Office of University Research Records
Collection
Identifier: Series-0073
The series consists of the records of the Office of University Research as well as earlier files from the Graduate School related to sponsored research and the funding of graduate student stipends. There is some material from the Office of Sponsored Programs from the 1980s and early 1990s concerning financial matters related to research activities such as determination of indirect costs. The bulk of the series are the files created by Director Stanley Nicholas and Associate Director Robert Henningson as well as some material from Jay Gogue, Associate Director, 1986-1989 and Vice President for Research, 1991-1995. The files include correspondence among University administrators and faculty, correspondence from corporate and non-profit sponsors of research at Clemson, minutes and reports of the University Research Committee, some funding proposals and related documentation. There are correspondence, proposals, minutes and reports of the Faculty Research Committee, 1945-1965. Included as well are files documenting the administration of the Claud W. Kress Fund, 1942-1982.
The series is arranged in alphabetical order by folder title and in chronological order within folders. There is a copy file of outgoing correspondence from Nicholas, Henningson and Gogue for 1980-1994 that is organized in chronological order with an alphabetical index.
Access to three folders located in box 36 is restricted.
During much of Clemson's early history, research activities were focused in the College of Agriculture with its federal funding for experiment stations and extension activities. Other faculty occasionally undertook projects and the Sirrine Foundation provided support to the School of Textiles. The Claud W. Kress Foundation's donation in 1940 provided the support for college-wide requests that the Faculty Basic Research Committee reviewed. During the 1950s, the Graduate School began to administer a variety of corporate and federal grants to support graduate students and their research. Efforts to increase research at Clemson were part of its land grant mission to the public as well as its goal to become a university. In 1967 Floyd Brownley, Dean of the Graduate School also became Director of Research with Robert Henningson serving as Assistant Director. Henningson served as Assistant Dean, 1970-1977 and then Associate Dean, 1978-1981. In this capacity he served as liaison with the University Research Grant, Human Subjects Protection and Animal Welfare Committees, managed security clearances, gathered documentation about Clemson faculty research and oversaw a burgeoning number of research grants.
In 1981, the Office of University Research (OUR) was separated from the Graduate School with Stanley Nicholas serving as its Director and Robert Henningson as Associate Director with the responsibility for sponsored research funded by corporate and non-profit organizations. The Office focused upon encouraging research by Clemson faculty with particular emphasis upon increasing funded research in areas such as engineering and science. The Faculty Research Committee renamed the University Research Committee provided small grants to faculty on a competitive basis. In 1986, Robert Henningson retired and G. Jay Gogue became Associate Director. Gogue became Vice President for Research in 1988 upon the retirement of Stanley Nicholas. In 1991 the Office of University Research was reorganized as part of Sponsored Programs Administration with Richard Gray as Director of Proposal Development during the following year.
12.15 Cubic Feet (37 boxes including 1 oversize folder and 1 box of photographs, slides)
English
The records of the Office of University Research primarily document this Office's operations during the period 1981-1992. Beginning in the 1940s, records document the Claud W. Kress Fund's research programs that the Faculty Basic Research Committee oversaw. A variety of files starting from the 1950s relate to corporate grants and donations for funding faculty and graduate student research. The bulk of the records concern the activities of the Director of University Research Stanley Nicholas and Associate Director Robert Henningson from the 1980s with earlier material for Henningson from the 1970s and material from G. Jay Gouge from the 1989-1992. The records document Clemson's activities related to corporate funding of research, cooperative inter-institutional programs such as the Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, and the funding of Clemson faculty research by the University Research grants and Provost's Research Awards.
Some of the earlier accessions were acquired directly from the Office of University Research during the initial survey of campus records in the 1980s. Later accessions came through the Records Center from that Office and the Office of Sponsored Programs.
Accession numbers: The following accessions have totally been incorporated into this series: 86-92, 88-27, 88-85, 88-101, 89-69, 89-71, 90-19, 92-19, 94-107, 96-60, 96-73, 96-114, and 99-58. In addition, parts of the following accessions have been processed into this series: 96-113, 00-19, and 01-38. A total of 39 cubic feet of material was processed.
Michael Kohl, Unit Head of Special Collections, processed these records in 2001-2002 with help from student assistant Jill Constante.
The conversion of this finding aid to Encoded Archival Description format was made possible with a grant from the South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board in 2009-2010. The finding aid was prepared for encoding by Kristi Roberts.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository