The collection consists of nineteen original recordings on 1/2-inch EIAJ reel-to-reel videotapes of the teach-in and one folder with teach-in schedules and outlines as well as handwritten notes taken during the sessions (writer unknown). In 2009 preservation and use copies of the tapes were made including a Beta SP preservation master, a DVD copy and a streaming file. The original tapes were in relatively good condition, though there are occasional problems with audio and video levels in the recordings and occasional tracking and dropout problems during dubbing. The derivatives were created on a one-to-one basis with the original.
Only a selection of the streaming files are currently on-line. Others can be mounted by sending a request the Bentley Historical Library reference staff (bentley.ref@umiclh.edu)
A group of University of Michigan students conceived of the teach-in "The Bicentennial Dilemma: Who's In Control?" in response to a television interview with Frank Church, "chairperson of the Senate Select Committee probing the Intelligence Community" in which he stated that "the Intelligence Network has the technological capacity to impose 'total tyranny' in the United States" (The Michigan Daily, October 31, 1975).
Held from November 2-4, 1975, this three-day teach-in (unaffiliated with the University of Michigan) included a series of speakers, workshops, panel discussions, and musical performances all investigating the role of technology in corporate and government "control." Specific topics included: assassinations, corporate manipulation, subversion of the forces of dissent, police repression, surveillance and "dataveillance," and mind control.
Twenty-nine speakers from all different sectors participated, including David DuBois of the Black Panther Party, Robert Katz from the Assassination Information Bureau, Chuck Morgan of the ACLU, Tim Butz a former intelligence agent, author Mark Lane. William Domhoff, Sidney Lens, Carl Oglesby, Maureen O'Rourke, William Kunstler, William Burrroughs, Beverly Moore, William Stirngfellow, Jeremy Rifkin and Eqbal Ahmad.
