CMU Archives: Swank, Earle, Papers

Swank, Earle, Papers , 1908-1984

Carnegie Mellon University Archives, Staff and Faculty Collections

Extent

Eight boxes (Boxes 1-8); 7.5 linear feet ,

Biographical Sketch

Earle Swank worked at Carnegie Mellon University for 40 years, starting as an English professor and retiring after serving 20 years as Dean of Student Affairs. He was well liked by the students and was able to use his influence to see the University through the socially turbulent 60s and 70s. Dean Erwin Steinberg said that Swank, “gave his life to Carnegie Mellon” and was “totally consumed with helping students and helping the University grow.” In 2006 a room in Baker Hall was named in his honor.

Swank was born to Harry and Georgia (Ashworth) Swank on October 6, 1921 in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, near Danville. He had three brothers and two sisters. He attended Muhlenberg College, where he graduated as Valedictorian of his class in 1943. After graduation, he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve and served two years in Europe and the Pacific. After the war, he attended Harvard University and received a Masters degree in 1948.

Swank was first hired at Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1948 as an instructor in the English Department. He taught courses in composition and literature. In 1950, he was promoted to Assistant Professor and won the Carnegie Teaching Award in 1953. In 1956 he continued to teach some English classes as he moved into Administration and became Chairman of Financial Aid and Foreign Student Advisor. He became Dean of Men in 1959 and began his 20 years of service as Dean of Student Affairs in 1967. As Dean of Student Affairs, Swank oversaw University sports, clubs, fraternities, transfer students, housing, veterans’ services, registration, and student discipline and safety. He also managed Skibo (the student union) and was the Chairman of the Discipline Committee.

The years of Swank’s deanship were tumultuous times for the University. In 1969, violent war protests at Kent State University ignited student outcry nationwide. Resulting protests at Carnegie Mellon forced the rescheduling of final exams for the Spring semester. Also that semester student discontent with campus food services led Student Senate to request the dismissal of the Director of Food Services. In September 1969, students demonstrated in support of the Black Construction Coalition which was involved in the construction of Wean Hall. That same year, students also agitated for a moratorium for the Vietnam War. In April of 1970, the student and faculty group “Spirit” raised campus conscience about the University’s stock in Gulf Oil Company and the company’s business practices in Angola and Mozambique. The group lobbied to control the University’s votes at the annual stockholders’ meeting so that they could support a proposal to stop Gulf Oil from drilling in colonized countries. Nationally, the late 1970s brought new legislation in student privacy rights and Title IX. Both laws brought extensive changes to administration in the Student Affairs office.

When Swank retired in 1987 at the age of 66, Braden L. Walter took over the Deanship.

Outside of the University, Mr. Swank enjoyed traveling, gourmet cooking, and watercolor painting. He had an interest in railroad history. He was a member of the Board of Directors for the Pittsburgh Ballet Company and was a supporter of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as well. He died on July 15, 2001. His obituary appears in the July 24, 2005 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Scope and Content Note

The Earle Swank Papers are housed in eight archival boxes and arranged into seven series. Series have been designated for correspondence, subject files, Disciplinary Committee, other committees, publications, reports, and miscellaneous. Generally, these papers include business correspondence, minutes, reports, and newspaper clippings. Most of the materials have been kept in the original organization in which they were received, although they have been arranged into series by the archivist. The majority of the collection comes from Swank’s correspondence as Dean of Student Affairs and case files of the Disciplinary Committee from 1919 to 1980. These case files can include correspondence, student work or other “evidence”, reports, newspaper clippings, and minutes from the Committee meetings. The amount of information available for each case- and the number of cases- increases with time. The collection contains little information about Swank’s personal life, aside from three folders of personal correspondence. Information about his teaching activities is limited to one folder of assignment sheets from 1974 to 1978 in Literary Imagination and Freshman Writing. In addition, some items in this collection predate Swank’s employment at Carnegie Mellon and may have come from other staff or faculty members who worked as or for the Dean of Student Life in earlier days.

Series I : Correspondence (1960-1980)

NOTE: Files dealing with individual student records are restricted. Access will be considered on a case by case basis by the University Archivist and cannot be guaranteed. Swank’s correspondence is housed in two boxes and is arranged chronologically. The majority of this correspondence comes from his time as Dean of Student Affairs. Generally contains information about his many duties including student housing, discipline, and students’ permission requests for specific activities. It also contains memorandums for administrative duties and students’ requests for letters of recommendation. There are three folders of personal correspondence as well. Swank’s English class assignments and any single Disciplinary Committee meeting minutes were separated from these files for access reasons.

Series II : Subject files (1940-1984)

NOTE: Files dealing with individual student records are restricted. Access will be considered on a case by case basis by the University Archivist and cannot be guaranteed. The subject files are housed in one and half boxes and arranged chronologically. They contain information about specific events or topics for which Swank created special folders. The folder titles reflect the original titles given by the creator. Topics include disciplinary actions, administrative changes, and student health issues. The files generally include correspondence, memorandums, notes, newspaper clippings, and student records. A few folders have photographs. These activity files span 40 years, and cover subjects from his duties as Foreign Student Advisor, Dean of Men, and Dean of Student Affairs. Some items in this series predate Swank’s employment at Carnegie Mellon and may have come from other staff or faculty members who worked as or for the Dean of Student Life in earlier days.

Series III : Disciplinary Committee (1908-1980)

NOTE: All files within this series are restricted. Access will be considered only on a case by case basis by the University Archivist and cannot be guaranteed. The Disciplinary Committee series is housed in two boxes and arranged chronologically. It contains meeting minutes, correspondence, memorandums, and student work or other “evidence.” Although its format and accountability changed much over the years, the Disciplinary Committee generally consisted of faculty, staff members, and eventually students. The Committee met on a regular basis to deliberate on disciplinary actions that were appealed by students. Transcripts of these hearings are available in some cases. Most of the series consists of case files, which were not individually labeled but simply organized in chronological order by the creator. Case files are available for every year from 1919 to 1980, except for 1969 and 1970. These individual files may include general meeting minutes as well. Three folders of meeting minutes only are available for the years 1908, 1919-1924, and 1975-1977.

Series VI : Reports (1954-1980)

The report series is housed in three folders and is arranged chronologically. This series contains three reports from the Office of Student Affairs about student life in 1954 and 1980. One 1954 report summarizes what services and activities were available to students. The other 1954 report presents a qualitative look at athletics, commuting students, religion, dormitories, fraternities, faculty, and Student Council by a compilation of paraphrased student interviews. This report also summarizes the students’ responses by class year at the end. The 1980 report is a quantitative summary of students’ opinions about housing, food service, social life, administration, and faculty. The source of these statistics is a collection of students’ handwritten responses to a “critically needed improvements” questionnaire. These original comment sheets are included at the end of the report.