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Director of special projects, freedom of information officer, and director of state outreach at the University of Michigan, 1994-2003. Papers document his work in these roles, especially outreach. Includes documentation of Michigan Advancement Council, commercials made by Big Ten universities, and the Michigan Road Scholars program.

The Lewis A. Morrissey Papers document projects and programs undertaken by Lew Morrissey in his tenure in the University of Michigan government relations office as director of special projects, state outreach director, and chief freedom of information officer.

The Big Ten Commercials series documents Morrissey's work as special projects director in developing a series of television commercials promoting higher education (and the Big Ten universities in particular) in cooperation with the other universities in the Big Ten Conference. It includes correspondence between officials at the universities and with advertising firms and possible corporate sponsors, research reports, meeting agendas and minutes, and contracts and other business information related to the project.

The Freedom Of Information Act series documents Morrissey's work as chief freedom of information officer for the university. Specifically, it includes a report on the applicability of FOIA laws to email communication prepared for the Michigan Law Revision Commission by Kent D. Syverud, UM Law professor and Executive Secretary of the Commission. The series also includes correspondence between Syverud and various officials within UM and Michigan state government regarding the issue, and correspondence from Morrissey to university officials regarding Syverud's study.

The Outreach Planning and Development series includes information detailing the new outreach initiative sponsored by UM in the mid-1990s in reaction to fights in Lansing over the university's budget and more generally by what were perceived to be negative perceptions of the university statewide. The series includes reports on the state and need of outreach and possible outreach initiatives, agendas and detailed minutes of meetings between university officials about outreach, and historical information about outreach programs at UM. Morrissey was deeply involved in all these events.

The Michigan Advancement Council (MAC) series documents Morrissey's involvement with MAC, of which he served as president from 1996 to 1998. The series includes meeting notices and agendas, promotion materials, mission statements, and a large amount of correspondence between members. The materials document MAC's activities throughout the 1990s up to its eventual dissolution in 2001.

The Michigan Public Radio series contains information about Morrissey's work with the Michigan Public Radio. This includes correspondence, programming information, equipment and space, and strategic planning. Materials are mainly from the 1990s.

The Michigan Road Scholars (MRS) series, which comprises the bulk of the collection, documents the MRS program, an annual five-day tour of the state of Michigan for 30 faculty and staff members chosen from all UM campuses. The MRS program, one of the most significant results of the new outreach initiative at the university in the late 1990s, was initiated under Morrissey's leadership in 1999, and he continued to coordinate and participate in it until his retirement. The series includes correspondence and planning documents concerning the program's development, as well as detailed information about every tour from 1999 through 2003. This information includes faculty member applications, agendas of the tours, faculty participant evaluations of the tours, lists of participants, agendas of planning meetings, and a variety of other documentation. The series also includes general documentation of the MRS seed grants program, which provided grants to past program participants to do community-based service projects, research projects, or educational programs as an outgrowth of their participation in the MRS program.

The Faculty and Staff files contain biographical and background information created and collected by the University of Michigan News and Information Services. News and Information Services is the media relations office of the university. The files represent more than 6,000 individual faculty and staff members. Some files contain photographs.

The Faculty and Staff Files (145 linear feet; 1944-2005) are arranged alphabetically by surname and contain academic and biographical information on nearly 6000 faculty and staff, including many who are inactive, retired or deceased. The files were maintained by the University of Michigan News and Information Service. Early on the files were working files holding ready reference biographical information and copies of press releases. Eventually the files came to include collected information such as copies of local and national newspaper articles where faculty or staff members were mentioned.

The amount of information per individual varies considerably, ranging from a single item to multiple folders. Files dating from around 1960-1995 tend to have more documentation than dates outside of this range, though there are some exceptions. Specific types of information include copies of news releases where the individual is mentioned, pages from Regents' meetings detailing appointments (resignations, faculty appointments, promotions, reassignments, sabbaticals, adoption of memoirs for retirements and deaths, etc.), newspaper clippings, magazine articles, preprints or reprints of publications, curricula vitae or other biographical summaries, and obituaries. In addition, some of the files contain photographs and negatives. (Photograph Series D of the News and Information Services records contains more than 4,000 faculty and staff portraits. A separate finding aid is available for that series.)

Files of University of Michigan presidents such as Alexander Ruthven and Harlan Hatcher are within the collection, as are files of various members of the Board of Regents. Distinguished alumni of the University of Michigan, including Nobel Prize winners Stanley Cohen and Raoul Wallenberg, also have files. The collection is of interest to researchers who desire a greater understanding of the professional interests and activities of faculty members in particular.

The University of Michigan News and Information Services functions as the university's media relations office. It disseminates information and images about university programs, research, events, and faculty and staff activities. This series of News and Information Services photographs is comprised of portraits of more than ca. 7,000 individual faculty and staff members spanning the years 1946-2006 (bulk 1950-1990).

This series of faculty and staff portraits, commonly known as "Series D", is part of the News and Information Services photographs collection, which consists of several other series often based on format such as the size of the negatives (4x5 or 35mm) or content (general campus photography or aerial photographs). Series D consists of black and white 4x5 inch negatives and 1-1/4 x 2-1/4 inch prints and negatives of faculty and staff (and some student) portraits alphabetically arranged.

The negatives were received in several accessions prior to 2007 totaling 7.5.f linear feet (15 boxes). These accessions were physically interfiled into a single alphabetic run. In 2016 a final accession 5.5 linear feet (15 boxes) of analog negatives were received. These have not been physically interfiled so the collection now consists of two alphabetic runs. However, in the container listing of this finding aid the files are presented in a single alphabet. Based on information supplied on the original negative envelopes, the listing includes faculty/staff name, department or unit (when provided) and date(s) of the portrait. Bentley Library negative numbers are included (if applicable)

The latest accession marks the end of the News and Information Services analog photography. The faculty and staff portrait series is continued in the Bentley Library's Michigan Photography digital photo collection.