Subject Files, 1952-1969

Scope and content:

The following two groups of files comprise this series: Boxes 1-26 and Boxes 27-29. Each group is alphabetically arranged. This arrangement reflects the fact that subject files from Knight's administration were transferred to the Archives in two separate bodies.

The President's role in the planning and development of several academic areas, particularly: engineering, the School of Law, the School of Forestry, and the Graduate School of Business is documented in the Subject Files series. To a lesser extent, planning in Afro-American studies; the Marine Laboratory and the construction of the research vessel, EASTWARD; and the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory is reflected in the series. Files pertaining to the above subjects contain communications between Knight and other senior administrators, including including R. Taylor Cole, Provost; E.R. Latty, Dean of the School of Law; and Lath Meriam, Engineering. Furthermore, files concerning search committees for the deans of Trinity College as well as the schools of nursing and forestry provide insights on executive planning for these schools.

In addition to planning in the above areas, development in the arts, especially the visual arts, was a major initiative of the Knight administration. The series contains files on the arts and art education. Correspondence and memoranda pertaining to acquisitions, including the Marshall Collection and the Brummer Collection of Medieval Art, reflects Knight's involvement in the negotiations. Furthermore, the series documents planning for the art museum, which was established in 1969. Supporters of the arts at Duke, including Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, R. Philip Hanes, and Nancy Hanks as well as art department faculty member, R. Patrick Ransom, are among the correspondents represented in the records.

During Knight's tenure the Fifth Decade Campaign was launched and fund-raising efforts are reflected throughout the Subject Files. The records reflect not only Knight's role in university development, but also the activities of the Office of Institutional Advancement and the Board of Trustees. Much of Knight's correspondence with individual trustees relates to donors and potential donors. Prominent correspondents among the trustees include George V. Allen, Charles B. Wade, Henry Rauch, and Edwin L. Jones, all who were on the Trustee Committee for Institutional Advancement, as well as Wright Tisdale and Nancy Hanks.

Records pertaining to the Board of Trustees also include the President's annual report to the Board; memoranda stating the salaries of President Edens, Paul M. Gross, and other administrators; and minutes from a meeting of the trustees that took place after the takeover of the Allen Building by the Afro-American Society.

Student demonstrations and unrest as well as alumni and public criticism of the administration are prominently reflected throughout the series. Knight's actions and stance on the Afro-American Society's takeover of the Allen Building in 1969, the selection of an African-American as May Queen, and the Vigil following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. are especially reflected in Knight's correspondence. Furthermore, Knight's position on the freedom of speech is is documented in relation to the Speaker Ban Law, which was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly, and the invitation of controversial speakers, such as Stokely Carmichael and Herbert Apetheker.

Other controversial matters reflected in the records include organized labor disputes that involved non-academic employees and the arrest of several Duke professors involved in a civil rights demonstration that occurred in Chapel Hill, NC. An account of the incident by the some of the faculty members that were involved is extant.

The correspondence Knight received in reaction to the student demonstrations documents both the dissatisfaction with university administration's handling of campus race relations and attitudes towards African-Americans and the civil rights movement.

To a much lesser extent, the records reflect other facets of student life, including residential life and and intellectual life. Neither subject is extensively covered. Rather, printed matter from the Duke Symposia; letters by Professor Herman Salinger as well as Patricia Lane, an undergraduate; and printed matter from the Daedalus Program provide glimpses into the intellectual climate during the 1960s. (The Duke Symposia, which was sponsored by the University Union, included lectures and seminars by distinguished leaders in various fields. The Daedalus Program sponsored colloquia in which both undergraduates and faculty members participated.) Correspondence from Professor Robert Krueger of the Residential Life Committee relates to the the restructuring of the residential plan that was outlined in a 1969 report. Also related to residential life are records which document the PanHellenic Council's efforts to obtain a building for sororities after the closing of the PanHellenic Commons in 1959.

The records also reflect the evolution of social regulations and policies on campus. Of particular interest are the issues of marriage, open dormitories, curfews, and off-campus apartments. Furthermore, reports from the security division for scattered years between 1963 and 1969 indicate organized efforts to control behavior on campus, including homosexuality. The incidences of sexual assaults and other violent crimes as well as theft and traffic violations are also reported.

Town and gown matters, or the relationship between Duke and Durham as well as North Carolina, are also reflected in the Subject Files Series. Cooperative efforts in elementary and secondary education are documented, especially in files pertaining to the Learning Institute of North Carolina (LINC), which Duke University participated in along with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Similarly, files are included that pertain to Operation Breakthrough, a Durham community action program in which Duke students participated; the Education Initiative Program; and Duke's collaboration in nursing education at Chowan College. Public opinion on the sale of the university's married student housing to the Durham Housing Authority is also documented in the series.

Miscellaneous topics and items of interest in the Subject Files include logs, in which some Woman's College students recorded their daily diets; contractual disagreements between Duke and William Frank of the Horace Trumbauer firm; and Doris Duke's relationship with the university. Likewise, the coordinate college system, the admission of black students as well as the establishment of a coffee house on East Campus are subjects that are represented in the series. Several files containing organizational charts and other materials which document the structure of the administration and personnel management are included. Architectural plans of the auditorium on East Campus (now Baldwin Auditorium), which were prepared by Horace Trumbauer, and correspondence between Knight and Alden Dow, the architect who designed the University House, are present.

Additionally, included in the Subject Files is a report titled "Duke Press at the Crossroads" (1964); a memorandum by Paul M. Gross, in which he stated his views on long-range planning and the Fifth Decade Campaign; correspondence relating to the hiring of Samuel Cook, who taught in the political science department and was the first black faculty member at Duke; and letters from Anne Firor Scott, a professor of history, in which she states her views on teaching and learning as well as the education of women.

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