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Cornell University Faculty Minutes Online Collection 1868-2008

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Faculty governance has a long and distinguished history at Cornell University – having been initiated when the first faculty was assembled in 1868 – and has remained active continuously to the present (2011). During the early years the faculty met weekly, but more recently, monthly meetings have been the norm. As the faculty grew, so has the number of faculty who actively participate in governance.

This report contains the written minutes for 2,090 meetings during the past 140 years and has resulted in a lengthy record of 16,049 pages (minutes plus addenda). The scope of the faculty’s attention has varied widely over the years, reflecting changing customs and interests. This compilation is a rich snapshot of Cornell University’s history and hopefully will be utilized as a resource by university historians. This resource is useful also as background in the ongoing process of governance.

All of the minutes for the academic years from 1868 to the present are contained on the DVD from Internet-First University Press as Portable Document Files (PDFs). The Online version excludes years 2009 and 2010.

The Minutes are available for browsing but there is also tools for full-text searching. The document "Faculty Governance Minutes Intro" describes how to use these tools.