The Administrative series contains records of the Department of Oriental Studies which are unrelated to graduate and undergraduate instruction. They include the correspondence of the department's office and chairmen, much of which is with University administrators, academics, and other parties. Also included are files pertaining to conferences sponsored by the Department which include lists of sessions, talks given, and in some cases transcripts of remarks. The most heavily documented conference is the "Near Eastern Culture and Society" conference given in 1947 as part of the University's Bicentennial Conferences series. The third component of the Administrative series is general subject files, containing correspondence, printed materials, clippings, and other documents regarding a single topic, organization, or individual. These range from interdepartmental matters such as financial accounts and inquiries for teaching positions to more far-reaching topics such as embassies and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Courses and Students series contains records which document the Department of Oriental Studies' instructional activities, as related to undergraduate students, graduate students, and special programs. Included in this series are submitted junior papers (most from the 1960-1961 school year), applications for graduate admission, and records of the Summer Seminar in Arabic and Islamic Studies as well as the Summer Language Program, a later endeavor funded by the National Defense Education Act. The series also includes two sets of research papers used in a seminar series and conference on Turkey and the U.A.R. in 1964.