The minutes and reports for each of the four committees are filed in the collection. The Long Range Planning Committee was the most prolific of the four and the records of the full committee as well as its many subcommittees make up the bulk of the collection. One of its subcommittees, School and College Planning, maintained extensive records of their meetings and subsequent communications with the various schools within the university, such as Architecture and Design, Dentistry and Music, regarding the projected needs of those schools. The Budget Priorities Committee records contain a great deal of information regarding the budget, including requests for program revisions and proposals for capital projects.
The papers are arranged by committee. In addition to folder level description, the first folder of the collection contains an item by item listing of documents within the various folders. Some items, particularly from folders containing supporting material, were removed and either transferred to the Bentley Library's Printed Collection or returned to the Office of Academic Planning and Analysis. All items removed have been noted on the document list.
There are also four folders of collected materials relating to the Black Action Movement from 1970.
The Office of Budgets and Planning was formed in 1972 by President Robben Fleming. It is now a defunct office not to be confused with the subsequently formed "Office of Budget and Planning" for which there is a separate collection and finding aid. It aimed to service the needs of three substantive committees, the Long Range Planning Committee, the Budget Priorities Committee, and the Program Evaluation Committee, as well as a Steering Committee which coordinated the activities of the other three groups. The Steering Committee was chaired by President Fleming himself. The Office of Budgets and Planning was a "paper" office in that it had no staff of its own. Rather its needs were met by assigning additional responsibilities to individuals already employed within the Office of Academic Planning and Analysis. The Office of Academic Planning and Analysis changed its name in 1997 to the Office of Budget and Planning. Unlike the earlier office which reported to the President, this office reports to the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. Researchers interested in the records of that office should consult the finding aid for the University Office of Budget and Planning,
The Long Range Planning Committee apparently was disbanded in 1976. In late 1978 or early 1979 the Program Evaluation Committee voluntarily disbanded. The decision to disband the Program Evaluation Committee eliminated the need for the Steering Committee. The Office of Budgets and Planning was also eliminated at this time, the needs of the Long Range Planning Committee to be met directly by the Office of Academic Planning and Analysis.
