Collections : [Wesleyan University -Special Collections and Archives]

Following graduation from New York University Law School in 1967, Roy Lucas published a landmark article, "Federal Constitutional Limitations on the Enforcement and Administration of State Abortion Statutes," in the North Carolina Law Review. Soon his interest in student rights and other civil liberties issues were overwhelmed as abortion litigation came to him in ever-growing volume. In 1969 and 1970 he helped found, with Morris Dees, the James Madison Constitutional Law Institute with offices in New York City and Montgomery, Alabama.

The Queer Periodicals Collection contains over 490 different gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender periodicals published between 1966 and 1998. The bulk consists of English-language titles from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, though examples from the European continent, Russia, and Israel are also present. The extent of each title may vary from a single issue to several complete (or near-complete) volumes. The collection is arranged into three separate series by size, and alphabetically by title thereunder

Arthur T. Vanderbilt was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1888. He was educated at Newark Public High School and graduated from Wesleyan University in 1910. While at Wesleyan he was a student leader and a member Delta Kappa Epsilon. He then attended Columbia Law School, earning an LL.B. in 1913. Vanderbilt practiced law privately from 1913 to 1947, largely representing fire insurance companies, corporations, and banks. During this period, Vanderbilt also taught law at New York University as full-time faculty, later becoming Dean of the Law School from 1943 to 1948. He also served on the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees from 1934 to 1957, and acted as President of the Board from 1946 to 1947. A leader throughout his life, he also served with the American Bar Association, and was preeminent in the movement to reform the administration of justice and chaired an advisory committee to create a uniform code of military justice. Vanderbilt became a New Jersey Circuit Court judge in November 1947, and was confirmed as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court in December 1947. He served in this capacity until his death in 1957.

The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally organized baseball team at Wesleyan University from 1864 to 1871.

After the Wesleyan centennial celebration in 1931, a few alumni began documenting their memories of Wesleyan. In 1939, the Alumni Council set up a Committee on the Collection of Recollections, which canvassed alumni for memories of faculty and anecdotes about Wesleyan history.

Wesleyan University restarted its dormant chapter in the American Association of University Professors with a new constitution on October 9, 1974. Over the following two decades, the chapter took part in negotiations with the administration, including University President Colin Campbell. Beginning in 1977, Nathanael Greene, Vice President for Academic Affairs, would serve as Campbell’s liaison to the AAUP. The activities of the group appear to have dropped off around 1990.

In the 1970s, Wesleyan University students became active against national nuclear arms polices and practices, especially those in New England. The groups of Wesleyan University students involved were the Committee on Environmental Awareness, Connecticut Citizens Conference, Nuclear Resistance Group and Students Opposed to Nuclear Arms Race. These groups organized campus wide informational meetings, showed films and actively participated in walking onto a nuclear arms site in Seabrook, New Hampshire, on April 30, 1977. Around forty Wesleyan Students, along with other activists, were arrested, and some were convicted of criminal trespass due to the April 30 protest.

In January 1982, Wesleyan University eliminated their aid-blind admissions policy. In response, students from a group called the April 29th Coalition protested the University's decision. The organization collected 1,284 signatures of students demanding Wesleyan return to an aid-blind system. They also demanded several changes to the financial aid and admissions system. Later in the semester, students held a 150 hour sit-in on the second floor of North College, one hour for each year that the University had existed. Although their primary demand for reestablishing the aid-blind system was not met by the end of the semester, President Colin Campbell wrote a statement that the students' demands would be addressed at the next the Board of Trustees meeting and that reinstituting the former policy would be given the highest priority if and when circumstances permitted.

The Apostles Club was a group of faculty members at Wesleyan University who met once a month from 1894 until 1967 for "literary and social purposes."

The Wesleyan University Athletic Council began in 1903 and was comprised of faculty, alumni, and students. The Council regulated most aspects of athletics including the administering of budgets, negotiations with other schools for intercollegiate matches and scheduling, player eligibility rules, hiring and supervising coaches, establishing records, and the awarding of varsity letters.