The President’s Office Records include correspondence, memoranda, publications, clippings, invitations, and related material dating from the 1920s to the 2010s that were received or created by the President of the University of Houston. The bulk of the material dates from the mid-1960s to 1978 and was generated during the presidency of Philip G. Hoffman.

The files are rich in materials documenting the history of state support for the University, which was received in 1963, as well as materials showing the rise of student discontent on campus in the late 1960s and early 1970s. See particular student groups such as AABL (Afro-Americans for Black Liberation) for information about the group and its activities and the administration’s reaction and response to their demands. This collection also documents the early history of the University of Houston System, with its campuses in Clear Lake, Victoria, and at UH-Downtown. There is also a substantial amount of material relating to the investment scandal of the late 1970s and to the self-study that was undertaken in the mid 1970s.

Photographs in the collection have been transferred to the UH Historical Photographs Collection in the University Archives. A separation sheet notes their original location in the collection and provides a brief description of the items. All student transcripts in the collection have been removed and destroyed, following the Texas Open Records Act. For similar reasons, all materials relating to search committees and personnel decisions have been removed from the collection and are closed to the public.

The collection is arranged into series, sub-series, and sub-fonds based primarily on how it was originally received in 1985. The 11 series are Subject Files, Mission Self-Study, Coordinating Board, President’s Cabinet, Investment Investigation, Council of Presidents, Speeches/Oral Interview/Biographical Sketch, Business Travel, President’s Christmas Cards, Marguerite Ross Barnett, and Clanton W. Williams. For preservation and access reasons the collection has been re-boxed and re-foldered. New folder titles conform, as closely as possible, to original folder titles, except when the original was obviously incomplete, incorrect, or confusing. Original folder and item order has been maintained whenever possible. Exceptions were made when folders were obviously misfiled or when no order was apparent.

Series 12-15 contain unprocessed accessions added to the collection after the finding aid was originally written.

Series 15 contains digital archival materials acquired in 2014 and 2015.