Educational Activities Committee Records, 1972-2015

Series 1 comprises a large part of this collection and consists of annual binders for 1997-1998 through 2013-2014. Each binder covers one academic/fiscal year. Notebooks for a given year may have been created and maintained by the Committee Chair, a faculty or student member on the Committee, or staff supporting the work of the Educational Activities Committee. Consequently, there are multiple notebooks for each year which provide different perspectives through written comments and questions as well as the specific issues and topics of interest and concern to the creator of the binder. These binders typically include: the detailed budget for the Committee, approved budgets for student and university organizations and programs, the request forms submitted by these organizations and programs, guidelines, expectations and rules, as well as minutes, agendas, and other administrative records documenting the functioning of the organization.

Series 2 consists primarily of budget requests from the organizations and departments funded by student fees, including the Associated Students of OSU (ASOSU), Student Media, Music Department, University Theater, and a myriad of student clubs and organizations. These requests document how organizations had used previously allocated funds and justifications for increases in their annual budget allocation. All requests include a detailed expense budgets well as their historic approved, actual, and requested budgets for several years.

Series 3 consists of minutes and agendas for Educational Activities Committee meetings for the 1999-2000 through 2013. The documents includes lists of Committee members, meeting attendees, and a record of discussion and decisions reached by the Committee.

Series 4 consists of the Financial Guidelines published annually for the 1998-1999 through 2013-2014 academic years. Copies of these guidelines are occasionally included with the associated year's records in Series 1 or 2. Guidelines for all years are included except for the 2004-2005 year. The purposes of the Guidelines were to assist “student organizations with their financial needs” and serve as an “overview of policy and procedures that Educational Activities and Oregon State University hold for spending student fee monies.”

Series 5 documents the work of the Summer Commission which was convened in the summer of 2011 to “look at topics that the committee [did] not [have] time to review over the years.” It includes three copies of the Commission's binder as well as paperwork for the summer commission, a history of student fees, and recreational sports paperwork. The history of student fees, a 1996 Oregon Student Lobby publication, is framed as “an analysis of the history, current status and suggested reforms of Oregon laws pertaining to student fees.”

Series 6 consists primarily of reference materials and topical files assembled by Committee chairs and staff pertaining to the allocations of student fees and the functioning of the Educational Activities Committee. Of special note are materials documenting the 1972 ASOSU Ad Hoc Committee on Activity Grants which lead to the establishment of the Educational Activities Committee. Most of the materials in the series are from the 1990s-2000s.