Office of Provost and Dean of Faculty

Collection

Identifier: BC05-06

Staff View

Collection Scope and Content Summary

This collection consists of records originating from Barnard College's Provost's Office. The records document a wide range of Barnard's history and affairs, in particular faculty procedures, regulations, and curriculum assessment. This collection also contains communications from the Provost’s Office to faculty, academic departments, and external institutions. Also included are building plan documents related to classrooms and departmental offices; real estate files on faculty housing; self-studies of individual academic departments; self-studies and other materials related to Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) accreditation; and annual reports. Of note are the statistical data produced by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness including surveys and demographic data from staff, students, alum, and faculty; reports produced by academic departments and programs detailing their pedagogical choices and histories; and the internal communications of the Provost providing key insight on how the Provost’s role has shifted over time. For a more detailed description of collection contents, please see individual series.

Dates

Creation: 1913-2025, undated

Creator

Barnard College. Provost and Dean of Faculty (Organization)

Access Restrictions

Some materials within this collection are restricted: Personnel records of faculty and staff (including search, tenure/promotion, and disciplinary/grievance records) are restricted for 75 years from the date of creation. Records of the Board of Trustees and any of its committees (including meeting minutes) are restricted 20 years from the date of creation. For more detail, see collection inventory.

Publication Rights

No permission is required for reproductions of materials in the public domain or uses that fall within fair use exemptions to copyright as defined under U.S. Copyright Law.

Barnard College retains copyright of materials created as part of its business operations. To request permission to reproduce these types of materials, please contact us at archives@barnard.edu.

This collection may also contain materials created by others, for which copyright is not held by the College. In order to reproduce these materials, permission from the Archives is not required, but it is researchers' responsibility to determine and obtain any necessary permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or other rights.

Please see our Reproductions, Copyright, and Citing Archives page for more information and contact us at archives@barnard.edu with any questions.

Reproduction Restrictions

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes.

Extent

43 Linear Feet (84 document boxes; 15 half document boxes; 1 oversized box; 4 flat file folders)

4.03 Gigabytes (13,156 items, 24 archived websites)

Language

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection consists of documents from the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculty of Barnard College.

Collection Arrangement

During reprocessing the archivist rearranged the collection into five series that align with the different functions of the Office of the Provost, each of which is further organized into multiple sub-series, in order to improve access to the collection. Individual series were organized in various ways upon receipt; arrangement within these series was revised to improve consistency across parts of the collection. The collection is intellectually arranged in this collection guide according to these series, which largely follow the physical arrangement. The arrangement of the collection is as follows:

Series 1: Provost Office administrative files
Subseries 1.1: Provost Office internal communications, meeting minutes, and reports Subseries 1.2: Administrative affairs
Subseries 1.3: Academic affairs
Subseries 1.4: Academic department communications
Subseries 1.5: Building plans and construction documentation

Series 2: Publications and policies
Subseries 2.1: Codes of conduct and policies
Subseries 2.2: Faculty handbooks
Subseries 2.3: Manuals and trainings
Subseries 2.4: Newsletters

Series 3: Reports

Series 4: Statistical data and surveys
Subseries 4.1: Surveys and questionnaires
Sub-subseries 4.1.1: Faculty and staff
Sub-subseries 4.1.2: Students and alums
Sub-subseries 4.1.3: Administrative, academic, and college-wide affairs
Subseries 4.2: Common datasets and databooks
Subseries 4.3: Topical Data
Sub-subseries 4.3.1: Administrative and student
Sub-subseries 4.3.2: Barnard College-Columbia University relations
Sub-subseries 4.3.3: Academic affairs
Sub-subseries 4.3.4: Faculty

Series 5: Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) accreditation files
Subseries 5.1: Self-studies and preparatory documentations, 1960 and 1970
Subseries 5.2: Self-study and preparatory documentation, 1980
Subseries 5.3: Self-study and preparatory documentation, 1990
Subseries 5.4: Self-study and preparatory documentation, 2000
Subseries 5.5: Self-study and preparatory documentation, 2010
Subseries 5.6: Self-study and preparatory documentation, 2022

Physical Location

This collection is located in the Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library. To use this collection, please contact the Barnard Archives and Special Collections at 212.854.4079 or archives@barnard.edu.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from the Barnard College Provost's office.

Appraisal

All duplicate paper and digital files were removed from the collection. All materials with social security numbers, banking information, or medical records were shredded and removed from the collection.

Accruals

Additions are expected.

Processing History

This collection was processed and the finding aid written by Heather Lember in January 2014. The finding aid was updated by Dinah Handel, June 2015. From July-September 2025, Olivia Newsome intellectually re-arranged the finding aid and processed significant digital and paper accruals, with assistance from the following undergraduate associates who rehoused, rearranged, and created folder-level description of the collection: Adam Johnson, Gabriela Ogando Ortega, Ruben Carter, Bailey Anderson, and Saanaya Rao. Saanaya Rao wrote the collection historical note. Bailey Anderson wrote the committee historical notes. The original order of the digital files as received by the Archives has not been retained; some intellectual reorganization was undertaken to allow the digital materials to be easily integrated into a single system of arrangement.

In August 2025, Olivia Newsome moved materials from this collection to the following collections: BC06.01 Faculty Committees; BC06.03 Committee on Instruction; B06.04 Faculty Budget and Planning Committee (FBPC); BC06.06 Advisory Committee on Appointments, Tenure, and Promotions (ATP); BC06.09 Faculty Governance and Procedures Committee (FGPC); BC06.10 Faculty Finance and Resource Committee (FFRC); BC06.11 Committee on Honors; BC06.15 Grants Committee; BC06.16 Faculty Diversity and Development Committee (FDD); BC06.17 Faculty Advising Committee (FAC); BC11.11 Circular of Information-Announcements-Course Catalogs; BC17 Photography Collection; BC19.03 Committee on Admissions.

In August 2025, Olivia Newsome merged BC11.06 Faculty Handbook and BC11.24 Barnard Weekly Newsletters into this collection as they are Provost Office publications.

Descriptive Rules Used: Finding aid adheres to that prescribed by Describing Archives: A Content Standard Encoding: Machine readable finding aid encoded in EAD 2002. Finding aid written in English.