Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Administrative Records of Michigan Media and its predecessor, the University of Michigan Television Center, document management and policy aspects of television production at the university. The most significant files within the Administrative Records series are Annual Reports to the President, 1953/54-1984/85; Broadcasting Committee minutes and correspondence, 1950-1978, and Remley Files, 1980-1987; Budget Materials, 1954-1985; Merger of the TVC and the AVEC, 1978; Unit Review Material and Reports, 1986; Vice President for Academic Affairs correspondence, 1976-1986; and Yearly Production Summaries, 1950/51-1958/59.

Other administrative series include correspondence and budget material relating to various special projects undertaken by Michigan Media and several special reports and speeches, notably President Ruthven's 1950 address to the Television Broadcasting Association on "The Possibilities of Educational TV," Garnet Garrison's 1968 report on "TV in the University Community," the report of the President's Ad Hoc Communication Review Committee on "The New Teaching Technology" (1973), and a case study of the impact of university-imposed budget cuts on Michigan Media by Marcia Jablonsky, a student in the School of Business Administration and a former employee of Michigan Media (1981).

There are no administrative records for the Audio-Visual Education Center from the period before its incorporation into Michigan Media. Some information on AVEC can be found in records of the University of Michigan Extension Service, boxes 18 and 20.

The Administrative Records subgroup (1935-2013, 35.5 linear feet) begins with the Meetings series (1956-2012, 1.5 linear feet), which contain the agendas, minutes and correspondence of the Executive Committee Meetings, the Friends of the Michigan Historical Collection and Bentley Library, the Bentley Library's Administrative Committee, and Staff Meetings. The next set of series are organized by director (see the list above). The first subseries category is the Director's Office/Central Files, which are administrative records generated by the director and the associate director including correspondence, evaluation and planning, fundraising, physical facilities documents, and budget materials. The Staff files subseries, contains staff meetings, staff lists, staff interviews, manuals and farewell parties. The Conferences and Events subseries consists of agendas and speeches and planning material from Bentley-related conferences. Materials in this subseries from the tenure of Francis Blouin include digital materials from the Visual Culture and Archives Symposium held April 4-5, 2013 in honor of Blouin's 32 years of service to the library. The Special Projects subseries includes material regarding intensive activities undertaken by the BHL that often were in some way distinct from core functions. In many cases, a "special project" is one that received outside funding.

The first series, Administrative Records (1936-1983), contains topical files relating to a number of areas of the Society's operation, documenting the work of and on various committees and activities. It also includes articles of incorporation and bylaws, newsletters, correspondence, and records relating to real estate owned by the cooperative.

The series Administrative Records (1957-1997) consists of seven sub-series: Executive Committee, Inter-Center Council, Curriculum Materials, Orientation Materials, Advisory Council, Business Outreach, and Conference Materials. The sub-series Executive Committee documents the administration of CREES since it was founded. Of special interest to the researcher will be the history of the center. The Inter-Center Council was made up of representatives from all of the area centers. Its concern was how all of the centers should work together at the university. Curriculum Materials contains many bibliographies that were used for the courses that were taught. Orientation Materials are the records of a series of orientations that CREES held in conjunction with the Business School for people who were traveling to Russia or East European countries. They introduced people to a basic history of the country, the current political and social situation of the country and the culture of the country. Business Outreach and Advisory Council documents CREES's interest in making ties to the business community. Business Outreach covers the earlier, initial phase of the program, while Advisory Council is the official name that was given to the program once it became an established part of the center. The final sub-series, Conference Materials, documents the planning that went into many of the conferences that CREES sponsored.

The Administrative Records documents some of the daily operations of GTN, its staff. The series includes some correspondence, as well as company advertisements, and newsletters.

The Administrative Records (1.5 linear feet) series contains materials relating to the daily operations of the CCS, the various projects it administers, and its interaction with the other area centers. They include correspondence, minutes, financial records, syllabi, reports, and proposals. Documents pertaining to the early history of the center, including several from 1958 which document the initial proposals to create the unit, are present in this series as are the fairly comprehensive PASE records. Class materials pertaining to the development of an interdisciplinary curriculum can be found in the Course files. The Correspondence files relate mostly to administrative tasks and intradepartmental communication. There are substantive reports concerning the state of the center in 1974 in the Faculty Retreat folder. The Executive Committee and Faculty Meetings folders contain correspondence but only scattered minutes.

The Administrative Records series documents the work of a number of departmental and university committees and the management of the women's athletics program. The principal files in the Administrative Records series include: Topical File, Advisory Committee on Recreation, Intramurals, and Sports Clubs; Advisory Committee on Women's Intercollegiate Athletics; Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics; Budget; Salary and Personnel; Championships and Tournaments Hosted; and Individual Sports.

The Topical File, arranged alphabetically, includes information on a variety of administrative and policy issues. Among the significant files are the "Burns Committee Report," 1973, advocating the establishment of a full program of intercollegiate sports for women and exploring the requirements for facilities, coaching, organizational framework, and finances; the "M Award Controversy" includes correspondence on the debate over whether women varsity athletes should receive the same "M" letter award as male athletes, with correspondents including Don Canham, "Bo" Schembechler, Johnny Orr, members of the "M Club" and several women alumni; "Admissions Information" includes material on procedures and guidelines for recruiting women athletes; and the "Academic Advisory Committee," 1977-1985 file containing minutes, reports and statistics on academic eligibility and performance by sport. The file on "Athletic Scholarship Information" is closed to researchers for FERPA privacy reasons. It includes yearly information on the number and amount of athletic scholarships and other financial aid awarded to women athletes.

The Administrative Records series contains minutes, reports, and correspondence pertinent to the development and maintenance of MTS and other Computing Center and Information Technology Division initiatives from 1974 to 1992. Notable records in this series include:

1. The minutes of monthly meetings of "Committee A," which addressed a wide range of issues of concern to the Computing Center staff.
2. An extensive set of printouts from online forum sessions which provide transcripts of detailed, and often technical, discussions concerning various issues in MTS development.
3. "The Future of MTS" includes committee minutes, survey results, and reports that were used to anticipate trends in technology and in the organizational requirements of ITD in the early 1990s.
4. The Information Technology Architecture Committee addressed several critical issues including user access and authorization; core network architecture; email; file systems; connectivity among operating systems; and support for applications and peripherals.
5. Records pertaining to organizational planning meetings from 1989 provide insight into the organizational transition from the Computing Center to the new ITD. And the L3 Project documents a proposal in 1985 to buy a supercomputer, the ELXSI 6400 Multiprocessor System.

The Administrative Records series consist of board and committee meeting minutes and agendas as well as member lists, the chapter constitution, and some administrative correspondence, photographs, and reports and planning material. The Miscellaneous Items folder contains newspaper articles, event information, membership committee lists, speaker series information and other task force and correspondence documents.