Series 8, Subseries 1, Administration, 1950-1961, houses such items as correspondence, memoranda, clippings, notes, position papers, reports, program statements, and articles. The Basic Issues program was the result of Hutchins's desire to establish a Platonic academy. This subseries details the formulation of the program, from Hutchins's early ideas through his struggle to have the Board validate his plan. Initially, the Fund enlisted ten men to conduct an extensive inquiry into the effect institutions had on individual freedom and civil liberties within the United States. They chose six institutions for initial study which follow in the subsequent subseries. The Consultants included: Adolph A. Berle, Jr., Scott Buchanan, Eugene Burdick, Eric F. Goldman, Clark Kerr, Henry R. Luce, John Courtney Murray, Reinhold Niebuhr, I.I. Rabi, and Robert Redfield. As the program grew, more scholars were invited to attend the sessions, present papers, and conduct studies on topics the Consultants hoped would aid them in their task of clarification.

The Basic Issues program produced, in conjunction with the American Broadcasting Company, a series of thirteen Mike Wallace interviews to stimulate public discussion on the basic issues of survival and freedom in America. Entitled Survival and Freedom, Wallace interviewed such personalities as Mortimer Adler, Harry Ashmore, James McBride Dabbs, William O. Douglas, Cyrus Eaton, Erich Fromm, Robert M. Hutchins, Aldous Huxley, Henry Kissinger, Francis J. Lally, Arthur Larson, Henry Cabot Lodge, Reinhold Niebuhr, Charles Percy, Adlai E. Stevenson, Sylvester Weaver, Jr., and Henry Wriston. Each interview, except for the Lodge interview, was printed in pamphlet form and distributed free of charge to all those expressing interest. ABC canceled the Lodge interview after Lodge insisted on deletions in the program. ABC declared editing public information programs after they had been completed was against company policy, and it constituted editorial censorship. Although it is not clear which statements Lodge sought to delete, a transcript of his interview is included in the file.