The William J. Haggerty Papers are primarily professional papers from his association with State University of New York College at New Paltz (SUC New Paltz) with some papers from earlier positions with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the University of Connecticut and his graduate work at the University of Chicago.

Includes correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, conference materials, programs, contracts, addresses, legislative acts, catalogs, booklets, photographs, audio tapes of speeches and programs, papers and speeches presented, lecture notes, and research papers. Subjects include accreditation, Conference on World Affairs (1954-1970), educational associations and organizations, Inernational Relations Committee of the New York State Teachers Association (1946-1951), foreign visitors to SUC New Paltz, staff and faculty at SUC New Paltz, college budgets, students, and other administrative matters.

Collection also includes the correspondence files of Haggerty's assistant, Robert C. Davidson, 1960-1967; and the files of Haggerty's predecessor, Dr. Lawrence H. Van den Berg,1918 -1945, containing correspondence, reports, job descriptions, and financial records pertaining to lectures, personnel, classes, appropriations, state regulations, appointments, construction, students and other issues, 1925-1943.