University Records

In 1955, the Drexel Institute of Technology initiated a management survey with support from the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Advancement of Education. The consulting firm of Alderson & Sessions was hired to conduct the survey. The study was carried out in two phases: a management phase, which examined Drexel's organizational structure and managerial effectiveness, and a marketing phase, which looked at Drexel's appeal to students and its relationship to other Philadelphia institutions. This collection consists of records compiled by dean of the faculty Harry L. Bowman, who served on the Survey Advisory Committee. It includes three of the four volumes comprising the full final report: detailed analyses from the marketing and management phases of the project and statistical data compiled for the marketing phase. (A copy of the fourth volume, an executive summary of the entire report, is available in the Nesbitt College of Design Arts records). It also includes a file of correspondence and meeting minutes compiled by Dean Bowman.

This collection consists chiefly of annual reports submitted by the dean of faculty to the president of the Drexel Institute of Technology: Harry L. Bowman (b. 1899, dean of faculty1953-1961), LeRoy A. Brothers (1904-1985, interim dean of faculty 1961-1962), and Kenneth G. Matheson, Jr. (b. 1902, dean of faculty 1962-1967). It also includes a small set of correspondence and other records from acting dean Brothers dated 1961-1962.

The collection consists chiefly of course catalogs and promotional brochures for classes and special programs offered through the Office of Continuing Professional Education in 1970 and from 1975 to 1986. It also contains a few administrative records and a publication called "Prospectus for Professional Development" published by the Office of Continuing Professional Education from 1977 until 1979.

This collection consists of annual reports submitted to the president of Drexel by administrators and department heads. They are comprehensive narrative reports summarizing activities and progress made over the course of the fiscal year. Reports are grouped into two subgroups, academic departments and administrative offices, and arranged by department/office and by year.

This collection consists of minutes of Academic Council meetings from the group's founding in 1960 until 1967. President James Creese suggested the establishment of what he called a "Council of Deans," chaired by the dean of the faculty, to coordinate academic policies among the colleges of the Drexel Institute. The group's name was changed to the Academic Council later that year to reflect the group's membership, as many of the institute's non-academic deans did not regularly meet with the council. By the 1980s, the council met under the leadership of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

UR 9.2 Lindback Award Nominating Committee records, 1963-1986, 1.5 cubic feet

The Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching is given annually to recognize faculty members for excellence in teaching.  Drexel began granting the Lindback Award in 1961.  This collection consists chiefly of nominee application files, 1980-1986.  It also includes a brief set of background files on the award, dated 1963-1969, and a list of recipients from 1961 to 1984.  

The Drexel Institute's first finance committee was established in 1891 as a standing committee of the Board of Managers, which merged with the Board of Trustees in 1894. It appears to have been dissolved or become less active in the early 1920s. In 1924, when the Institute initiated its first endowment campaign, a group called the "endowment fund trustees" was established to oversee the money raised during the campaign. The endowment fund trustees stopped meeting in 1943, and a new finance committee took over its oversight of the endowment interest and principal. The finance committee was renamed the investment committee in 1987. This collection consists chiefly of the minutes of these committees from 1924 to 1995. A small series of administrative files is also included.

This collection consists of booklets containing copies of documents such as the charter (with which the Drexel Institute was incorporated), bylaws (which governs the Board of Trustees), deeds of trust (granting land and money to the institute), and extracts from the will of Anthony J. Drexel. Early booklets also list the names of board members and committees. Also included with the collection is a small set of legal documents pertaining to the 1943 transfer of the securities granted by Anthony Drexel to the institute's endowment fund.

The Board of Trustees of the Drexel Institute was established in 1891 with the school's founder, Anthony J. Drexel, as its president and his business partner, George W. Childs, as vice president. The institute was also governed by a separate Board of Managers, which merged with the existing board into a twenty-four member Board of Trustees when Drexel was incorporated in 1894. The Executive Committee was formed at the time of incorporation as a six-person standing committee entrusted with "the general charge and supervision of all the business of the institute." This collection consists chiefly of the minutes of meetings of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Managers, and the Executive Committee from 1891 to 1995. It also contains reports and correspondence of the secretary of the board from 1896-1915, trustees' and executive committee "board books" from 1985-1989 and 2000-2005, and a small set of administrative records, chiefly from the 1980s.

This scrapbook contains advertisements for the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry ranging from the spring of 1923 to December 1925. It has copies of gender-specific letters sent to high schools and colleges from across the region and country advertising the library science and home economics programs as well as the cooperative program for engineering and business. This scrapbook also contains newspaper clippings pertaining to commencement ceremonies and Drexel Institute’s endowment drive, alumni bulletins and bound department bulletins during this time-span. The scrapbook is annotated with detailed notes of schools and colleges that received letters from Drexel Institute.