Title: Departmental Subject File, 1912-58, 1962-63, 1974-77
ID: 15/18/1
Primary Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Department of Political Science
Extent: 6.3 cubic feet
Arrangement: Alphabetical then chronological
Subjects: Graduate Study, Public Administration, Statistical Reports, United Nations
Formats/Genres: Papers
Languages: English
Departmental subject file, including correspondence and mimeographed reports concerning appointments (1933-42), assistantships (1941-47), budgetary matters (1914-47), correspondence courses (1933-46), educational policy (1945), fellowships and scholarships (1932-48), graduate students (1940-47), leaves of absence (1929-57), military service (1940-47), public administration course (1940-51), publications (1951-58), annual reports (1913-48), statistical reports (1912-58), teacher training (1941-55) and visiting professors and speakers (1941-57). The file is most complete for the period 1940-58 and contains a large amount of correspondence and committee reporting by Clarence A. Berdahl (department chairman 1942-48). Of a special importance are the materials relating to heads of the department, correspondence with Chinese students (1935-57) and staff, course and housing problems of the war and post-war periods.
Political Science was first listed as a subject in the catalogue of 1893-94.1 In 1895, the Board of Trustees established a department "of political science and constitutional history and law".2 The studies offered were listed as the Political Science Group under the College of Literature and Arts. The group included history, economics, and public law and administration.3 In 1901, the Board of Trustees approved the studies of political science and industrial economics as a separate department in the College of Literature and Arts.4 The 1904-05 Announcements listed these studies under the department of Science and Government5 and the 1905-06 Register listed them under the Political Science Department.6
In 1935 the Division of Social Sciences was established with Political Science as one of the departments included in the division.7
The organization of the department was changed in 1941 from a department organized with a head to a department with a chairman.8 In 1966, the department was reorganized again to return to having a head instead of a chairman.9
1. Catalogs and Registers, 1893-94, p. 140.
2. Board of Trustees Transactions, 18th Report, June 12, 1895, pp. 95, 102.
3. Catalogs and Registers, 1895-96, p. 50.
4. Board of Trustees Transactions, 21st Report, Dec. 10, 1901, p. 208, 211.
5. Catalogs and Registers, 1904-05, p. 88.
6. Ibid., 1905-06, p. 91.
7. Board of Trustees Transactions, 38th Report, April 20, 1935, p. 161.
8. Ibid., 41st Report, April 17, 1941, p. 243.
9. Ibid., 53rd Report, April 20, 1966, p. 1120. Record Group 15
URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/1518001.pdf
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