W. Keith Kennedy papers

The papers of W. Keith Kennedy, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, consist chiefly of the routine administrative correspondence of the Dean's Office, and include reports, proposals, letters to and from the Dean, official communication between the Dean's Office and the College's departments and administrative units, and other material documenting the College's role at Cornell University, as part of the State University of New York, and in New York State and United States agriculture.

In addition to administrative correspondence with the many departments, programs, divisions, laboratories, and projects within the College, the papers show the College's attention to environmental concerns, responding to the needs and requests of numerous special interest organizations in New York State agriculture, and in relation to the state and federal governments (particularly the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, and the United States Department of Agriculture). The Dean's files reflect the era's concern with pesticides, water resources, special agricultural blights and afflictions, the 1972 flood, energy shortages, agricultural research and its financing, migrant labor and other social matters including affirmative action in the College and at Cornell, international agriculture, agribusiness and agricultural financing, the advancements in agricultural technology, agricultural law and legislation, the financing of higher education, soil conservation, and issues relating to food supply and food science.

At Cornell, the papers reflect on Dean Kennedy's meetings with deans and directors, the budgetary and financial operations of the College, the work of numerous College and University committees, Cornell University and SUNY Master Plans, major grant projects such as Sea Grant, the Cohn Farm controversy, department and division chairships, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, the improvement of the College's physical plant and new buildings, the role of Cooperative Extension, questions of student deportment, relations with vice-presidents of Cornell and SUNY Vice-Chancellors, and the development of the Division of Biological Sciences.

In the Kennedy papers, principal organizations and businesses cited include Agway, Curtice-Burns Inc., and the American Agriculturist . At Cornell, departments and units include the Cornell University Board of Trustees, the Center for Environmental Quality Management, the Division of Biological Sciences, the Division of Nutritional Sciences, the Department of Education, the Graduate School, Cooperative Extension, International Agricultural Development, the Bailey Hortorium, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, and the Water Resources and Marine Sciences Center. Regionally and nationally, principal organizations include the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the New York State College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry, the New York Farm Bureau, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Forest Practice Board, the State University of New York, the Northeast Center for Rural Development, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the United States Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Laboratory.

Major correspondents include: J. Robert Barlow, Mark Barlow, Nyle C. Brady, Dale R. Corson, Bruce Dearing, Laing E. Kennedy, David C. Knapp, R. D. O'Brien, and Charles E. Palm.