Subseries 2A: General, 1972-1975, contains records applying generally to the University administration, such as material concerning the recruitment and inclusion of women as administrators.

Subseries 2B: Board of Trustees, 1972-1988, consists of the records of the president's office regarding the Board of Trustees. The bulk of these files pertain to specific trustee committees and include agendas, minutes, correspondence with members, reports, and so on, but the subseries also contains detailed minutes, agendas, notes on meetings of the full board of trustees, and files on individual trustees.

Subseries 2C: Committees, 1971-1988, is divided into three runs: advisory committees, special committees, and standing committees. Standing advisory committees are filed under standing committees. Folders contain committee agendas, minutes, reports, correspondence with committee members, and clippings related to the committees' areas of responsibility. Because personal information about specific students is restricted by law, files on the judicial committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community (box 91, folders 1 through 3) are closed for 75 years.

Subseries 2D: Departments, 1970-1988, consists of records pertaining to administrative departments and offices, including memoranda and correspondence regarding policy questions and programming, personnel decisions, budget negotiations, and student and alumni relations. Annual reports to the president by administrative departments, when they were issued, are also filed here. Records of controversial issues involving administrative departments or offices include the debate over sex education at the health services department and the food services strike. The files on the admission office are particularly detailed, including admission policy debates, correspondence with prospective students, and contentious admission cases. Of particular interest among these are the folders on coeducation. Because personal information about specific students is restricted by law, all files on applicants (box 99, folder 3 through box 104, folder 11) are closed for 75 years or until the death of the student.

Subseries 2E: Legal, 1972-1987, is divided into two parts: cases and legislation. The cases run contains material related to lawsuits involving the University. While the president was not involved in the day-to-day operation of the University's legal defense, he did involve himself in the most high-profile cases; especially decisions about when to settle out-of-court, how to handle cases from a public relations standpoint, and whether to testify himself. The legislation run contains material relating to the establishment of new federal and state laws and compliance with existing ones. The University was particularly interested in laws affecting public funding of private universities and research, laws enforcing equal opportunity and treatment, and tax laws affecting private donations. Bowen maintained especially strong and sometimes personal relations with members of Congress who were Princeton alumni or who represented New Jersey, and often lobbied them particularly. These files include significant correspondence with Senators Bill Bradley '65 (D-NJ), John Danforth '58 (R-MO), Claiborne Pell '40 (D-RI), Paul Sarbanes '54 (D-MD), and Harrison Williams H'82 (D-NJ), as well as Representatives Millicent Fenwick H'85 (R-NJ), James Howard (D-NJ), and James Leach '65 (R-IA).

Subseries 2F: President's Office, 1972-1988, contains correspondence between the president and various external organizations, businesses, institutions, conference organizers, and individuals. In addition to correspondence, some files contain internal memoranda and notes regarding University policy and involvement with these external groups. Other functions and products of the president's office are documented here, too, such as Bowen's response to the University of California v. Bakke Supreme Court decision (and related correspondence), requests for grants and loans from the President's Contingency Fund, and correspondence related to the president's relationship with the J. P. Stevens Company. Most of the files beginning with the letters A through E are missing.

Subseries 2G: Visits, 1972-1987, contains correspondence, schedules, memoranda, and clippings related to official visits to Princeton by foreign and American dignitaries and delegations, such as Lord Mountbatten, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Secretary of State George Shultz '42, and a delegation from Peking University.