The primary mission of Colorado State University’s University Archive (UA) is to document the history and institutional memory of Colorado State University and to select, preserve, and make available primary source materials that have long-term value for research and instruction at CSU. Secondarily, the University Archive serves as a cultural, historic, and scholarly resource for area residents and researchers not affiliated with CSU. All holdings are accessible to the general public, excepting those restricted by federal and state law or university policy; preservation concerns or reasons of confidentiality; or as a condition of gift established by a donor.

The collections within the University Archive consist of the non-current (historic) materials of CSU that document the academic, scholarly, social, and cultural activities of the university. They include items from major university programs, departments, faculty, and student-related activities. Emphasis is placed on primary source materials having long-term research and instructional value for the CSU community. Consideration is also given to materials that document the effect of CSU—and its faculty, staff and alumni—on the cultural, economic, social, and political activities of the region. It is important to note that the following collection development policy is content-based and contextual in nature, encompassing all formats (e.g. digital and audio-visual materials) that fall within the scope of the UA areas of interest.

Collecting areas of specific interest within the University Archive include:

• Board of Governors (BOG) and selected presidential materials
  The UA actively collects university governance materials including those generated by the Board of Governors and university charter documents. Related to the print collections of BOG materials housed in the University Archives, the CSU Libraries make a concentrated effort to capture born digital minutes from the BOG for deposit into the Digital Repository.
  In addition, the UA actively collects papers from past presidents of the University. The University Archive currently has the following presidential collections: the Papers of Elijah E. Edwards, the Papers of Barton O. Aylesworth, the Papers of Charles A. Lory, the Papers of Roy M. Green, the Papers of Issac E. Newsom, the Papers of William E. Morgan, the Papers of Adrian R. Chamberlain, the Papers of Ralph E. Christoffersen, the Papers of Albert C. Yates, and the Papers of Larry E. Penley
• Student Activities
  The UA accepts materials documenting student activities including clubs, organizations and student governance, including the ASCSU and records documenting CSU’s “campus life cluster”. The UA also actively collects historic alumni scrapbooks such as the Maeva Allen scrapbook (ca. 1914-1918), and student movement records such as the Records of Student Unrest (USRC).
  In conjunction with CSUs diversity initiatives and the Lory Student Center renovation branding (and as a response to increased requests for archive services from topical student organizations) a new focus for the UA will be outreach to organizations within CSUs Student Diversity Programs and Services cluster. This cluster includes: the Asian/Pacific American Cultural Center (APACC), the Black/African American Cultural Center (BAACC), El Centro, the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Resource Center (GLBTRC), the Native American Cultural Center (NACC), Women’s Programs and Studies (WPS), and Resources for Disabled Students (RDS).
• Faculty Papers
  The UA accepts faculty papers related to an individual’s teaching, research, scholarship, and university service. Priority is given to CSU faculty members who have been appointed Distinguished University Professor and to faculty who have been recipients of the University Teaching Excellence Award. Case-by-case consideration will be given to faculty who have earned significant distinction in their area of discipline (e.g. national and international awards; recognition by peers on an international/national level) as well as faculty who have shown significant innovation in CSU’s areas of excellence.
• University Traditions and Events
  The UA solicits materials documenting CSUs major events (e.g. commencement, presidential inaugurations) and “enduring traditions” (e.g. Founders Day). Examples of existing collections within the UA with materials relating to university traditions and events include the Records of the Homecoming Parade (UPAR)
• Departmental Publications
  The UA solicits publications from the University’s departments and colleges including CSU’s areas of distinction and excellence (e.g. Animal and Environmental Ethics, Veterinary Medicine, Global Sustainability and Alternative Energy).
• University Photographs
  As the principal repository for CSU’s visual institutional memory, the UA is committed to collecting accruals to these existing collections: the print/negative based University Historic Photograph Collection (UHPC, ca. 1880-2000) and the born-digital University Digital Photograph Collection (UDPC, ca. 2001-present).
• Peace Corps Correspondence/Records
  Given the prominence of CSU in the foundation of the Peace Corps the UA has a special focus in collecting materials documenting the formation of the Peace Corps. The UA also solicits materials from employees active during the first decade of the Peace Corps
• Faculty, Staff, Student, and Alumni Oral Histories
  The UA collects oral history interviews from faculty, staff, students and alumni as a way to supplement Institutional Memory and build a corpus of primary source materials for research and scholarship. Significant oral history collections within the University Archive are as follows:
  • Society of Senior Scholars Oral History Project
  • “A Walk Down Memory Lane” Alumni Oral Histories
  • “RamStories”: CSU Incoming Freshmen Talk About Their Hopes, Fears, Wishes and Goals
    
    In conjunction CSU’s mission and the University Archive’s outreach efforts to the student organizations within the diversity cluster (see “Student Activities”), Archives staff is currently working with Lory Student Center staff to collect the oral histories of members active in CSU’s GLBTQ community, as well as oral histories of the founding directors of the diversity centers, Collecting the oral histories of recipients of CSU’s Multi-Ethnic Faculty/Staff Caucus Awards is under consideration.
• Germans from Russia in Colorado and the Front Range
  In addition to the topics listed above, and in relation to the Sidney Heitman Germans from Russia Collection, the University Archive accepts items that document the history and cultural life of the German-Russian population of Fort Collins and the Front Range, as well as contemporary research and scholarship related to Russia’s Volga and Black Sea “German” population. This includes archival materials from the International Center for German Russian Studies, located on CSUs campus.

December 2012