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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.

Rudolf B. Schmerl was a professor at the University of Michigan from 1957-1988 and worked as both a visiting professor and a consultant in program development at the Tuskegee Institute from 1966-1967. The collection includes materials related to his personal and professional activities at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (now the Tuskegee University) such as correspondence, news clippings, speaker programs, a grant manuscript, and historical material relating to the Tuskegee Institute.

This collection documents the business and personal activities of Rudolf B. Schmerl in relation to the Tuskegee Institute. The materials include programs for two separate conferences in which Schmerl spoke on the topic of communication, newspaper clippings related to the exchange program written either by Schmerl or by other authors, and a manuscript copy of a 1967 grant application for the Model Cities Demonstration Program submitted by C.M. Keener (the mayor of Tuskegee at the time) to the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Schmerl's correspondence highlights his continued interest and involvement in the ongoing development of Tuskegee University after his official tenure as a professor and a consultant.

The bulk of materials date from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, as well as correspondence to and from Schmerl up to 2004.