The Sigma Delta Chi Oregon State Chapter Records document the membership and activities of the student chapter of the national professional fraternity in journalism, primarily for the 1920s and 1930s. The records include correspondence, membership rosters, reports, publications, and a constitution. Much of the correpondence pertains to the establishment of the chapter in 1920 and membership management. The correspondence also documents an annual competition for high school yearbooks (annuals) sponsored by the chapter, the Sigma Delta Chi scholarship award, and activities of the national organization. The reports provide information about members, chapter finances, and meeting speakers and topics. The collection also includes reports from the national secretary distributed at the 1931 national convention. The publications include a compilation, Selections from "Smudge from the Pot", of poems and humor originally published in the campus newspaper.
An addition to the Sigma Delta Chi Records (Accession 2012:076) consists of chapter reports, circular letters, correspondence, meeting minutes, membership cards/certificates, membership lists, a presidential notebook, publications, receipts, a remittance ledger, and a scrapbook. The notebook consists of a combination of correspondence, procedural guidelines, circular letters, budgetary information, and an annual report. Mostly made up of newspaper clippings documenting stories about Sigma Delta Chi members and chapter activities, the scrapbook also contains photographs, newsletters, and circular letters. Among the items reflecting the national Sigma Delta Chi organization include circular letters sent to chapters and materials from the annual Sigma Delta Chi national conventions. The publications include a history of Sigma Delta Chi published in the organization's magazine "The Quill."
A second addition to the records (Accession 2014:080) is made up of a certificate, correspondence, meeting minutes, a membership ledger, newspaper clippings, publications, and reports. Interfiled among the correspondence are annual convention reports, chapter reports, membership lists, publications, and treasurer's reports.The publications include copies of the SDC newsletter The Industrial Journalist, issues of the Barometer newspaper edited by SDC, the chapter's parody editions of the campus newspaper (The Thermometer and The Seismograph, and copies of publications from other SDC chapters collected during annual conventions.