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Thomas Watson Fellowship, 1969-1971

 File — Box: 9-68, Folder: 9

Scope and Contents note

From the Series:

The records of Lincoln Gordon's administration, 1967-1971.

Lincoln Gordon assumed the presidency of the Johns Hopkins University at the beginning of a period of great turmoil on university campuses throughout the nation. College students, and young people in general, were beginning to question government involvement in the Vietnam War, the quality of the environment, the treatment of urban slum-dwellers, and, most importantly, the role of the university in improving social conditions and shaping social attitudes. Throughout his tenure in office, Lincoln Gordon had to address these issues primarily as a university president, but also as a concerned individual.

On the Johns Hopkins University campuses, radical students sought to end the university's acceptance of Defense Department grants for classified research. These students pressed for the abolition of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) and on-campus military recruitment, and they occupied Homewood House (at that time the location of the President's Office) to demonstrate the seriousness of their demands. Governance of the university was also an issue for some students, as they tried to gain positions as representatives on the Academic Council and the Board of Trustees. The radical students' demands, however, were expressed in a more peaceful manner on the Homewood campus than on other university campuses where such issues were addressed.

Financially, the university entered a period of decline in 1967, as the federal government cut back spending for higher education. This nearly brought physical expansion to a halt. Hopkins desperately struggled to fund new programs, such as the Center for Urban Affairs and the East Baltimore Medical Program. The Bologna Center of the School for Advanced International Studies suffered severely from lack of adequate funding, and the Master of Arts in Teaching program was discontinued.

Despite three years of deficit spending, Lincoln Gordon expanded the administration substantially, creating three new vice presidencies and many lower-level administrative positions. The turnover rate for top-level administrators was high during the four-year period, with one office, the Vice President for Administration, changing hands three times. This expansion of the administrative hierarchy led to complaints of mis-management by the faculty (documented only in the News-Letter and a few letters in the Vice President folders). The vice presidents and deans themselves were sometimes confused about their roles in the structure. Students, too, were annoyed by what they considered bureaucratic buck-passing from office to office. This series itself is so immense due to the overwhelming amount of material kept for the meetings of the American Council on Education and other similar national organi- zations. Much of the material in these folders has little to do with the specific daily workings of the university. On the other hand, few of the university's academic departments have more than cursory correspondence with the president.

Lincoln Gordon resigned in 1971 when it appeared he had lost the confidence of the faculty. His handling of student disturbances was not the issue; rather, faculty members were concerned about administrative inefficiency while they were being asked to trim their numbers. Some of the folders contain correspondence from Milton Eisenhower as well as Gordon.

Dates

  • Creation: 1969-1971

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is housed off-site and requires 48-hours' notice for retrieval. Please contact Special Collections for more information.

All collections are closed except to office of origin or original owner until processed. University records are closed for 25 years from the point of creation. Files in this collection that have additional restrictions are noted accordingly.

Extent

From the Record Group: 328.93 Cubic Feet (148 record center cartons, 373 letter size document boxes, 4 letter half-size document boxes, 2 legal size document boxes, 1 flat box (19 x 14.75 x 3 inches))

Language of Materials

From the Record Group: English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Repository

Contact:
The Sheridan Libraries
Special Collections
3400 N Charles St
Baltimore MD 21218 USA