Biographical Note
Don E. McIlvenna was on the faculty of the Oregon State University
History Department from 1965 until his retirement in 1995; his speciality
was American diplomatic history. McIlvenna earned his bachelor's degree
from Sacramento State College (1952), his M.A. from the University of
California at Berkeley, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1966. He
died in 2007.
Content Description
The Don E. McIlvenna Papers consist of materials generated and
assembled by McIlvenna in his work as an Oregon State University faculty
member. The bulk of the materials document the research and writing, with
his History Department colleague Darold Wax, of a report on faculty
salaries in the Oregon State University College of Liberal Arts,
An Essay on the Collegial Relationship: Salary
Symbols and Services in the College of Liberal Arts; the campus
debate sparked by its release; and subsequent changes at OSU. In addition
to statistical data and various drafts of the report, the Papers include
correspondence, grant proposals, newspaper clippings, notes, publications
and reports, and McIlvenna's testimony before the State Board of Higher
Education in 1976 The materials document a review of the College of
Liberal Arts' instructional program by the Oregon State Board of Higher
Education and the Board's 1976 reversal of the 1932 ban on graduate
programs in social sciences and humanities at OSU.
The collection also includes clippings pertaining to the establishment
of a interdisciplinary graduate program in Northwest Studies; student
evalutions of McIlvenna's teaching; and a conference paper.