Records of the President, Werner A. Baum

Series 1. Subject Series
Box 1-118, Folder 1-1124
This subject series consists of materials relating to the administration of the University of Rhode Island during the presidency of Werner A. Baum. The bulk of this series contains correspondence, memos and reports to and from Baum regarding the administration of the University, its growth and development and its sometimes stormy relationship to the community at large. Also represented are the more mundane matters of university administration such as arranging overnight accommodations for university guests and choosing the menu for dinner for an all day meeting at the W. Alton Jones Campus.

Baum presided over the University of Rhode Island during a tumultuous period of both its and the nation's history. Student challenges to the University's in loco parentis role, which had been simmering throughout the sixties came to a full boil during Baum's presidency. A student pub on campus, the abolition of curfews for women, twenty-four hour visitation rights for students of the opposite sex, and co-ed dormitories all became a reality between 1968 and 1973. The passage of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowering the age of majority to eighteen in 1971 effectively ended the last vestiges of in loco parentis. Materials relating to these issues and to the generally negative reactions their solutions evoked from the general public can be found in the folders labeled Housing, Drinking on Campus and Student Affairs.

Social issues were not all that concerned students and plagued the Baum administration. Students int he late sixties were becoming more politically aware and politically active, particularly in the areas of civil rights and the anti-Vietnam War issue. While the URI campus was not a hot bed of radicalism, there were student activists, particularly anti-war activists. The anti-war movement was galvanized by the American invasion of Cambodia and the killing by Ohio National Guardsmen of four Kent State University students during a protest rally on that campus four days later. A student strike was called on the URI campus and classes in effect ended two weeks early. Materials relating to this event, the administration's handling of it and the generally negative public reaction to it can be found in folders labeled Student Strike, Student Senate, Student Affairs and Faculty Senate.

Less than a year later another student protest ended on a far less harmonious note. On May 5, 1971, black students occupied the Administration Building demanding, among other things, recruitment of larger numbers of black students, faculty and administrators. With Baum's approval, a University vice-president called state and local police to the campus to remove the students from the building. During the course of that action, a number of student supporters outside the building were injured by police truncheons and mace. Materials concerning this incident can be found in folders labeled Black Student Takeover.

All was not crisis management during Baum's administration, however. The University continued to grow, albeit at a slower pace than had been the case in the heady days of the early sixties. A number of new programs were added, the Graduate Library School was accredited for the first time, and the Graduate School of Oceanography continued to develop into one of the finest such programs anywhere in the world. A radical new departure for URI in student advising took place with the establishment of University College in 1972. Baum at the time called University College the most significant achievement of his administration. Materials concerning these programs can be found in the appropriately labeled folders.

Also of interest are the American Association of University Professors and collective bargaining folders which detail the issues leading to faculty unionization in 1971. Faculty unionization was one of the leading factors contributing to Baum's decision to resign two years later.

In addition, the course entitled "History 103: Revolution in the Modern World", which Baum first cancelled and then reinstated during the 1970 Summer Session, raised the issue of academic freedom on campus. Baum's decision to reinstate it six days later led to a public perception of him as a waffling administrator who caved into pressure from faculty. The flow of correspondence, both internal and external, surrounding this issue can be found the in folders labeled "History 103: Revolution in the Modern World".

The series is arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically by date within folders.