Beginning in the late 1970s, Columbia students urged the university to divest from companies doing business in South Africa in protest of South Africa's system of apartheid. After a series of student protests culminating in a month long blockade of Hamilton Hall in 1985, the Trustees voted to begin full divestment. The collection contains the administrative records of this decision making process in the 1970s-1980s.
The Richard Brick and Geri Ashur collection consists of materials related to film productions created and collected by Richard Brick and Geri Ashur, dating from 1968 to 2014. The materials document the career of Richard Brick as a filming professor, producer, and the first commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB). The collection also includes materials related to films by Geri Ashur. The bulk of the collection focuses on the motion picture films and production files of the films Richard Brick and Geri Ashur produced, as well as the administrative records that document Richard Brick's contribution to the filming industry in New York during his tenure as the commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB).
Records of the University Senate, a governing body established by Columbia in 1969, consisting primarily of minutes, correspondence, reports, meeting agendas, and resolutions concerning various campus and academic issues. The records date primarily from 1969 to 2004 and are organized by committee or subcommittee and then arranged chronologically.
Marable was a leading figure in African-American studies as well as a historian, social theorist, and political activist. The collection includes appointment books, biographical information, budgets, clippings, correspondence, drafts, lecture notes, manuscripts, photographs, proposals, reports, speeches, syllabi, and teaching materials.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a coalition of predominantly faith based institutions that are committed to socially responsible investing. The strength of the records lies in their documentation of the ICCR's programs, its work on individual issues, and its work with individual corporations and the U.S. Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC).
A collection of over 340 pieces of original material related to the demonstrations at Columbia University and their after-math, focused on actvities led by the Columbia Students for a Democratic Society (Columbia SDS) to protest the Vietnam War, end the construction of a Columbia gymnasium on public park land in Harlem, and include University students in institutional decision-making. Most items date to the spring and fall of 1968, including newspaper and magazine clippings, flyers for protests and demonstrations, letters, leaflets, journal and newspaper issues, essays, notices, press releases, memos, meeting minutes, proposals, and many other items, all collected and archived by Stuart Gedal, a student at Columbia and prominent SDS member.
Established in 1965 by Columbia University, the Double Discovery Center (DDC) provides educational programs and services to low income and first generation college-bound junior high and high school students in New York City. The DDC is one of the oldest Upward Bound programs in the United States. The collection contains the records of the DDC from 1965 to 2005, including student files and materials documenting the DDC's primary programs, Upward Bound and Talent Search.
The Strickman Cigarette Filter Collection documents Columbia's brief ownership of the patent for a cigarette filter invented by chemist Robert Strickman. Soon after their announcement of the agreement, the filter was found to be not much more effective than those in use at the time and Columbia withdrew its support. These records includes Columbia's statements, correspondence, and other materials generated throughout the incident.
This collection consists of the working materials Joanne Grant, a journalist and activist, collected for the research and publication of her 1969 book Confrontation on Campus: Columbia Pattern for the New Protest (New York: New American Library, 1969).
The Group for Contemporary Music records document the function of an American chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music, dating from 1961 to 2012. The records consist of correspondence, photographs, programs, memoranda, schedules, meeting notes, clippings, contracts, bills, financial records, fund raising and grant applications, and so on.