Model Security Council, Champlain College intercollegiate, 1950

This collection contains the records of the Associated Colleges of Upper New York (ACUNY), with a heavy focus on Champlain College. It is unclear whether the focus on Champlain College is because the records of Sampson and Mohawk were not retained, or whether Champlain was simply the last college open and therefore produced far more records. Regardless, most files in the collection are either from an ACUNY or a Champlain perspective, and most documentation of the other colleges are reports or correspondence sent to Champlain.

The records in the collection were kept by the colleges' administration and were created an maintained by the Deans, Provosts, Presidents, and other administrative staff. Files include legal information, financial planning and reports, administrative forms and policies, employment records, correspondence with legislators and other colleges, promotional and recruiting materials, reports from various college departments, records of buildings and renovations, reports tracking the academic attainment of students, course planning and academic calendars, and board meeting minutes. The founding and closure of each college is particularly well documented.

There is a large section of the collection made up of newspaper clippings, many organized into scrapbooks. These clippings were collected from newspapers across the United States, and document all three colleges. They are grouped chronologically.

Because of the administrative focus of the collection, there is limited material in the collection from students' perspectives. However, the Dean of Students kept records related to the student events and activities, the dorms, and student publications. Student publications in the collection include student newspapers and literary magazines. There is also a large number of photos of student life, largely taken for the purpose of promoting the colleges to prospective students.

Amy Gilbert, the Dean of Administration at Champlain College, was appointed as the official historian of ACUNY and she produced a book, ACUNY, the Associated Colleges of Upper New York: A Unique Response to an Emergency in Higher Education in the State of New York in 1950. The collection includes files related to the publication of this book, as well as some of Gilbert's research and photo files. As Dean of Administration, Gilbert was highly involved in the closure of Champlain in 1953, so her name appears on many files in the collection.

CONTENT WARNING: All three of the ACUNY colleges, but especially Mohawk College, used racist caricatures of Native Americans and red face in social events, sports competitions, and student publications. Because of this, researchers should expect to find racist materials scattered throughout the collection.