Summary
Overview
Princeton University. Office of the President.
Office of the President Records: Robert F. Goheen Subgroup
1924-1988 (mostly 1957-1972)
243.21 linear feet, 531 archival boxes, 32 5 1/2" x12 1/4" x3 1/4" archival boxes, three 11 1/4" x 14 1/2" x 1 1/2" boxes, 3 records center boxes, and one 14 3/4" x 14 3/4" x 1 1/2" box
Abstract
The records of the Office of President Goheen contain the files of the President's Office during the administration of President Robert F. Goheen (1957-1972). The collection contains eighteen series, which consist of correspondence and memoranda, reports, speeches, publications, and related materials, which were created or received by Robert Goheen and other members of the President's office.
Description
Description
The collection contains eighteen series, which consist of correspondence and memoranda, reports, speeches, publications, and related materials, which were created or received by Robert Goheen and other members of the President's office. The filing system was shared by Ricardo A. Mestres, Financial Vice-President and Treasurer, and Edgar M. Gemmell, Administrative Vice-President. In addition, Series 18 includes the files of two assistants to the president. Some of the speeches in series 8E were replaced by speaking copies, found among Goheen's personal papers, which were donated to the Seeley G. Mudd Library in 2002 (MC 204). The office's index cards to the records can be found in Series 18F. Because of the presence of index cards to the records (Series 18F), folder titles have been kept intact as much as possible. Subcategories are indicated with double hyphens in the finding aid (for instance “Art and Archaeology–Art Museum–Security”). Each series or subseries starts with “general” files, which are followed by alphabetical files. When the word “general” was used as a sub-title in the original filing system, it was taken out.
Collection Creator
History
On December 8, 1956, the Board of Trustees of Princeton University unanimously elected Robert Francis Goheen to the presidency of Princeton University. At 37, Goheen, who was Assistant Professor of Classics at the time, was the youngest president in the history of the University since the eighteenth century. He was to replace the retiring Harold Willis Dodds, who had been president since 1933.
The election ended a one-and-a-half year search among the country's leaders in education. In the three years preceding his election, Goheen had served as director of the National Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program. This program, established in Princeton in 1945 to encourage World War II veterans to pursue a career in teaching, had been operating on a national scale since 1952. The experience paved a career path for Goheen, who himself was one of the first recipients of the fellowship when he returned from War service in 1945.
Robert Francis (Bob) Goheen was born in India in August 1919, where his father was a Presbyterian medical missionary. He lived in India until he was fifteen, when he enrolled in the Lawrenceville School, graduating two years later. He entered Princeton University as a member of the class of 1940, and graduated with Highest Honors in the Humanities Program. After one year of graduate study with the Department of Classics, Goheen joined the Army in November 1941, five months after he married. He continued his graduate studies after the War, and was awarded an M.A. in 1947 and a Ph.D. in 1948. Following his doctorate, he was immediately appointed as an Instructor in the Department of Classics, and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1950.
Goheen assumed office in July 1957. The fifteen years of his presidency span a period of immense growth and change. In a massive building program, funded by a vigorous capital gift campaign during the first years of his administration, some 25 buildings were added on the main campus alone, almost doubling the square footage of occupied space. The University's financial resources increased substantially as well. The faculty grew from under 500 to 700, which included an additional 20 endowed chairs, and the annual budget quadrupled from $20 to $80 million. The undergraduate enrollment increased by a third to almost 4,000 due to active recruitment among minority students and the admission of women students in 1969. In addition, the number of graduate students more than doubled.
The recruitment of minorities and the introduction of coeducation were only some of the ways in which the Goheen administration responded to the changing social and political climate of the 1960s. Among other measures, students were given more opportunities to be involved in the decision making processes on campus. In May 1969 the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) was established, in which students, faculty, alumni, and staff could discuss and make decisions about various University matters. Around the same time substantial changes were made to status of the Reserve Officers Trainings Corps (ROTC), subject of heated discussion on campus, particularly since the Vietnam War. Robert Goheen was one of thirty-seven University presidents who petitioned for an end to American military involvement in Indochina.
When Nixon announced the American Invasion into Cambodia on April 30, 1970, Princeton students moved to the forefront of the American anti-war movement. A call for a general “strike against war” was endorsed by a meeting of 4,000 students, faculty and staff members in the Jadwin Gym on May 4. At the same mass assembly the Princeton Movement for a New Congress (MNC) was created. While strikes and riots swept across American campuses, the student protests in Princeton and sit-ins at the Institute of Defense Analysis (IDA) remained peaceful. Although Goheen was heavily criticized by conservative alumni, it has been ascribed to his wisdom and flexibility that Princeton was able to avoid the turmoil and violence which occurred elsewhere.
After the summer a rearrangement of the academic calendar allowed students to campaign in the two weeks preceding the November 1970 congressional elections. The campus, however, had quieted down. Goheen announced his resignation on March 25, 1971. “I feel I have given Princeton what I have to give, that it deserves and will profit from fresh leadership to take it through the next ten to fifteen years,” said Goheen (Princeton Alumni Weekly, April 13, 1971). After retirement he became president of the Council on Foundations in 1972. In 1977 Goheen returned to his country of birth as the United States Ambassador to India, a post in which he remained until 1980. He became a senior fellow of the Woodrow Wilson School after his return.
Robert Goheen married Margaret M. Skelly in 1941, and they had six children.
Collection History
Acquisition
The records were transferred from the Office of the President to the University Archives in two installments. A small amount of university records have been added from Goheen's private papers.
A third transfer, consisting of files maintained by Goheen assistant Edgar M. Gemmell, was received in September 2008.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Helene van Rossum and Rosalba Varallo in 2004-2005 with the help of Catherine Malina '05, Evgenia Raikh '07, Lindsey Huddle '07, Sarah Greer '06, and Janaya Kizzie. Finding aid written by Helene van Rossum and Rosalba Varallo in 2004-2005.
Bibliography
For biographical information see 'Princeton's Goheen Years,' Daily Princetonian, Vol. XCV, No 70 (May, 1971), 'The New President,' Princeton Alumni Weekly, Vol. LVII, no 13 (January 18, 1957), and biographical materials and clippings in Series 8.2.
Access and Use
Access Restrictions
Material in the collection is restricted for forty years. The contents of a folder may not be viewed until forty years after the most recent date marked on the folder. Subseries 2.1 (Administrative–Board of Trustees) is restricted for fifty years, and Subseries 16.2 (Students–A-Z) for 75 years. Restrictions beyond forty years are noted in the relevant series descriptions, in the folder list, and on the relevant boxes and folders. Subseries 8.2 (Personal–Biographical) and Subseries 19.1 (Photographs and Audiovisual–Photographs) are open immediately with no restrictions.
Use Restrictions
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the University Archivist. Copyright is held by the Trustees of Princeton University.
Preferred Citation
Office of the President Records: Robert F. Goheen Subgroup; 1924-1988 (mostly 1957-1972), Princeton University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
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