President Selects Nominee for Archivist: On August 14 the President announced his intention to nominate Don W. Wilson to be Archivist of the United States. Since 1981 Wilson has been Director of the Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Wilson holds a PhD in history from the University of Cincinnati and for the past five years has been adjunct professor in the department of history at the University of Michigan. Earlier in his career Dr. Wilson held positions as archivist of the Kansas State Historical Society, historian and later deputy director of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, and associate director of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which has oversight responsibilities for the National Archives, hopes soon to schedule a confirmation hearing for Wilson’s nomination. Considerable support for the Wilson nomination has been voiced within the historical and archival professions.
FY’88 Appropriations: Despite the Administration’s recommendations to significantly cut funding for federal education programs, the House overwhelmingly approved a $1.2 billion increase over FY’87 levels. In addition to increases in such programs as Pell Grants and College Work Study, funding for graduate fellowships doubled from $20 million in FY’87 to $44 million for FY’88. But the House did cut funding for Guaranteed Student Loans. Chances of the House budget becoming law, however, are slim. The Senate is still in the early stages of wrestling with budget allocations. Level or even reductions in the education budget seem a possibility as the Senate faces hard money issues. Many think the Senate may not complete the appropriations process by the end of the fiscal year, September 30. This would result in a continuing resolution, which in some cases funds programs at the previous year’s level.
NEH Report Calls for More History: As a part of the 1985 reauthorization legislation for NEH, Congress mandated NEH to prepare a report on the status of humanities education in elementary and secondary schools. Lynne Cheney, the chairman of NEH, wrote American Memory: A Report on the Humanities in the Nation’s Public Schools after consulting with two advisory groups of scholars, teachers, and school administrators and after visiting schools and talking with teachers around the country. Cheney concludes that history and literature are not being adequately taught in public schools and that more history and literature should be added to the curriculum. She identifies as a key problem the emphasis on skills rather than knowledge. Cheney cites data from an NEH-funded survey showing that more than two-thirds of American seventeen-year-olds are unable to place the Civil War within the correct half-century. American Memory explains that problems in humanities education began early in this century with a gradual shift away from traditional, intellectual concerns toward more practical, skill training. For a detailed account, see page 6.
Commission on Preservation and Access: Created in 1986 to preserve the human record and the national memory, the Commission on Preservation and Access recently announced the appointment of Patricia Battin as president of the Commission. Currently the vice president and university librarian of Columbia University, Battin will be responsible for developing and carrying out a new and extensive cooperative preservation program. Most books and records published since the mid-nineteenth century are printed on acidic paper, which becomes brittle with age. The Commission estimates that as many as one-fourth of the books in the nation’s oldest and largest research libraries are already brittle and past saving in their original form. Recent studies suggest that more than $200 million will be required to make visible inroads into the problem. If nothing is done, a large and important portion of the human records will ultimately be lost. A primary task of the Commission is to encourage funding from many sources for preservation work.
Iran-Contra Issue Highlights Importance of Government Records: Historians and archivists frequently make the point that responsible management of government records is necessary for both the conduct of current governmental business and future understanding of the nation’s history. The Iran Contra hearings have starkly illustrated this abstract concept that good management and history depend on proper documentation.
From the beginning of the Iran-Contra investigation, the work of the Tower Commission was severely hampered by what they described as a “murky” trail. Evidence of shredded, altered, and lost documents emerged as a recurring theme throughout the investigations. Lost presidential finding, the destruction of key policy memos, and the absence of any notetaking at crucial high level meetings have led many to question if the Congress and the public will ever learn what really happened. No recent public event has called attention to the problems of the administration of electronic records in such a clear way as the Iran-Contra investigation.
Indications are that the Congressional report of the Iran-Contra hearings will deal with the importance of the creation and retention of documents for ac countable and responsible government and with the failure of many within the Administration to comply with the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act. The sordid events of this episode of American history may in fact offer opportunities for historians and archivists to bring about some much needed changes in the administration of our federal records program.
