Title: New University Conference Records
Inclusive Dates: 1968-1972

Creator:

• New University Conference

Call Number: Mss 567

Quantity: 6.2 c.f. (16 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Records of the New University Conference, a national New Left organization located in Chicago, with a membership of graduate students and faculty members, many of whom came from the Students for a Democratic Society. Included are letters and memoranda from the national staff, executive committee, regional organizers, local chapters, the women's caucus, and various policy committees. Also included are financial records, publications, national committee meeting and convention documents, mailing lists, project files, and women's studies materials.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00567

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The New University Conference, a New Left organization representing graduate students and faculty members nationwide, was formed in the spring of 1968 by a group of 350 persons in Chicago following the Radicals in the Professions Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In its membership the organization resembled a “post-graduate SDS,” for many of the sponsors of the founding meeting, including Jeremy Brecher, John Ehrenreich, Al Haber, Tom Hayden, Michael Klare, Jesse Lemisch, Kathy McAfee, Dan McKelvey, Lee Webb, and Michael Zweig, were members of the Students for a Democratic Society. The keynote speakers at the initial meeting were Richard Flacks and Staughton Lynd. Robert Ross, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Chicago, was named the first national director of the organization, and Flacks, Mike Goldfield, and Dan Friedlander were elected to a steering committee.

The New University Conference (NUC) set forth a five-point program, including organizing local chapters to overcome campus radical ineffectiveness, define political roles and provide internal support; encouraging the development of radical caucuses in the professions; providing a support organization for faculty victims of political discrimination; establishing a new magazine of research and analysis for the Movement; and forming alliances with other activists aimed at making the educational system more responsive to the concerns of the New Left. NUC adopted an organizational system based upon local chapters on university campuses, with regional organizers providing liaison with the national staff and an executive committee composed of national and regional officers and representatives from each local chapter. Richard Rothstein succeeded Ross as national executive secretary in 1969, and was succeeded in turn by Tom Hecht in 1970. Prominent radical intellectuals contributing to NUC included Noam Chomsky, Louis Kampf, Barbara Kessel, John McDermott, and Roberta Salper.

Initially NUC attempted to maintain roles as both an educational institutional organization and a broader “movement” organization. Local chapters sponsored anti-Vietnam war and anti-imperialism rallies while members also attended professional conferences to influence curriculum and and influence educational policy. By October 1969, NUC had 60 chapters, and in 1970 it attempted to expand into community colleges and secondary schools. At its peak NUC had approximately 1500 members, but there were fewer than 300 by 1972. Noteworthy among the caucuses of the organization was the Women's Caucus, which provided a forum for discussion and confrontation of sexism in education and provided support for women's studies programs, day care facilities, and non-discriminatory hiring practices.

NUC held meetings of its national committee four times a year, and in addition held annual conventions in June. It was at the last of these conventions, in 1972, that NUC disbanded as an organization, having suffered from declines in the numbers of members and chapters and internal debates over the appropriate scale and scope of the organization.

The collection consists of three series: HISTORICAL INFORMATION, CORRESPONDENCE, and SUBJECT FILES. The HISTORICAL INFORMATION series contains a small number of mimeographed mailings which describe the New University Conference and its functions at various times in its history. CORRESPONDENCE files include letters regarding the Cuba project, involving trips to Cuba and research for a special newsletter issue on the Cuban nation; internal education correspondence, containing discussions of summer training sessions for officers and political literature for internal consumption; letters concerning the “Open Up the Schools” project for secondary schools; and a file detailing the severing of ties of cooperation between NUC and the Progressive Labor Party. Correspondence related to anti-war activity includes general letters, contact with the Montreal Deserters Committee in the Montreal Project, and preparations for the “Spring Offensive” against firms producing war materials for the Vietnam war. Also included in this series is correspondence from regional organizers, from Region One in the Northeast to Region Six, and on the West Coast. One file, the JOIN Community Union file, does not pertain directly to NUC activity, but instead covers the community organizing efforts in Chicago of a predecessor New Left organization.

Materials in SUBJECT FILES generally cover the same topical and organizational groupings as the Correspondence. Of particular interest in these files, however, are financial records, publications, and extensive mailing lists of NUC; national committee and convention agenda, notes, memoranda, and reports; lists of individuals in NUC's Speakers Bureau, and files of the Women's Caucus, especially reading lists, curriculum descriptions, and publications of women's studies programs across the nation.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Tom Hecht and Richard Rothstein, Chicago, Illinois, 1973. Accession Number: M73-242, M73-406

Processing Information

Processed by Robert Burk, 1980.

Box   1 Folder   1	Series: Historical Information, 1968-1971
	Series: Correspondence	⇧
Box   1 Folder   2	Anti-War and Anti-Imperialism, 1968-1971
Box   1 Folder   3	Black Panthers, 1969
	Chapter Contacts, 1968-1972
Box   1 Folder   4-9	Arizona-Indiana
Box   2 Folder   1-8	Iowa-Pennsylvania
Box   3 Folder   1-3	Rhode Island-Wisconsin
Box   3 Folder   4	Community College Caucus, 1969-1970
Box   3 Folder   5	Cuba Project, 1969-1970
Box   3 Folder   6	Discrimination Against Leftist Faculty, 1967-1970
Box   3 Folder   7	Film Series, 1969-1970
Box   3 Folder   8	Financial Correspondence, 1968-1972
Box   3 Folder   9	Internal Education, 1969-1971
	Interim and Executive Committee
Box   3 Folder   10	1968-1969 May
Box   4 Folder   1	1969 August-1972 February
Box   4 Folder   2	Jobs File, 1969-1970
Box   4 Folder   3	JOIN Community Union, 1965-1967
Box   4 Folder   4	Labor Caucus, 1969-1972
Box   4 Folder   5	Legal Files, 1969-1970
Box   4 Folder   6-8	Literature, 1968-1972
Box   5 Folder   1	Mailing List Rental, 1969-1971
Box   5 Folder   2	Membership Pledges, 1969-1970
Box   5 Folder   3	Montreal Project, 1970-1971
Box   5 Folder   4-5	National Committee Meetings and Conventions, 1969-1972
Box   5 Folder   6	Open Up the Schools, 1970-1971
Box   5 Folder   7	Prison Education Project, 1971-1972
	Professional Associations
Box   5 Folder   8	Historians, 1968-1971
Box   5 Folder   9	Modern Language Caucus, 1968-1971
Box   5 Folder   10	Others, 1968-1972
Box   6 Folder   1	Progressive Labor Party, 1969-1970
	Regional Organizers
Box   6 Folder   2	Region One, 1970-1971
Box   6 Folder   3	Region Two, 1970-1972
Box   6 Folder   4	Region Three, 1970-1972
Box   6 Folder   5	Region Four, 1968-1971
Box   6 Folder   6	Region Five, 1970-1971
Box   6 Folder   7	Region Six, 1970-1972
Box   6 Folder   8	Speakers Bureau, 1968-1971
Box   6 Folder   9	Spring Offensive, 1969 December-1970 April
Box   7 Folder   1	Teacher Organizing Project, 1970-1971
Box   7 Folder   2-8	Women's Caucus, 1968-1972
	Series: Subject Files	⇧
	Anti-War and Anti-Imperialism
Box   8 Folder   1	General, 1968-1970, undated
Box   8 Folder   2	Moby Dick, 1970
Box   8 Folder   3	Montreal Project, 1970-1971
Box   8 Folder   4	People's Peace Treaty, 1970, undated
Box   8 Folder   5	Spring Offensive, 1970
Box   8 Folder   6	Week to Confront Campus Militarism, 1969
Box   8 Folder   7	Black Panthers, 1969
Box   8 Folder   8	Chapter Histories, 1969-1970
Box   8 Folder   9-10	Chapter Materials, 1968-1972
Box   8 Folder   11	Film Series, undated
	Financial Records
Box   8 Folder   12	Contributions, 1970-1971
Box   8 Folder   13	Financial Statements, 1968-1971, undated
Box   8 Folder   14	Receipts and Bank Statements, 1968-1972
Box   8 Folder   15	Travel Pool, 1969-1971
Box   9 Folder   1	Internal Education, 1970-1971
Box   9 Folder   2	Interim and Executive Committee Reports, 1968-1972
Box   9 Folder   3	JOIN Community Action, 1967
	Labor Files
Box   9 Folder   4	General, 1968-1972
Box   9 Folder   5	Discrimination Against Leftist Faculty, 1968-1972
Box   9 Folder   6	Job File, 1970
Box   9 Folder   7	Legal Papers, 1969
	Literature
Box   9 Folder   8	Agenda and General Publications, 1968-1971
Box   9 Folder   9	Committee Notes, undated
Box   9 Folder   10	“Community College,” 1970
Box   9 Folder   11	Cuba Material, 1969-1970
Box   9 Folder   12	“Disorientation” Handbooks, 1969-1970
Box   10 Folder   1-4	Feature Articles, 1968-1972
Box   10 Folder   5	Tom Hayden Articles, undated
Box   10 Folder   6	“New Left Manifesto,” 1968
	Newsletter Articles
Box   10 Folder   7	Final Copy, undated
Box   10 Folder   8	Rough Copy, undated
Box   11 Folder   1	Pamphlets by Chapters, 1968-1972
Box   11 Folder   2	“Papers of NUC,” 1968-1971
Box   11 Folder   3	Receipts and Invoices, 1968-1972
Box   11 Folder   4-6	Mailing Lists, undated
Box   11 Folder   7	Mailing List Rental, undated
	Meetings
Box   11 Folder   8	March Conference, 1968
Box   12 Folder   1	Interim Committee, 1968-1969
Box   12 Folder   2-6	National Committee, 1969-1972
Box   12 Folder   7-9	National Conventions, 1969-1972
Box   13 Folder   1	Regional Conferences, 1969-1972
Box   13 Folder   2	Strategy Action Conferences, 1970
Box   13 Folder   3	Open Up the Schools, 1970-1971
	Professional Associations
Box   13 Folder   4	General, 1968-1972
Box   13 Folder   5	Modern Language Caucus, 1968-1971
Box   13 Folder   6	Progressive Labor Party, 1970
Box   13 Folder   7	Research Organization, 1970, undated
Box   13 Folder   8	Speakers Bureau, 1968-1972
Box   13 Folder   9	Student Movement Subcommittee, 1970-1971
Box   13 Folder   10	Student Rebellion Statement, 1969
Box   13 Folder   11	Teacher Organizing Project, 1969-1970
	Women's Caucus
Box   14 Folder   1	Agenda, Questionnaires, 1969-1971
Box   14 Folder   2	Anti-War, Anti-Imperialism, 1969-1970
Box   14 Folder   3	Card File, undated
Box   14 Folder   4	Chapter Materials, 1968-1972
Box   14 Folder   5	Conference Registrations, 1968-1970
Box   14 Folder   6	Conventions, 1969-1972
Box   14 Folder   7	Day Care, 1970, undated
Box   14 Folder   8	Equal Rights Amendment, undated
Box   15 Folder   9	Gay Liberation, undated
Box   14 Folder   10	Health, Contraception, and Abortion, 1969-1971
Box   14 Folder   11	Mailing Lists, 1968-1972
Box   14 Folder   12	Newsletter Article Drafts, 1968-1972
Box   15 Folder   1	Publications, 1968-1972
Box   15 Folder   2	Songs, undated
Box   15 Folder   3	Speakers, 1971
Box   15 Folder   4	Women in Professions, 1969-1972
Box   15 Folder   5	Women's History Library, 1969-1971
	Women's Studies
Box   15 Folder   6	Conferences, 1970-1971
	Course Listings and Bibliographies, 1968-1972
Box   15 Folder   7-9	A-U
Box   16 Folder   1	W-Z, unknown
Box   16 Folder   2	Female Studies, 1970-1971
Box   16 Folder   3	Working Papers, 1968-1972