Collections

This collection includes documents pertaining to Michael Crumpton's involvement with Florida Technological University's Village Center, with the Association of College Unions International, and with proposing a new student union for FTU. The collection contains a phone survey used to research the university's name change from FTU to UCF, a proposal for a new student union, and a proposal for the Village Center's first minority committee.

The UCF Women's Club papers reflects the history of the University of Central Florida's organization for female faculty, staff, and spouses. It contains officer reports, publications, information on special events, photographs, scrapbooks, memorabilia, and other ephemera documenting club activities. This collection provides insight into the history and activities of the UCF Women's Club. The University of Central Florida Women's Club was founded in 1969 by female faculty, staff and the spouses of faculty and staff "to promote the sociability and the advancement of University interests and ideals". The club is run by elected officers, including a president, secretary, treasurer and historian, who form an executive board. The organization has provided three endowed scholarships named for the University's current and former president's wives, as well as numerous other projects designed to positively influence the University and the Central Florida community.

The University of Central Florida ZORA! Academic Conference records, 1988-2004, pertain to the planning of the Academic Conference of the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts, sponsored by the University of Central Florida's College of Arts and Humanities. The collection documents UCF's collaboration with the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community (PEC) in planning humanities programming for the Zora Neale Hurston Festival. It chiefly consists of reports, proposals, notes, newspaper clippings, brochures, memos, letters, emails, meeting agendas, programs, calls for papers, and abstracts. This collection provides insight into the various themes of the Zora Festival from 1991 to 2004 and the academics who presented and participated in these festivals. It also highlights the accomplishments of PEC in preserving the history of Eatonville and Zora Neale Hurston through the festival. The Zora Neale Hurston Festival, also known as the Zora Neal Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities or the ZORA! Festival, is an annual multi-day event that takes place in Eatonville, Florida, and throughout Orange County in late January. Raised in Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston contributed to the Harlem Renaissance as a writer, storyteller, anthropologist, and ethnographer. She wrote four novels and over fifty short stories, plays, and essays, including her most popular novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Since 1990, the festival has celebrated and honored the legacy of Hurston and other people of African ancestry who have made significant cultural contributions to the world through public talks, museum exhibitions, theatrical productions, arts education programming, and an outdoor festival. The festival is themed into five-year cycles with each year contributing towards the overarching theme. The Zora Neale Hurston Festival is organized by the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community (PEC), a historic preservation and arts organization led by N.Y. Nathiri. Since 1990, the University of Central Florida (UCF) has frequently collaborated with PEC to plan and host the Academic Conference of the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts. Kristin Congdon, a UCF professor, was heavily involved in planning for the festival and the festival's academic conference. As of 2023, the festival continues to operate and maintains its partnership with UCF.

The Records consist of the official minutes, with attachments, of the meetings of the Academic Council from 1970-1978. Attachments include correspondence, memoranda, plans, statistical charts, and reports. Topics covered in the meetings are: academic programs, policies and procedures; major unit philosophies and objectives; responsibilities of academic officers; accreditation plans; admissions policies; enrollment projections and statistics; faculty and staffing plans; fiscal concerns and budgets; and library development. The Records are significant for researchers because they provide documentation of the initial organization and development of the academic structure of the University from its inception during its formative decade, and show early decisions and input made by charter university leaders.

The Records consist of administrative, general and subject files documenting the academic programs, operations and activities of the College of Arts and Sciences (COAS), which is one of five colleges under the Division of Academic Affairs. The collection includes accreditation and annual reports, college newsletters, committee meeting minutes and attachments, memoranda, newsclippings, program brochures, publications and reports. The records also contain material related to faculty issues and hiring, policy development, and the retention of students. The Venture Studies program, an innovative component of interdisciplinary studies offered by the COAS during the University's first decade, is particularly well represented. Venture Studies courses were designed to provide the student with a broader perspective and background in both the humanities and sciences than ordinarily available through traditional coursework in one major.

The Commencement Records consist of printed materials, memorabilia, and regalia dating from the University's first commencement (June 10, 1973) to the most recent commencement. The files include the addresses and remarks of commencement speakers, commencement announcements and invitations, memoranda relating to commencement planning and organization, programs, and scripts of ceremonies. At least two copies of each commencement program is held in each file. Memorabilia and regalia include the first ceremonial mace, caps and tassels from early commencements, and a graduation gown worn by a student at the charter class commencement ceremony on June 12, 1974.

The Records of the University of North Florida Faculty Association consist of meeting minutes and agendas with attachments, correspondence, subject files, committee documents, and other related materials from April 15, 1975 to date. Meeting agenda attachments include academic policies, award announcements, budgetary information, committee reports, correspondence, curriculum changes, election nominations and tallies, invitations, legislative calendars, lists, memoranda, questions and answers, recommendations for new departments and programs, reports, resolutions, special papers, and surveys and questionnaires.

The Records contain the official minutes, with attachments, of the meetings of the General Assembly, a unique temporary governing structure for the University in its initial years, from 1972-1975. Attachments include academic plan drafts, correspondence, memoranda, committee nomination lists and tallies, plans and reports, and working papers. Topics discussed in the General Assembly included a broad spectrum of issues, among others, academic programs, policies and procedures, grading policies, faculty evaluation and tenure, smoking in the classrooms, traffic control, and establishment of governance committees and boards. The Records are significant for researchers because they provide documentation of the organization and shared governance of the University during its formative years, and show early decisions and input by charter university leaders.

The Historical Files Collection consists of the enabling legislation, initial site selection and planning documents for the University of North Florida. Documents include correspondence, committee reports, feasibility studies, personnel directories, publicity and press releases, transcripts of interviews, minutes of meetings, and ephemera. The majority of the materials were created by the University; also included are documents published by external organizations, such as the Florida Board of Regents, Florida Dept. of Education, and local media sources.