Access is granted in accordance with the
Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center.
PROVENANCE
Transferred from the Office of Commonwealth Relations in 1990 (accession
number 1990:50).
ARRANGEMENT
The records are arranged in on series, General File. The files are
ordered alphabetically within the series.
AGENCY HISTORY
The University of Pennsylvania has a long financial relationship
with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in which the Commonwealth played
an important role during major periods of expansion in the University's
history. Though the state has given money to the University at various
times since the eighteenth century, it was not until the end of the
nineteenth century that it frequently sought assistance from the state.
Provost Charles Custus Harrison's building expansion program at the
beginning of the twentieth century began the tradition of regular
and substantial aid from the Commonwealth in 1909. Much of the work
with the state legislature and governor to obtain these appropriations
was handled by special assistants to the Provost and, after 1927,
the Executive Vice Provost (later Vice President).
The Office of Commonwealth Relations was formed in 1954 as part
of the Department of Development and Public Relations during the reorganization
of the University under the leadership of President Gaylord Harnwell.
The function of the office is to coordinate and assist with efforts
to seek funding from the state government for various programs at
the University. Commonwealth Relations remained part of the Development
Office until 1994 when President Judith Rodin placed the office under
the guidance of the Vice President for Government and Public Affairs.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The records of the Office of Commonwealth Relations documents the
review of the staff of the Master Plan for Higher Education prepared
Commonwealth's Board of Education in 1966, 1971, and 1978 as well
as the relation of the University of Pennsylvania with the state on
student scholarship and rental fees from the General State Authority.
The collection consists of correspondence and reports.
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