RECORD GROUP 2

Boston State College

Sub-Record Group 1

The committee of Seven

Series 1  Background Material

Series 2  Work of the Committee

Series 3  The Report

Sub-Record Group 2

Reorganization of State Higher Education in Boston

Series 1  Legislative Documents

Series 2  Background Material

Series 3  Boston State College

Series 4  Reorganization

Series 5  Dr. Moon’s material

Record Group 2 consists of a large body of material relating to Dr. Moon’s time as a Faculty member at Boston State College.  There are two sub-record groups: the first dealing with the work of the Committee of Seven of which Dr. Moon was the chairman; and the second dealing with the reorganization of state higher education in Boston, a reorganization that led to the closing of Boston State College in 1982.

The Committee of Seven sub-record group is divided into three series:  background material, the work of the committee, and the report of the committee.  The Committee of Seven was appointed in December 1976 by the Executive Council of the Boston State Faculty Federation and charged with inquiring into the management and administration of the college, then headed by President Kermit C. Morrissey.  Background material includes items such as the Faculty Handbook, annual reports, and a draft master plan.  Of particular interest are the responses to the questionnaire used by the committee, and the testimony taken from interviews, including one with President Morrissey.  Other material includes minutes of the mcommittee’s meetings and documents collected for its report.  There is extensive draft material of the report itself with revisions and corrections.  There is a version of the report dated September 1977, and a final version dated October 1977.  Newspaper clippings on the events at Boston State College and various issues of the campus newspaper round out the material of this sub-record group.  One of the results of the committee’s report was a faculty vote of no confidence in the administration of President Morrissey.

The second sub-record group consists of material dealing with the reorganization of state higher education in Boston in the early 1980’s.  There are five series as follows:  legislative documents; background material; Boston State College; Reorganization; and Dr. Moon’s material on the whole reorganization process.  This process was political from the start involving the Board of Regents for Higher Education on the one hand and the State Legislature on the other with Boston State College caught in between.  Legislative documents include budget proposals, House bills, chapters from the Acts and Resolves, etc.  Background material includes material from educational organizations such as the Massachusetts State College Association and the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA).  Other background material pertains to Boston State College and there is, perforce, an overlap with the material dealing with the impact of reorganization on the college itself.  Material on the college includes minutes from  various faculty meetings, items from student opposition to reorganization plans, stories from the college newspapers, and a variety of miscellaneous documents.  On reorganization itself there is a valuable “history” of such attempts from 1960-1980, and a chronology for 1980-81.  There are also copies of a number of “plans” for reshaping public higher education in the Boston area.  There is extensive material from the Board of Regents, and specialized material such as the correspondence of the MTA’s consultant for higher education.  The “survivor” of reorganization was UMASS/Boston and there is a variety of material on that institution.  Finally, there are a number of articles and news stories on the reorganization process.

Dr. Moon’s material consists of items stemming from his position at the time as President of the Boston State College Faculty Association.  There are also numerous memos, speeches, drafts, notes, etc.  Of greatest value, however, is Dr. Mann’s three volume compilation, The Closing of Boston State College:  A Documentary Account (1991/95).  The documents in these volumes chronicle, as Dr. Moon puts it, “the terrible events that led to the death of an institution of higher learnings.  May they serve as a memorial to the human cost entailed in a cruel and callous public act.”