The records encompass a broad range of documents from successive student government agencies including the Student Council, Student Legislature and Student Senate. Included are minutes, petitions, election materials and results, financial records, and correspondence. The most extensive records are those dating from 1960 on. Topical files from that period include reports on university housing, classified research, campus security, minority affairs, and the University Cellar. Included also are the minutes of the Liang Study Committee (1953/1954) and reports from the Office of Student Affairs on housing and student conduct (1966-1969).
The first student government at the University of Michigan was organized as the Student Council in 1906 by the Michigan Union. The Union itself had been organized in 1903 by students wishing to bring unity to an exponentially growing student body who had no common dormitory or social space.
The need for self-governance was recognized after the popularity of hair-cutting between men of warring classes came to a head with the assault of one individual in the library during daylight hours. The incident resulted in the expulsion of the ring leader; which was protested by fellow students. The faculty, concerned with what they saw as the general decline in good conduct of the students, endeavored to intervene. According to the 1906 Michiganensian students felt that these issues, as student issues, should be dealt with through self-government and the Student Council was elected. The Council is first mentioned in the September 1907 minutes of the Regent's Proceedings as, "men elected by the body of students to secure the wise management of their affairs." The Regents also commend them on stopping the "silly and sometimes dangerous amusement of hair-cutting," among other reforms.
The council moved toward formal organization when it successfully petitioned the Regents for a budget of $150 for the 1912-1913 school year. Early on, the government went through several reincarnations including the Student Senate in 1938 and the Student Legislature circa 1946.
On December 8th and 9th 1954, students voted 5,102 to 1,451 to restructure the student government and asked the Regents to officially recognize the organization. At their December 1954 meeting, the Regents agreed to give the Student Government Council (SGC), as it was to be known, a two-year trial period. The first meeting of the SGC was held in March of 1955 where an eighteen member Council was approved with the constitution of the Student Council serving as a temporary constitution during the trial period. In 1957, the Regents approved the SGC as the, "official and authoritative voice of the University student community." The SGC was given the power to recognize student organizations; a power that had previously belonged to the University Senate Committee on Student Affairs.
Following a period of questioned voting practices and accusations of money mishandling; the SGC's reputation was in tatters amongst students and administration alike. Widespread call for reform resulted in the Central Student Judiciary Committee's January 21, 1976 decision to dissolve the SGC and to establish a new, restructured entity in its place to be called the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA). The Regents officially recognized MSA as the new student government at their September 1976 meeting.
See also the Michigan Student Assembly Record Group (1976 -- Present).
