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Guide to the Central Records Unit Records, University of California, Irvine
AS-004
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Title: Central Records Unit records, University of California, Irvine
Date: 1928-1994,
Date (bulk): bulk 1965-1984
Collection number: AS-004
Creator:
University of California, Irvine. Central Records Unit.
Extent:
299.9 linear feet
736 boxes and 11 oversize folders
Repository:
University of California, Irvine. Library.
Special Collections and Archives.
Irvine, California 92623-9557
Abstract: These records capture a large proportion of the most important, top-level incoming correspondence of the first three decades
of UCI's history. The collection contains correspondence, departmental memos, meeting minutes, financial statements, statistical
analyses, reports, program development plans, building development plans, and miscellaneous notes generated by various units
of central UCI campus administration and UC offices. Some of the materials predate the establishment of the Central Records
Unit in 1963. The bulk of the records pertain to campus administrative activities and operations, academic affairs, academic
departments, community affairs and the planning and construction of the UCI campus.
Language:
English.
Collection open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.
Central Records Unit records. AS-004. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
The Central Records Unit transferred the bulk of these records to the University Archives in 1988. Subsequent accessions
were added between 1988 and 1994. Almost 300 linear feet of additional materials were accessioned in 2001. An additional
1.6 linear feet were added in 2010
Upon receipt in 1988 the collection was rehoused by Archives staff. The collection was processed by Archives staff from 1997
to 2000. Additional materials were processed in 2003, 2007-2008, and 2010.
The Central Records Unit was established by Vice Chancellor L.E. Cox in late 1963 and began operations on January 1, 1964.
The primary goal of the unit was to provide central administrative offices a simple and effective system to manage their administrative
documents and collect and maintain a body of material that would serve as campus administration's corporate memory for business
purposes. This unit provided a central location for the maintenance of office files, reproduction services, processing incoming
and outgoing mail, monitoring action items until they were completed, distribution of campus administrative procedure and
policy statements, and managing retention schedules for records having administrative, legal, fiscal, or research value.
Initially the offices served by Central Records included the Chancellor's Office, Public Affairs, Student Affairs (except
student records), Vice Chancellor of Business and Finance, Architects and Engineers, Personnel (except records on individuals),
Purchasing, Grounds and Buildings and various academic departments.
Central Records procedures for processing campus mail varied through the years. Prior to 1989, Central Records sorted and
routed mail directly to addressees. In 1989, at the request of Chancellor Peltason and with the goal of speeding up mail
processing, Central Records began photocopying all incoming U.S. and campus mail addressed to administrative control points
by name or title. Control points included the Chancellor, the Executive Assistant to the Chancellor, the Executive Vice Chancellor,
the Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor, the Vice Chancellors, the Associate Vice Chancellors, and the Assistant Vice
Chancellors. In 1989, the photocopies were sent to addressees, and the originals were retained and filed by Central Records.
In 1990 processing policy changed: photocopies were filed and the originals were forwarded to the addressee. Once material
was no longer of use to the addressee or office, Central Records encouraged the return of the original documents so they could
be placed back in Central Records files, and the photocopies were discarded. Mail marked "Administrative Confidential," "Addressee
Only," "Personal," or "Mr. and Mrs." was forwarded directly to the addressee and not opened or photocopied by Central Records.
This approach was in place from 1990-1992.
The Central Records Unit functioned as an office of record for campus administration. In addition to its records management
function, Central Records also accepted any materials that departments believed had historical value for eventual transfer
to the University Archives, which the Library began staffing in ca. 1968.
At its inception, Central Records faced a good deal of reluctance and suspicion, since staff feared placing their files in
a central administrative area "for all to see." The active support of top campus administrators helped immeasurably to overcome
these attitudes. Soon departments found Central Records services to be an efficient and dependable means of managing their
records.
In its first year of operation the Central Records Unit achieved many of its goals, including saving space and equipment,
eliminating duplicate material campuswide, and building the beginnings of a systematic records management program. Unfortunately,
the unit also encountered a dilemma that would become increasingly problematic in future years: limited staffing vs. an increasing
amount of incoming material due to the growth of the campus. In future years lack of space also became a major problem.
In 1975 and 1981 files were selectively microfilmed in order to provide more space for incoming materials, and some original
documents may have been discarded.
Central Records service was designed for high-level administrators in the Administration building. Services were offered
to other departments on a voluntary basis. When a department in the Administration building decided not to utilize Central
Records services, all mail was sent directly to the office or department unopened, and the department was responsible for
maintaining its own records. When an office moved out of the Administration building, Central Records services were no
longer provided to that office.
At times when Central Records staff suffered heavy workloads, modifications to current procedures were made in order to place
more responsibility with the individual departments for records upkeep. Invariably, these modifications significantly affected
the continuity of Central Records files. If left to the departments, many did not regularly forward the required materials
to be included in Central Records. For example, due to a heavy workload in 1971, Central Records stopped processing the Purchasing
department's mail. The processing was reinstated in 1972 when staff realized that legal records that the department had forgotten
to forward were missing from Central Records files.
In the mid-1980s, for a variety of reasons, some Central Records users began duplicating Central Records tracking activities
in their own offices. A memo from Dowrene Hahn, Records Management Coordinator, dated August 21, 1984 stated that "The Central
Records system should be updated to minimize or eliminate the need for logging by individual offices." Soon after, the Central
Records Task Force was created to examine the present performance of the unit. Their final report states:
The methods established to perform these functions accommodated the University of California (Irvine) during the 1960s but
have become less efficient in recent years. Many service and function changes have taken place in this time, along with organizational
changes and new management in Central Records and at higher levels of campus administration. The revolutionary advances in
office automation and information processing have also significantly impacted Central Records.
Among other things, the Task Force recommended that Central Records not maintain personal files or departmental working files.
Otherwise, "a radical reassignment of job responsibilities and additional space, equipment, and personnel would be required
to facilitate all departmental demands placed on the current system."
In 1985, with hopes of attaining a higher level of control over files housed at Central Records, a computerized database was
introduced to index all documents on file. Each document was assigned a unique number that was used to identify the document
in the database; physical items were still filed by subject. Central Records staff read each incoming document and entered
keywords describing the document's subject into the database. The database gave staff the ability to locate documents using
the document number, addressee, sender, and subject keywords.
In 1991 the Central Records Unit moved from the Administration Building to North Campus, and staffing was cut from 9 FTE to
2 FTE over the course of about four years. As a result Central Records abandoned its mail-processing component and delivered
mail directly to each department. Since mail processing was in the hands of each department, Central Records depended on
each office to forward appropriate materials for inclusion in Central Records. At this point, the campus records manager,
Dowrene Hahn, began advising individual departments on managing their own records, including what type of documents to maintain,
for how long, and where permanent documents should be forwarded (to either Central Records or University Archives). Central
Records was disbanded in 1992 at the beginning of the administration of Chancellor Laurel Wilkening due to budget cuts.
| 1963 | Established by Vice Chancellor L.E. Cox. |
| 1964 | Began servicing campus from the Library Administration Building. |
| 1970s | Moved to the Administration Building. |
| 1971 | Name changed to Administrative Services. |
| 1975 | Microfilming of permanent records covering 1963-1969. |
| 1981 | Microfilming of permanent records covering 1970-1977. |
| 1984 | Name changed back to Central Records. |
| 1984 | Central Records Task Force commissioned to review current procedures. |
| 1985 | Computerized database introduced to index all documents on file. |
| 1991 | Moved to North Campus facility. |
| 1991 | Eliminated processing of incoming campus and U.S. mail (served distribution |
| function only). | |
| 1992 | Disbanded due to campus budget cuts. |
Scope and Content of Collection
These records capture a large proportion of the most important, top-level incoming correspondence of the first three decades
of UCI's history. The collection contains correspondence, departmental memos, meeting minutes, financial statements, statistical
analyses, reports, program development plans, building development plans, and miscellaneous notes generated by various units
of central UCI campus administration and UC offices. Some of the materials predate the establishment of the Central Records
Unit in 1963. The bulk of the records pertain to campus administrative activities and operations, academic affairs, academic
departments, community affairs and the planning and construction of the UCI campus.
The function of Central Records was to collect and document the corporate memory of UCI for business purposes. For this reason,
the bulk of this collection consists of campus administration material. Coverage of other campus units such as alumni affairs,
personnel, student affairs, extramural financial aids, gifts and endowments, university advancement, contracts and grants,
centers, institutes, organized research units, libraries, and UC systemwide affairs is relatively weak.
Researchers interested in early Irvine city planning should consult series 12 (Community Affairs). This series includes material
on the Irvine City Council, Irvine City Planning Commission, Council of the Communities of Irvine, and Irvine Tomorrow, covering
the years 1960 through 1983.
Material in the collection is largely textual, although many maps and blueprints are included in Series 15-17. Other formats
scattered throughout the collection are microfilm and a few photographs.
There is no way to know how complete this collection is for the represented offices. As various offices began taking control
of their own files in later years, documents may not have been forwarded to Central Records on a regular basis. As a result,
the collection at present best documents administrative activities and operations in UCI's early years. This balance is likely
to change as additional records are transferred to the University Archives collection.
From 1964 through 1985, a purple-edged sticker was affixed when an item was routed, indicating the name of the addressee and
the date. In 1985, the use of stickers was abandoned and Central Records began attaching colored slips to routed items.
Red slips were attached to action items, and green slips were attached to informal items. During the processing of this collection,
adhesive stickers and stapled routing slips were not removed from Central Records material. The information on these remaining
stickers and slips reflect the last person to whom the file was routed.
After photocopying and distributing the originals of campus and U.S. mail, Central Records processing activities also included
penciling a file plan classification number in the top right corner of each item or group of items (see "Organization" following
this section for a description of the file plan scheme). The material was then filed according to these numbers, in reverse
chronological order. In processing this collection, materials within each folder were reorganized into chronological order.
In addition to the file plan number, each document was annotated at top right as "Permanent" or "Routine." Documents were
classified as "Permanent" (indicated by a "P") if Central Records determined that they had permanent historical value. Permanent
document types included policies, procedures, meeting minutes, reports, contracts, plans, financial statements and statistical
analyses. Documents such as brochures, notices and miscellaneous loose papers were classified as "Routine" (indicated by
an "R"). Both "P" and "R" documents are interfiled within folders and within file plan series.
Example: 330-30R
Some documents lack any annotation of file plan number or permanent/routine character. These may have been transferred to
the Central Records collection from elsewhere in the University Archives.
These records are arranged into 19 series corresponding to the highest level of the file plan arrangement imposed by the Central
Records Unit based on its file plan. The number sequence that follows each series title indicates the relevant segment of
the file plan.
- Series 0. File Index to the Central Records Unit 0.4 linear ft.
- Series 1. University Affairs (100-149) 0.2 linear ft.
- Series 1a. University Affairs (100-149), additional records 2.4 linear ft.
- Series 2. Personnel (150-299) 2.7 linear ft.
- Series 2a. Personnel (150-299), additional records 23.8 linear ft.
- Series 3. Administrative Activities and Operations (300-399) 21.2 linear ft.
- Series 3a. Administrative Activities and Operations (300-399), additional records 42.4 linear ft.
- Series 4. Academic Affairs (400-449) 10.7 linear ft.
- Series 4a. Academic Affairs (400-449), additional records 8.8 linear ft.
- Series 5. Academic Departments, Schools and Colleges (450-524) 16.5 linear ft.
- Series 5a. Academic Departments, Schools and Colleges (450-524), additional records 28.2 linear ft.
- Series 6. Bureaus, Centers, Institutes, Museums, Organized Research Units and Libraries (525-599) 2.2 linear ft.
- Series 6a. Bureaus, Centers, Institutes, Museums, Organized Research Units and Libraries (525-599), additional records 5.4 linear ft.
- Series 7. Student Affairs (600-639) 4.7 linear ft.
- Series 7a. Student Affairs (600-639), additional records 18.8 linear ft.
- Series 8. Extramural Financial Aids (640-649) 1.6 linear ft.
- Series 8a. Extramural Financial Aids (640-649), additional records 10.6 linear ft.
- Series 9. Alumni Affairs (650-674) 0.2 linear ft.
- Series 9a. Alumni Affairs (650-674), additional records 0.8 linear ft.
- Series 10. Gifts and Endowments (675-679) 0.8 linear ft.
- Series 10a. Gifts and Endowments (675-679), additional records 3.0 linear ft.
- Series 11. University Advancement (680-744) 2.6 linear ft.
- Series 11a. University Advancement (680-744), additional records 11.2 linear ft.
- Series 12. Community Affairs (745-749) 3.2 linear ft.
- Series 12a. Community Affairs (745-749), additional records 2.7 linear ft.
- Series 13. Government Agencies (750-799) 1.6 linear ft.
- Series 13a. Government Agencies (750-799), additional records 0.9 linear ft.
- Series 14. Extramural Contracts and Grants (800-849) 0.8 linear ft.
- Series 14a. Extramural Contracts and Grants (800-849), additional records 6.3 linear ft.
- Series 15. Plant - Planning and Construction (850-879) 16.3 linear ft.
- Series 15a. Plant - Planning and Construction (850-879), additional records 29.2 linear ft.
- Series 16. Plant - Operations (880-914) 0.5 linear ft.
- Series 16a. Plant - Operations (880-914), additional records 11.9 linear ft.
- Series 17. Plant - Non-Instructional Activities (915-949) 1.9 linear ft.
- Series 17a. Plant - Non-Instructional Activities (915-949), additional records 4.8 linear ft.
- Series 18. Chancellor's Personal Files (950-974) 0.6 linear ft.
The file plan is structured in multiple tiers. For example:
- Tier 1 (Series) Personnel (150-299)
- Tier 2 200 Academic
- Tier 3 200-20 Appointment, Promotion, Termination
- Tier 4 200-20-01 General
Each first-tier series heading is followed by inclusive file plan numbers for the entire series. The second-tier three-digit
number represents a more specific section of the series. In the third and fourth tiers, two-digit numbers are added which
represent more specific subject filing within the hierarchy.
Users of the collections should be aware that filers varied in their skill and attention to details of the file plan, and
some items may therefore be filed under a higher "tier" than necessary.
The Central Records file plan has changed over the years; file plan numbers have been deleted and added to accommodate the
changing campus administrative structure. In this collection many file plan numbers have no material filed under them; these
files have not yet been processed, but are available for use through consultation with the University Archivist.
File plan numbers and titles taken from the latest version of the Central Records file plan were used throughout this guide;
obsolete numbers were not utilized. In addition, file plan numbers with no material associated do not appear in this guide.
Central Records numbers 950-974, Chancellor's Personal Files (.04 linear feet) were removed from this collection and filed
in Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich Records (AS-001).