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The University of Michigan Administrative Records series (0.75 linear feet) documents Patterson's administrative duties including his role on various committees and coalitions. He was involved in planning concerts as well as in activities of outreach and advocacy groups on campus including the Advisory Committee for Graduate Minority Affairs and the United Coalition Against Racism (UCAR). He helped select the university's King-Chavez-Parks Visiting Professor. He also organized a popular Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Concert in 1988 with over 60 instrumentalists, 100 vocalists, and 2,000 in attendance. Document types include correspondence and memos, minutes and planning notes, and invoices and expenditures. This series is organized alphabetically by topic.

The Other Administrative Records series (0.25 linear feet) contains records of Patterson's administrative duties outside of the university. He was a member of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing and saved copies of their guidelines and best practices. He was a faculty representative to the Committee on Institutional Cooperation Minorities Fellowship Program, which recorded data on the success of students of color in university settings. He also collected newsletters for the National Black Music Caucus.

In 1969, Patterson organized Our Own Thing, also known as Our Own Thing Chorale (OOTC). OOTC is a volunteer program that is dedicated to performing and preserving music by African Americans and other members of the African Diaspora. It also teaches community members about this music, principally via its Instructional Program. Founded in 1968-1969, Our Own Thing Instructional Program gives free musical instruction to Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area youth between the ages of 10 and 18 who wouldn't otherwise be able to study music. Records for this program include member and instructor lists, correspondence and outreach materials, and planning documents.

Consult the Photographs and Related Material series for photographs related to OOTC.