Presidential Search Committee Records, 1969-1970

The Presidential Search Committee Records consist of materials assembled and created by the Executive Secretary of the Committee, Robert L. Phillips, in the course of the Committee’s work in 1969-1970 to conduct a search for the President of Oregon State University.  The bulk of the materials pertain to the preliminary and on-campus interviews of Robert W. MacVicar, assessments of MacVicar, and announcements of MacVicar’s selection to be the 11th President of Oregon State University.

Materials pertaining to MacVicar include initial correspondence with him in May 1969, assessments of MacVicar prepared by a subset of the Committee that met with him in St. Louis in September 1969, schedules and other details for his on-campus interview in November, and assessments of MacVicar by several Committee members.  Of special note in these materials are an assessment by a student member of the Presidential Search Committee -- Stephen C. Downs, a senior in Engineering -- and a list of the individuals scheduled to meet with MacVicar when he was on campus that included students, faculty, academic deans and administrators, members of the Search Committee, and members of the University Goals Commission.

The collection also includes correspondence and related materials pertaining to local arrangements for on-campus interviews, minutes and associated procedural documents of the Committee, and a 2-page mimeographed document, “Oregon State University in the 1970s: Challenges for the President”.

Finally, the records include press clippings pertaining to the search and selection of MacVicar; the February 3, 1970 issue of the Barometer campus newspaper featuring several cover articles about MacVicar’s selection as Oregon State President, and a biographical sketch and personal vitae for MacVicar.  The vitae indicates that MacVicar’s mother was Native American and his father Canadian.