• Home

• Browse

• Search

• Advanced Search

• Help

A Guide to the Records at the Indiana University Archives

Finding aid prepared by Archives staff.

Summary Information

Repository
Indiana University Office of University Archives and Records Management
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Fax: 812-855-8104
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives

Creator
Indiana University, Bloomington. Office for Women's Affairs.

Title
Indiana University Office for Women's Affairs records, 1971-1985, bulk 1972-1980

Collection No.
C125

Extent
5 cubic feet (5 boxes)

Language
Materials are in English

Abstract
Indiana University’s Office for Women’s Affairs was established on August 15, 1972 in response to the growing awareness of discrimination against women in the academic community. This collection holds records dating from the first three deans and consists of reference and research files, newsletters, correspondence, and grant files.

Access Restrictions

Select files closed to researchers. These are indicated in the finding aid.

Advance notice required for access to collection.

Administrative History

The Office for Women's Affairs (OWA) was established on August 15, 1972 in response to the growing awareness of discrimination against women in the academic community. Bloomington Chancellor Byrum E. Carter stated that the OWA's purpose was to "establish a climate in which women faculty, students, and staff are provided with full opportunities for the development of their abilities."

OWA's first dean was Eva Kagan-Kans, a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature. Her function, she stated, was to be an "ombudswoman," investigating specific grievances, reviewing salaries and budgets for gender discrimination, examining access to research opportunities in graduate programs and career counseling for undergraduates at both the college and high school levels, and redressing the under representation of women at the faculty and administrative levels. She held this post from 1972 until 1975.

Jessie Lavan-Kerr, a professor of Art Education, served as OWA’s second dean. In 1976, while noting the "foundational inroads" the OWA made under the leadership of Kagan-Kans, Lavan-Kerr specified a need for "redefinition" of the office, gearing it to more "action-oriented directives" regarding equal opportunities for women faculty, students, and staff. Lavan-Kerr was dean from 1975 until 1979.

OWA's third dean, D'ann Campbell, was an assistant (later associate) professor of History and an adjunct associate of Women's Studies. Campbell saw her job as an "advocate." OWA's function, she stated, lay in "coordinating, funneling, and being a catalyst for a lot of projects to enhance the status of women on campus. We're the affirmative side of Affirmative Action. We don't wait until something falls apart. We can be sensitive to areas in which there are potential problems." Under Campbell's leadership, OWA oversaw the development of such projects as creating a videotape dealing with sexual harassment on campus (the first of its kind in the country), addressing the lack of female social networks in graduate school, and conferences to integrate women's history into standard course work (80% of Western Civilization and American History courses never mentioned women in either books or lectures). Campbell was dean of OWA from 1979 until 1985. In 1985, Nancy Brooks succeeded Campbell, serving as interim director.

Arrangement

This collection is organized into four series: Reference files, Focus newsletter, Program development, and Administrative subject files.

Scope and Content Note

The collection of files from the Office of Women's Affairs begins in the early 1970s when the office was first established under the direction of Dean Eva Kagan-Kans and ends in the mid-1980s with the departure of Dean D'ann Campbell. The collection predominately holds the offices reference and research files but does contain some general administrative files organized into four series: Reference files; Focus newsletter; Program development; and Administrative subject files.

The Reference files series contains information on various current event topics between the years 1972 and 1985. The records were collected from several sources, including newspaper clippings, articles from books and magazines, essays and reports, and pamphlets. The subject areas covered in the folders range from "film" to "language" to "writing women into history." This series is arranged alphabetically by folder title.

The second series, Focus newsletter, spans 1977-1979 and is further organized into the two sub-series Organizational records and Publications. The first sub-series contains the administrative files related to the creation of the newsletter and the second sub-series contains issues of the newsletter itself, arranged chronologically.

The Program development series, 1971-1983, is organized into four sub-series: Conferences and workshops; Grants and proposals; Task forces and research reports; and Surveys and questionnaires. Prominent in this series are grants administered by the Office as well as research and surveys conducted by them. Folders are arranged alphabetically by the subject title on the folder.

The Administrative subject files series contains materials involving internal office matters such as mailing lists, budget files, memos, project reports, etc. The series spans 1975-1985 and is arranged alphabetically by the subject title on the folder.

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Indiana University, Bloomington. Office for Women's Affairs --Archives.
  • Indiana University, Bloomington. Office for Women's Affairs --Records and correspondence.
  • Indiana University, Bloomington. Office for Women's Affairs --History --20th century --Sources.
• • Topics
  • Women--Education (Higher) --Indiana --Bloomington.

Separated Material

Duplicates, fellowship and grant announcements, and detailed budget files have been removed.

Administrative Information

Container List

---