Rutgers University Director of Student Life (William Speer) records

The collection is contained in one manuscript box (.4 linear ft.) and consists of letters, memoranda, notes, pamphlets, magazine and newspaper clippings, bulletins, committee meeting minutes, and copies of three scholastic records. The material in the collection includes documents related to foreign students, a course proposal for “Marriage and the Family,” disciplinary cases, issues at the New Jersey College for Women and the Newark Colleges, and the role of religion in University life.

The material on foreign students includes details about the students’ histories in their countries of origin as well as their living circumstances and challenges they faced here in the United States. Many of the letters to students explain that the Common Council for American Unity organization is asking for help from Rutgers students who could speak from personal knowledge concerning the opinions held by people in Europe. The letters included a questionnaire (not included here), which Speer asked the students to return. In some cases, these letters are accompanied by responses from the students as well as notes by Speer on meetings with the students. Represented countries of origin include Czechoslovakia, China, Albania, Greece, Hungary, and Russia.

The Marriage and the Family Course Proposal was submitted by the Student Council Committee on Sex Education to William Speer. The proposal included supporting documents (lecture and course outlines, bibliographies, workbooks, reports, magazine reprints, course manuals, bulletins). The proposal resulted in a series of six lectures on “Marriage and the Family,” coordinated by the sociology department: “Courtship” (Dr. Clifford Adams, Associate Professor of Psychology, Penn State College) “Sex Adjustment” (2—Dr. Robert W. Laidlaw, M.S., Secretary, American Association of Marriage Counselors; Dr. Eleanor A. Steele, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Temple University), “The Father’s Role During Pregnancy and Child Birth” (Dr. Sophia J. Kleegman, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, New York University School of Medicine), “Strategy of Child Rearing” (Dr. Sidonie Gruenberg, Executive Director, Child Study Association of America), and a concluding panel (members of Rutgers faculty).

Documents regarding cases of suspension and expulsion include correspondence about Melvin Kirsch (plagiarism), Mary Stillwell (smoking), Maxine Soskin (marriage), Joan Di Matteo (condoning lying), and Martin Stone (academics). [restricted]

The Newark Colleges folder contains documents related to fraternities and sororities in Newark, Student Council constitutions for three new divisions (Arts, Business, Law), and the establishment of Health Services at the Newark Colleges.

The folder of documents labeled New Jersey College for Women includes the procedure for issuing a transcript for a suspended student and discussion of the advance room rate fee.

The material on the role of religion in University life includes minutes of three meetings of the Committee on Religion and includes discussion of establishing a Department of Religion. Also included is a publication containing the minutes from a meeting of the University Council with comments by 20 people (professors, deans, and the chaplain) on the topic of what Rutgers University should do to promote the religious and spiritual welfare and growth of its students. Statistics concerning religious preference and religious affiliation are included for 1947–48. Religious discrimination in admissions and chapel attendance are also topics addressed.

The collection contains one letter written after Speer’s departure from Rutgers, dated June 16, 1949, from Mason Gross to Margaret Hastings, State University of Iowa.