© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library
© 2007 University of Chicago Library
Series I, III and IV are open for research, with no restrictions.
Series II: Appointments and Budgets, is restricted until 2025.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: University of Chicago. Office of the President. Levi Administration. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Edward H. Levi (1911-2000) received his entire education within the University of Chicago system. As a boy, he attended the Laboratory School, before enrolling in the College and the Law School. Upon earning his law degree in 1935, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Law School. Throughout the 1940s, Levi worked in Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Justice Department, specializing in antitrust law and atomic energy control.
In 1950, Robert Maynard Hutchins named Levi to the Deanship of the University of Chicago Law School. During his tenure, he greatly increased the program's stature, raising funds to build a new law campus south of the Midway and hiring several prominent new faculty members. When George W. Beadle became President of the University in 1961, he named Levi as Provost. In this role, Levi oversaw expansion and development in curriculum, facilities, and divisional organization.
Levi succeeded Beadle as President of the University in 1968, taking office in a politically-charged atmosphere immediately following the student riots that accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Throughout the many protests staged during his tenure, including a two-week student occupation of the Administration Building, Levi maintained that the University's primary commitment should remain the pursuit of knowledge and dedication to reason. He wrote, "While its faculty and students will individually respond to a variety of political and social commitments, the purpose of the University continues to be intellectual, not moral."
Under Levi's leadership, the University's undergraduate curriculum underwent significant changes. The College was divided into four Collegiate Divisions, which were affiliated with the four Graduate Divisions. Additionally, the University added a fifth, interdisciplinary New Collegiate Division. The Levi administration also facilitated the rearrangement of general education courses into a "common year" of requirements for incoming students and a second year of advanced general courses to be completed later. These requirements became the basis for the College's celebrated "Common Core," allowing for both a broad general education and disciplinary specialization for all undergraduates.
During Levi's tenure, the University also completed the Joseph Regenstein Library. Although fundraising for the building was primarily completed by the Beadle administration, Levi oversaw the construction of the building from groundbreaking in 1968 to its dedication in 1970. At the cornerstone-laying ceremony in 1968, Levi said, "I cannot imagine an event in the history of The University of Chicago which is more important than this one. Few events can be more symbolically important for our society. We live in a time which needs to find itself. It cannot find itself unless it looks back to the roots of its history, its culture, its tradition. It is this library which will represent and make available that culture and that tradition."
After the Watergate scandal, Levi was appointed United States Attorney General by President Gerald Ford. After earning Senate confirmation, Levi resigned as President of the University in 1975. As Attorney General, he imposed significant limits on the power of the FBI to use secret evidence-gathering techniques. He also lobbied President Ford to appoint John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1977, Levi returned to the University as a Professor of Law, and he remained active as a lecturer through the 1980s. He was also named President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Levi died of Alzheimer's disease in 2000.
The records of the Office of the President, Levi Administration, represent the activities of Edward H. Levi as President, his immediate circle of Central Administration associates, and personnel in the University of Chicago's divisions, departments, committees, and other administrative units. The collection thus constitutes not only documentation of the Office of the President, but a varied record of the administrative workings of the university.
While most of the documents in the collection date from the years in which Levi served as President, material dating to earlier administrations can also be found - staff of the office often collected such material for internal research, or to provide historical or biographical context for a current topic.
The collection is divided into four series. This organization, including the file headings themselves, is generally consistent with the original arrangement of files kept by staff in the Office of the President.
Series I, General Files, contains a wide variety of correspondence, publications, reports, minutes and other administrative material. The series is arranged alphabetically by topic. File headings include personal names, administrative units, and topical terms. Headings are sometimes very general ("Unitarians") while others are quite precise ("Buildings, campus, Administration Building, elevator problems").
Series II contains budgets and letters of appointment, also arranged alphabetically; headings generally correspond to the name of individual administrative units such as departments, divisions, and schools. Related correspondence, notes and drafts are also filed with appointments and budgets.
Series III includes correspondence files from several offices central to the Levi administration. In addition to correspondence to and from Levi himself at the Office of the President, it also contains letters from Levi's assistant, Jonathan Kleinbard; from Provost John T. Wilson and his assistant, Ben Rothblatt; and from Vice President and Dean of Faculties, D. Gale Johnson. Correspondence of key administrators is also distributed across the collection, some of it located under the name of the individual and some under the name of a department, school, or other institutional unit. To search for the correspondence of important administrators, the researcher will need to be aware of which administrative responsibilities each held and locate headings in the inventory related to those roles.
Series IV is a small oversized series containing materials related to the election and inauguration of Levi as President of the University. It holds two large binders which contain letters, photographs, invitations, and other memorabilia.
Most researchers will find it necessary to browse or keyword-search the inventory in order to identify files relevant to a specific subject. For example, a study of student demonstrations might involve consultation of Series I files such as "Demonstrations, Administration Building sit-in, photos," "Disciplinary Procedures, Committee and Sub-committee on, Faculty-Student," "Dixon, Marlene, Committee to review the decision with respect to reappointment," "Students for a Democratic Society," and so on.
The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections: