Gregory H. Williams became the University of Cincinnati’s 27th president when he took office in September 2009.  Among more than 100 applicants for the position, he was selected in part because of his outstanding work in transforming the City College of New York, where he served as president before joining the UC.  Williams received national acclaim for his book, Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black (New York, NY: Dutton, 1995).   Over a decade later, he still received feedback from his readers while serving as the president here at UC. The memoir was his way of telling the world about struggling with poverty and acceptance during his youth and dealing with his biracial identity in Muncie, Indiana at a time when segregation was still highly overt in the United States.   The book also brought to life other family issues such as alcoholism and abandonment.  Throughout his account, he told the story of a normal childhood that spiraled into one of torment, welfare, and segregation, and then how he made the best of it.  Williams became the star quarterback of his high school’s football team, excelled in college to earn four degrees, and worked his way up in higher education system until he became president of College City of New York from 2001-2009 and then president of the University of Cincinnati from 2009 to 2012.

The Archives and Rare Books Library recently added all of Gregory William’s speeches from his UC presidential tenure (Accession Number UA-13-10).  This collection, dating from September 2009 to August 2012, includes quite a variety of speeches.  As is the case with many leaders of high-profile universities, Williams rarely had a day when he did not give one or more speeches (he also rarely had to eat alone, as there are over a hundred events he hosted or partook in that were held over brunch and dinners!).

The speeches include faculty senate meetings, award ceremonies for different faculty and departments here at the University of Cincinnati, interviews with the Cincinnati Enquirer, visits to high schools in Cincinnati, community and business groups, educational organizations, and even occasional luncheons with the students.  For example, included is the first page of his keynote speech at a fundraising event called the “Night on the Serengeti” that helps support Village Life, a program supported by UC faculty and students that assists Tanzania in developing its healthcare, education, and housing systems:

This Williams collection complements the holdings found in the Archives & Rare Books Library that documents the tenures of all UC presidents.  A finding aid for the collection is available on the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository.  To learn more about the University Archives, please visit ARB in 808 Carl Blegen Library, email us at archives@ucmail.uc.edu, telephone us at 513.556.1959, or visit us on the web at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/index.html.

Oh, the things you can find when you go to an auction.  Even the typical items that you find for sale, such as books, sometimes contain a surprise for the unsuspecting buyer.  That’s exactly what happened to Linda Sheets of Jonesboro, Indiana when she bought a box lot of books and discovered a University of Cincinnati tuition receipt dated October 1, 1917.  The strip of paper has yellowed with age, and fortunately Ms. Sheets realized it might have historical value for UC, and was kind enough to share her discovery with the Archives and Rare Books Library.

Jordon Alcott, the student from the 1917-1918 academic year, probably thought that $63.50 in tuition for one semester here at the university was expensive.  That total comes from a $5 library fee, $50 for tuition to the College of Liberal Arts, a $ 1 registration fee, $2.50 fine to use the gymnasium, and a $5 contingency fee.

To put that into perspective, let’s look at tuition from the 2012-2013 school year.  One term at UC’s uptown campus was $5,392, and that is not including resident hall costs, program fees, or mandatory health insurance if you don’t carry your own.

What a difference 96 years make in the cost of attending college.  Then again, the majority of working- class America in 1917 only made between $1,000 and $2,000 each year, so $63.50 every term would not be very cheap to the students of that time.  That amount would be about 19% of their annual income  and that is only if they were working full time during autumn and spring semesters of school.

In 2012, the working individual in Ohio made an average of $40,471 for the year.  With modern day school costs, about 27% of a full-time, average wage earner’s income would be going towards tuition.  Even taking inflation into consideration, school fees have still increased.

Another very interesting part of this receipt is the statement at the top: “Do not lose this receipt.  It must be shown to Instructor when requested.”    No lecture freeloaders allowed here!  For a broader view of what UC campus life was like during that year, have a look at the 1918 Cincinnatian, one of the digitized University of Cincinnati yearbooks available from the Libraries.

Next time you go to an auction and buy a book that catches your eye, make sure to take a look inside to see if you find a surprise, too!

Sources:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/17soirepar.pdf

http://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20111101/bci_data/median_income_table.htm

The Archives and Rare Books Library has made available a collection of records from University Communications covering the University’s conversion to semesters in 2012. The collection concentrates on the comprehensive communication plan developed to educate students and other stakeholders about the conversion and includes communication plans, planning documents, research, publications, and clippings. Also included are some promotional items such as t-shirts, protective hats, and sandwich boards declaring that the world will END – not really, just convert to semesters – in 2012.

A complete finding aid for the collection can be found on the OhioLink Finding Aid Repository at http://rave.ohiolink.edu/archives/ead/OhCiUAR0367. For further information on the Archives & Rare Books Library and its holdings, please call 513.556.1959, email archives@ucmail.uc.edu, or visit our website at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/index.html.

Thanks to a generous donation from Anthony Graybosch, The Archives and Rare Books Library now has in its holdings a collection of philosophy books from Van Meter Ames’ private library.  Van Meter Ames was a faculty member in the UC philosophy department, beginning in 1925, and served as its head from 1959 until 1966 when he retired.  Many of the books in this collection have Ames’ annotations, notes, and article clippings in them, as well as correspondence between Ames and fellow philosophers or friends.

Having no personal connection to Ames, Anthony Graybosch came to possess this collection of books in 2002 upon the passing of Kent Tiedeman, his philosophy department colleague at California State University-Chico.  Tiedeman, born in San Fransisco, studied philosophy with Ames at the University of Cincinnati in the early 1960s, receiving both an MA and a PhD.  As evidenced by many of the bookplates found in this new collection, Ames gave Tiedeman a substantial collection of his personal holdings in July of 1968 (2 years after Ames’ retirement from UC).  As Graybosch is now nearing his own retirement at Chico, he sought a proper home for these valuable items and found one in ARB.  With ARB already holding the Van Meter Ames Papers, this new collection is a perfect complement.

Most of the books in this collection were written by or about American philosophers.  Santayana, Hook, Dewey, Mead, and James are all included in this collection and all seem to be of particular importance to and influence on Ames.  To the right is Hook’s, American Philosophers at Work.  The end paper of this book (far right) was inscribed from Hook to Ames in 1958 and speaks about their friendship and the memories they shared in Japan.  A postcard from Hook to Ames that was inserted in this book is pictured below.  It is addressed to Ames in Tokyo.

If a book was not a gift from a friend, such as the one above, Ames often wrote his name, the date, and the city in which he received and/or finished the book.  An example of this is illustrated in Ames’ copy of Mead’s Mind, Self, and Society, pictured below.  Here you can see Ames’ notes on Mead’s writings, in addition to pages Ames seemed to think were of special importance.  Hence, this collection would be of interest to anyone who is curious about the development of Ames’ philosophy.

By studying what ideas Ames made note of on the end papers or in the book margins, what he underlined in the text, or what authors or subject themes continually recur throughout his book collection, one can ascertain a sense of Ames’ philosophical interests.  Additionally, information about his personal life can be garnered via the locations and dates associated with each book, as well as any correspondence contained within it.  For example, also included in Mead’s Mind, Self, and Society, was this envelope addressed to Van Meter Ames in Cincinnati and stamped Nov. 9, 1970.  (Note that the original date associated with the book was Jan. 16, 1935; Texas).  Does this mean that Ames had revisited the book in his later years?  Or had he pulled this book back out because the letter writer mentions Mead?  While we may never know definitive answers to such questions, all materials contained within any given book have been left in that book for the sake of provenance.  Rather than removing materials from a book and organizing them into separate folders, we have kept all materials in the books as they were delivered to us.  This organizational scheme will hopefully be of more use to researchers.

If interested in this collection, one can browse the finding aid available on the OhioLink Finding Aid Repository, which is an alphabetized bibliography of Ames’ books.  If a name, date, or personal message, was inscribed on the endpaper of any book, it has been noted in the bibliography.  Additionally, a note was made if any article clipping, correspondence, etc. was inserted into the book.  To view the contents of this collection, please call or e-mail the Archives and Rare Books Library to schedule an appointment.   To view information about our previously processed Van Meter Ames papers, see the blog entry on that collection.

Further, while the majority of this new collection centers on American philosophy and Van Meter Ames, it is curious to find other connections to the University of Cincinnati.  For instance, in William James’ Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, the book plate and signature of Raymond Walters is present.  Anyone interested in Walters’ past, will be pleased to know that ARB holds a collection of his diaries and his records as president of UC.

A new Records Update is now available on the Records Management Program website. Records Update is released periodically to convey timely information between publications of Records Quarterly. This issue offers “Records in the News” stories found in the media and legislative action taken in March and April.

As reported in the Spring 2013 Records Quarterly article, “Public Records: Your Rights and Responsibilities,” Ohio’s public records laws are dynamic and are continually being tested in Ohio’s courtrooms. Ohio courts decided seven public records cases in March and April and there are currently six open cases in front of the Supreme Court of Ohio. In a case close to home, on April 24 the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled that lease terms and rents between Findlay Market private management company The Corporation for Findlay Market and its tenants are trade secrets and are not open to disclosure under the public records act. In 2010, Kevin P. Luken requested copies of lease agreements from The Corporation for Findlay Market and ultimately from the City of Cincinnati. While he received the agreements, terms and rents were redacted from the released documents and cited as trade secrets. Luken initated a mandamus action against the parties, which resulted in the recent decision.

The Findlay Market decision and more are available through this issue of Records Update.