Academic Senate

The Academic Senate is made up of faculty, and some students and members of the administration. The focus of the senate is first to improve academic learning, for example some of the Ad Hoc Committees as well as the Honors and Curriculum Committee. Secondly it is to express concerns of the faculty and students with committees such as the Faculty Affairs Committee and Student Academic Grievance Committee.

The records of the senate begin in 1959; however some of the committee’s documents were formed before the senate’s founding, going back further than the actual Senate records, such as the Library Committee which had reports are early as 1937. Recent Academic Senate Minutes and Agendas, dating from 2000 to present, may also be viewed through the Academic Senate website

The materials in this record group were created by the Youngstown State University Academic Senate and its committees. The materials came into the Youngstown State University Archives and Special Collections in two different accessions. The first accession, covering 1959-1998, came from the Circulation department of the library. The second accession, encompassing the years 1966-1998, were transferred from Dr. Nathan Ritchey, Provost’s Office, and Dr. Sunil Ahuja, Political Science. The second accession was stored on the third floor of Tod Hall, before being transferred to Archives. A majority of the materials are from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s; the materials are sparse in the late 1990s to the present, possibly due to the fact that they were made available exclusively online.

The materials are in original order, dated chronologically, complete information for this record group can be found on the finding aid http://hdl.handle.net/1989/3503, the link to the digital objects may be found at the bottom of the page (link titled: Academic Senate Minutes: 1959-present). The paper and electronic records are organized in the following matter:

• The Academic Senate Minutes dating from 1959-2000 (1959-Present, digitally). Much of the Senate Minutes are complete and organized chronologically.

• The Committee Minutes, 1937-2003 (after 1999, they can be found in Series I, Academic Senate Minutes) are more sporadic, with some dates missing and gaps existing between dates. Some committees started off as one committee but branched off into two for example, the Standards and Events, Honors and Individual Curriculum Program, and Program and Curriculum Committees. Standards and Events are filed together, Honors and ICP are together until ICP branched off, and Program and Curriculum are together until the Curriculum Division branched off. This series is segregated further into collection committees.

• The Correspondence from the Academic Senate, with much of the material from the 1970s and 1980s.

• This series contains the various lists of Academic Senate Members and Committee Appointments throughout the years, some undated.

• The Subject File series contains various reports, tally sheets, papers, Ohio Board of Regents papers and pending information, 1970-1991.

• This series contains audio cassette tapes of various Senate Meetings 1974-1983.