries. They are: Agendas and meeting minutes; Bills and resolutions; Community Council; Damage Board; Executive Council; Financial records; and Residence Halls Association.

The agendas and meeting minutes are arranged chronologically, while the bills are arranged chronologically by year with bills and resolutions arranged by bill number within each year. During processing, bills and resolutions which were attached to agendas and meeting minutes were removed and filed with the other bills and resolutions. Bills and resolutions from the RHA are located in the RHA subseries.

The Community Council subseries contains the meeting minutes from the Ashton, Briscoe, Collins, Forest, Read, Teter, Willkie and Wright Community Councils, as well as correspondence, handbooks, and meeting minutes from the Foster council. The Damage Board subseries, arranged alphabetically by folder title, includes agendas and meeting minutes, financial materials, policies, and damage report forms. The Executive Council subseries is also arranged alphabetically and contains agendas and meeting minutes, memorandums, and reports to the Executive Council and BOG. Financial records also includes meeting minutes and reports, in addition to ledger books, handbooks and budget proposals, all arranged alphabetically. Some budget information is located in the bills and resolutions subseries. RHA is the final subseries and like the three previous subseries is arranged alphabetically. It contains materials used and produced by the Foster Quad RHA Senator, including bills and resolutions, the RHA constitution and by-laws, President’s Council meeting minutes, President’s reports, and other reports.

Foster Quad Student Store is the second and smallest series and dates from 1985 to 1990. It is arranged alphabetically by folder title and contains materials such as balance sheets and income statements, Center Store Committee meeting minutes, communications, job descriptions and applications, and an operations manual. Materials relating to the other Center Stores and the entire Center Store system can be found in the BOG RHA subseries.

The last series is Subject files and is arranged alphabetically. It contains materials from Foster committees such as FADD, FILLC, REAC, as well as forms, communications and charts supporting the running of the Foster Student Government and the Foster Quad. These materials cover a range of subjects including advising and scheduling materials, clippings and historical information, FQ constitution and by-laws, election materials, Flamingo’s (Foster’s café and grill), meeting/committee guidelines and parliamentary procedure, food service, orientation materials, quad policies, recycling and safety escort programs, Foster Radio – WFQR, and the quad weight room. Of note in the series is a petition protesting the IUSA resolution to support the Gulf War in 1991 and an environmental impact report of and other materials, which date from the mid 1980s, concerning the coal-burning campus power plant.

• 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.

• • 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
    • Foster Quad (Indiana University, Bloomington). Student Government --Archives.
    • Foster Quad (Indiana University, Bloomington). Student Government --Records and correspondence.
  • • Topics
    • Dormitories --Indiana --Bloomington --Sources.
    • College student government --Indiana --Bloomington --Sources.

Separated Material

Collection includes a CD (and backup CD) containing files from a computer in the Foster Quad offices. Relevant files have been printed off and filed with the rest of the collection. The CD is located at the end of Box 3.

Related Material

Archived web sites for this organization may be included in Archive-It: http://www.archive-it.org/collections/219

Administrative Information

Container List