Office of the Registrar Records

Collection

Identifier: RG 27

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The records of the Office of the Registrar (1859-1987) document the multiple functions of the office: registration of students in classes; assigning of classroom space; initiation of student billing; transfer of credit from other institutions; recommendation of degree candidates; reporting of grades; and reporting, through its annual reports, on academic performance. The collection consists primarily of student grade records (1859-1939) in ledger, card, and transcript format. The remainder of the collection includes a small amount of administrative files from the registrars of Oberlin’s three divisions, the College of Arts and Sciences (1894-1987), the Conservatory of Music (1958-68), and the Graduate School of Theology (1963-68). Files include class schedules, degree-authorization forms, program information, and billing records. Missing are records for the Conservatory registrars John C. Kennedy (1939-42, 1952-59) and his predecessor, Mabel D. Brown (1916-38). Also missing are the early records (1937-63) of Graduate School of Theology Registrar (1956-66), Gertrude F. Jacob.

The collection is divided into three subgroups alphabetically arranged: I. Administrative Files of the Registrar, College of Arts and Sciences; II. Records of the Registrars of the Conservatory of Music and Graduate School of Theology; and III. Student Grade Records. Within series, files are typically arranged alphabetically and there under chronologically. In Series III, records are arranged by format in the following order: ledgers, cards, and transcripts. A full listing of these materials is included in the appended Inventory.

The administrative files of Series I include annual reports, statistical studies, correspondence, committee records, and student applications to summer foreign language programs. The annual reports cover the periods 1939-58, 1960-78, and 1981-87, with gaps for 1958/59, 1978/79, and 1979/80. Each report consists of numerous individual studies on such characteristics of the graduating class as attrition, number of degrees awarded, parental occupations, grade distribution and averages, faculty teaching load, and course enrollments. Statistical studies on enrollment and class rankings exist for the years 1920-49 and 1961-67. Of related interest are files (1932-36) describing Oberlin’s move to a numerical ranking system under the guidance of Donald M. Love, Registrar from 1929-35 and 1937-38.

The records of several committees (1894-1946) are also housed in Subgroup I. They reveal not only stringent academic standards but also the college’s early record-keeping and enforcement practices. The files of the Committee on Failure in Scholarship (1908-12) contain letters of warning from Committee Chairman Edward Alanson Miller (1866-1958) to the parents of failing students. The work of the Committee on Substitutions is documented by entries in record books indicating committee approval for substitutions of one course for another. Files of the Faculty Committee on Graduate Study and Degrees (1896-1926) include student applications, letters of recommendation, and committee correspondence.

Three-fourths of the collection consists of 67 volumes of student grade ledgers (1859-1939), grade cards (1850-80) for the Collegiate department and Conservatory, and Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School transcripts, ca. 1890-1930. These records list student names, grades, home addresses, Oberlin addresses, place and date of birth, and preparatory school. They provide a valuable resource for the study of student profiles and academic achievement over an eighty-year period. The following degrees have been awarded at Oberlin College:

AB: The Bachelor of Arts degree was awarded upon completion of the Classical Course; it was the only degree awarded at Oberlin until 1873. It remains the only degree conferred by the College of Arts and Sciences.

SB: The Bachelor of Science degree was first awarded in 1873 to the first student completing the Scientific Course. Before the course was dropped in 1900, thirty students received this degree.

AM, SM: These degrees were first announced in the catalog for academic year 1871/72. They were awarded to students holding the AB degree who pursued advanced work in literary or scientific fields and who were of good character.

PhB: The Bachelor of Philosophy was granted from 1887 to 1901 to those completing a variant of the Classical Course.

Lit, LB: The designation "Lit." applies to those graduates who completed the work of the Ladies Course from 1836 to 1874, and the Literary Course from 1875 to 1894. These graduates received diplomas only and were not awarded degrees until 1894, when the LB was granted to those who applied for it.

Dates

Creation: 1859 - 1999

Creator

Oberlin College Office of the Registrar (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Restricted: Sugroup III by permission of the Archivist.

Administrative History

The first reference to an Oberlin College Registrar appears in the Catalog of the Officers and Students of Oberlin College, 1887/88. Students wishing general information regarding degrees and diplomas are invited to address the College Registrar, Albert Allen Wright (1846-1905), Professor of Geology and Natural History. Prior to the appointment of faculty registrars, prospective students wrote to the Secretary of the College. At the Graduate School of Theology, students made application to the Junior or Senior Dean; from 1944 until 1966, Gertrude Fisher Jacob (d. 1989) served as the seminary's Secretary and Recorder and then as its Registrar.

In 1905, Assistant Registrar Flora Isabel Wolcott (1864-1942, LB 1884) was named the first full-time Registrar of the college. Since 1891, she had provided support to a series of six faculty registrars who succeeded each other rapidly within sixteen years. After Albert Allen Wright (1889-90), faculty registrars included Henry Churchill King (1890-93), Fred Eugene Leonard (1893-1900), Frederick Orville Grover (1900-01), Lyman Bronson Hall (1901-03), and Charles H.A. Wager (1903-05).

During Flora Wolcott's tenure (1905-29), the position of Registrar continued to be that of recorder and records custodian. Accuracy and attention to endless detail were necessary, as the use of forms had not yet become routine. Student grades and information relating to student academic performance were entered by hand into bound books. Such information was supplied by faculty members and those committees concerned to uphold academic standards, including the Committee on Additional Work and Substitutions and the Committee on Failure in Scholarship.

Donald Melbourne Love (1893-1974, AB 1916) succeeded Flora Wolcott as Registrar, serving from 1929 to 1935. Love introduced a new and revolutionary system of grading which went into effect in academic year 1931/32. Under the plan, passing work was to be evaluated on a relative rather than absolute basis. Each student was given his class rank in terms of a number from 85 to 15, with the letter grades F and E retained to designate failure or the need for reexamination.

Implementation of the new grading system was one of several changes which occurred in the Registrar's Office while Donald M. Love served as Secretary of the College. Love's successor as Registrar was Edith Stanley (1892-1955). Stanley was hired to modernize an obsolete office by establishing a vertical file system of records. This required typing hundreds of hand-written records onto filing cards. In addition to her clerical duties, Stanley developed strong collegial relationships which had the effect of making the Registrar a visible presence on campus.

Stanley's twenty-year service to Oberlin was interrupted by her death in 1955. Then followed an eight-year period of rapid changeover in personnel. John C. Kennedy (b. 1904, AB 1927), Registrar at the Conservatory of Music from 1939 to 1942 and from 1952 to 1959, became Acting Registrar in 1955 and was appointed Registrar in 1956. Kennedy was the first individual to hold the dual positions of college and conservatory registrar. Following his departure in 1959, the registrar of the college also served the Conservatory of Music. George H. Langeler (b. 1927), Acting Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, replaced Kennedy on a two-year appointment. In 1963, the Office of Admissions changed its name to the Office of Admissions and Academic Records, thus bringing the recording function under the titular supervision of William A. Richardson (1962/63) and then of Robert Lodington Jackson (d. 1989), Director of Admissions since 1949.

In 1969, the office of the Registrar emerged from its six-year placement under the aegis of the Office of Admissions and Academic Records. The office moved into its own space in Peters Hall, leaving the Admissions Office in the Administration Building. Charles Wantman (b. 1942, AB 1963) became Registrar. In collaboration with Provost John W. Kneller (b. 1916), Wantman outlined new functions for the Registrar's Office. These included the streamlining of office procedure through the addition of computers and the establishment of an online data bank to enhance institutional research at Oberlin. The first terminals arrived in 1978.

The changeover to a fully automated system required several years to complete and was set back by frequent changes in personnel. Several registrars served brief terms, creating discontinuity in the office. Following Wantman's resignation in 1971, Assistant Professor of Physics David C. Montgomery (b. 1938) was named Registrar and Assistant Provost. During his two-year tenure, Montgomery developed new automated collection and retrieval systems. On Montgomery's promotion to Director of Institutional Research and Planning in 1973, Robert Jackson assumed the position of Registrar. Jackson presided over the continuing transfer of the card-based registration and record-keeping system to a computer-based system. He brought years of experience in the Admissions Office to his registrar duties and provided needed continuity in the office.

On Jackson's retirement in 1981, Douglass S. Gardner was appointed Registrar. He served until 1987, when Assistant Registrar Lori Gumpf was named Acting Registrar by President S. Frederick Starr; she was promoted to Registrar in 1988. Still to be completed is an upgraded student records computing system; its operation is foreseen for the fall of 1992.

In 2001, Registrar Lori Gumpf moved to the Department of Human Resources. Elizabeth S. Clerkin was appointed Registrar.

Registrars of Oberlin College

1889-1890: Albert Allen Wright

1890-1893: Henry Churchill King

1893-1900: Fred Eugene Leonard

1900-1901: Frederick Orville Grover

1901-1903: Lyman Bronson Grover

1903-1905: Charles Henry A. Wager

1905-1929: Flora Isabel Wolcott

1929-1935: Donald Melbourne Love

1935-1955: Edith Stanley

1955-1959: John Cecil Kennedy

1959-1961: George H. Langeler

1961-1963: William A. Richardson

1963-1969: Robert Lodington Jackson

1969-1971: Charles Wantman

1971-1973: David C. Montgomery

1973-1981: Robert Londington Jackson

1981-1987: Douglass S. Gardner

1987-2001: Lori Gumpf

2001- : Elizabeth S. Clerkin

Registrars, Conservatory of Music

1916-1938: Mabel D. Brown

1939-1942: John C. Kennedy

1942-1944: Katherine M. Eide

1952-1959: John C. Kennedy

Registrars, Graduate School of Theology

1956-1966: Gertrude Fisher Jacob

Extent

38.05 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Method of Acquisition

The records of the Office of the Registrar were received by the Oberlin College Archives in four separate accessions. The grade ledgers arrived in 1975; the card files and OKTPS transcripts arrived in 1976, records of the Committee on Graduate Study arrived in 1981, and the administrative files arrived in 1991. Additional records were received from the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2015, and Special Collections in 2021.

Accruals and Additions

Accession Nos: 271, 1976/37, 1981/19, 1991/40, 1992/111, 1994/103, 2015/027 (partially processed), 2021/011.

Related Materials

For the Registrar’s Annual Reports to the President for 1919/20-1937/38, consult the records of the Office of the Secretary, Record Group 5. Also consult related materials in the Office of the Treasurer, Record Group 7. The records of the Office of Admissions (25) contain student applications for the College of Arts and Sciences, 1902-48, and for the Conservatory of Music, 1905-56. Both the annual reports and statistical reports of the Office of Admissions bear upon the work of the Registrar, given the close association between the two offices throughout their existence. The records of the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School (24) include student records.