Research: Peoples, Groups, & Cultures: Guide to Historical Records Sources on Latinos
A Preliminary Guide to Historical Records Sources On Latinos In New York State
New York State Repositories
Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230
Phone: (518) 474-6926
- 16356-92 New York (State). Commissioner's Advisory Council on Bilingual
Education.
Correspondence, meeting minutes, and member's files, 1977-1990.
4 cu. ft.
The series consists of correspondence, meeting minutes, travel vouchers, members' files, and other records documenting the work of the Commissioner's Advisory Council on Bilingual Education. The council's responsibilities include making recommendations to the commissioner of education in the areas of legislation, funding, teacher education and certification, testing and evaluation, teaching methods, curricular materials, and program design, as well as developing and implementing whatever new initiatives the commissioner may deem necessary to serve the needs of limited English proficient students. Council members may also represent the commissioner at conferences on bilingual education. Staff of the Bureau of Bilingual Education coordinate the work of the council with the commissioner, and these records also reflect the bureau's function of scheduling meetings, recording minutes, accounting for members' budget expenditures, and maintaining information on council membership and actions required under ESEA Title VII, or other appropriate matters.
The records include: correspondence and briefing memoranda; meeting minutes and agendas, including approximately 40 audio tapes; letters of confirmation to presenters at council meetings; draft amendments to commissioner's regulations; press releases, copies of articles, and publicity photographs of council members; travel vouchers and information on budget expenditures; members' files including draft discussion outlines, worksheets, correspondence, and memoranda; and membership nomination materials, including resumes, council appointment letters, and responses.
Agency record NYSV86-a565 describes the history and functions of the State Education Department resulting in creation of records series.
Subjects: Education, Bilingual. Language and languages -- Study and teaching. Bilingualism. Photographs. Minutes. Vouchers. Audio tapes. Administering educators. Programming education.
Other authors: New York (State). Education Dept.; New York (State). Bureau of Bilingual Education.; University of the State of New York.
- 16034 New York (State). Dept. of Social Services. Commissioner's Office.
Commissioner's subject and correspondence files, 1947-1992.
50 cu. ft.
The commissioner of the Department of Social Services was empowered by the legislature to determine policies and principles upon which public assistance, service, and care were to be provided; to exercise general supervision over the social services programs administered by the fifty-eight local social services districts in the state (fifty-seven counties and the New York City Department of Social Services); to promulgate regulations for the administration of public assistance and care; and to enforce department regulations and state laws relating to public assistance and care.
16034-99: This accretion consists of the executive office files of Cesar Perales, who served as commissioner from 1983-1992. As commissioner, Perales also served on the Governor's Task Force on AIDS and as chair of the Governor's Interagency Task Force on Immigration Affairs, which monitored the implementation of the federal Immigration Reform Act of 1986.
Files exist as four sub-groups: 1) commissioner's files (1983-1991) deal primarily with the Commissioner's State Advisory Council, immigration, legislation and correspondence; 2) commissioner's daybooks (1988-1992); 3) files relating to various task forces, and with AIDS (this group also includes some files of Lynn Stone, Special Assistant to the Commissioner, and of Lloyd Bishop and Sandra Bailis who worked closely with Commissioner Perales on various projects); and 4) subject files of Barbara Sabol, Executive Deputy Commissioner (appointed in 1987), including day files and phone logs, speeches and conference materials as well as the daybooks and mail logs (1983-1990) of Jeffrey Carples (Executive Assistant to the Commissioner from 1983-1988, and Deputy Commissioner for Executive Services and Support from 1988-1990).
Access restriction: Restricted in part to protect confidentiality of client correspondence; 8NYCRR Sect. 357.
Finding aids: 16034-99: Container list.
- L0103-87 New York (State). Legislature. Assembly. Standing Committee
on Governmental Operations. Sub-committee on Affirmative Action. Correspondence,
reports, and testimony on work force composition and affirmative action
in state and local government, 1981-1986, bulk 1983-1985.
4 cu. ft. (14 volumes)
… This series contains records from the Sub-committee's examination of the effectiveness of New York government affirmative action programs. This examination was in response to continuing complaints of the ineffectiveness of these programs (especially in the area of employment of Hispanics) and the perceived need for changes in legislation to improve them. The study was partly in response to the realization that the Reagan Administration was working to dismantle many of the federal affirmative action programs. As a result, the Sub-committee felt that New York would have to strengthen its own programs to lessen the negative impact of weakened federal guidelines.
As part of its study, the Sub-committee gathered information on the employment of women, minorities, Vietnam Era veterans, and the disabled in New York state and local government. The majority of the information consists of employment statistics from the period 1983 to 1985. Approximately 90% of the information pertains to employment in state agencies and institutions. The remaining 10% pertains to employment in New York City and in county government. The records primarily consist of statistical profiles, reports, hearing testimony, and completed questionnaires on the composition of the government work force in the state. The records include plans and procedures of state government agencies for implementing comprehensive affirmative action programs. A June 1986 report, Affirmative Action: The Crisis, summarized the Sub-committee's work and contains nearly all the important statistics gathered during the investigation.…
- 18687 New York (State). Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Commission.
Meeting files, 1983-1993 (bulk 1990-1993).
1 cu. ft. Arranged roughly by meeting date or by subject.
The Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Commission (CCQC) was established by executive order of the governor in 1988 to plan events celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage. It was chaired by Matilda Cuomo and operated out of the Governor's Office of Special Projects and Protocol. The final report of the commission was issued in 1993.
The series consists of start-up files and meeting records of the Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Commission. The records include information on: the formation of the commission (bills, press releases, executive orders); membership appointments and the commission roster; fundraising; final and interim reports; meetings of subcommittees (Italian, Hispanic) and special projects; and meeting agendas, attendees, committee work, remarks made at the meetings (some by chairperson Matilda Cuomo), and related documents.
- B0546-84 New York (State). Merit System Affirmative Action Office.
Subject, correspondence, and project files, 1977-1981.
4.4 cu. ft.
Organized into two subseries: 1. Director's Subject and Correspondence Files; 2. Staff Project Files.
Director's Subject and Correspondence Files organized by file category: general affirmative action files; civil service and examination files; women's programs files; chronological correspondence file; and miscellaneous files.
Executive Order 40 (1976) established a State government-wide affirmative action program. Each agency was required to draft a plan for the achievement of equal employment opportunities for minorities, women and the disabled. The Division of Human Rights (D.H.R.) received and approved agency plans, and an Executive Committee for Affirmative Action, chaired by the Civil Service Commission's President, oversaw the entire program. Responding to the Executive Order, the Department of Civil Service (D.C.S.) established in 1977 a Merit System Affirmative Action Office (A.A.O.) to assist the Commission's President in his/her role as the Executive Committee's chairperson, serve as a liaision between D.C.S. and D.H.R. and the organizations concerned with equal opportunity, and coordinate the Department's own affirmative action program. The A.A.O. also began to refer discrimination complaints to appropriate agencies and even investigated a number of them. Executive Order 40.1 (1980) gave D.C.S. primary responsibility for the State's affirmative program and A.A.O. was assigned the task of reviewing, approving, and monitoring agency affirmative action plans. In 1981 the A.A.O. was merged with the Department's Career Opportunity Division to form a new Division of Affirmative Careers.
This series consists of the A.A.O. Director's subject and correspondence files and A.A.O. staff project files. The Director's files (3 c. f.) are arranged into four parts (the first three denoted by different colored file labels) described as follows:
- General Affirmative action files (pink labels) containing correspondence, memoranda, reports relating to the Executive Committee for Affirmative Action, D.C.S. Affirmative Action Committee, State affirmative action guidelines and procedures, affirmative action programs in local government and other states, D.C.S. Testing Bias Committee, hiring of the disabled and handicapped under Section 556 of the Civil Service Law, and individual discrimination complaints and grievances.
- Civil service and examination files (yellow labels) containing correspondence and memoranda concerning civil service matters (as they relate to affirmative action) such as examination policy, individual examinations, reclassification of positions, reallocations of salaries, and recruitment.
- Women's programs files (white labels) containing correspondence, memoranda, reports, and newsletters concerning the Center for Women in Government, Women's Advisory program, and agency Women's Committees.
- Chronological correspondence file (in three binders) containing all outgoing and incoming correspondence arranged in reverse chronological order by date.
Also among the Director's records are a few miscellaneous files. These include a report on bilingual testing for the Federal civil service, a copy of the equal opportunity case "U.S.A. against the State of New York et. al.," a presentation on affirmative action, and correspondence with the Public Employees' Federation's Black Caucus.
The records of A.A.O. staff members are mostly project files containing memoranda, correspondence, and reports relating to agency affirmative action programs, individual complaints, civil service examinations, the Affirmative Action Advisory Council (consisting of agency affirmative action officers), and joint projects with other D.S.C. offices.
This series documents most of the activities of the A.A.O. and particularly its Director, who was a key figure in the State's affirmative action program. It also contains information on agency affirmative action programs, (especially the program of D.C.S.), Executive Committee for Affirmative Action, various women's programs, and individual discrimination complaints and grievances.
Access restriction: Restricted: Researchers shall not reveal names of individuals involved in complaints and grievances for 30 years after creation of records.
Associated materials: Series B0545, Affirmative Action Plans and Monitoring Files, contains related records.
Legal citations: Executive Orders 40 (1976) and 40.1 (1980).
Linking entry note: Agency record NYSV86-a358 describes the history and functions of the Dept. of Civil Service resulting in creation of record series.
- L0216 New York (State). Legislature. Assembly Standing Committee on
Higher Education.
Subject files, 1985-1995.
6 cu. ft.
This series consists of subject files including reports; correspondence; testimony; budgetary material; transcripts; notes; and publications documenting a variety of issues and information considered or examined by the State Assembly Standing Committee on Higher Education. Topics include campus security; continuing education; racial diversity; minority teacher recruitment; student loans; legislative oversight of the professions; and selection of members of the Board of Regents.
Partial container list.
- 19452 Staten Island Developmental Center.
Patient case files, 1950-1980.
192 cu. ft. Arrangement: Roughly alphabetical.
Willowbrook State School was constructed in the late 1930s as a model school for the mentally retarded. Willowbrook's population differed considerably from that of other state schools. It was the only school to receive children under age 5 (it had up to 90 residents during the 1950s). Willowbrook received persons from New York City or by transfer from other state schools. Most of the transfers were severely retarded, handicapped, and/or undisciplined cases. Furthermore, Willowbrook had the highest percentage of black and Hispanic residents of any state school. Originally named the Willowbrook Home for the Retarded, the facility was known as the Willowbrook State School from 1947 to 1975.
By the 1970s the institution was notorious for its bad living conditions. Advocates for the mentally retarded succeeded in obtaining a consent decree for the deinstitutionalization of most of Willowbrook's residents. However, in 1983 and 1984 the Court of Appeals muted, then reversed, the original decree requiring deinstitutionalization.
This series consists of case files of patients who died while residing at Willowbrook. The case files document patients' admission, treatment, therapy, and education. Case files typically contain admission phase sheets; records of visitors and correspondents; ward admission records; legal admission records; psychiatrist's psychological reports; Willowbrook school reports; physical examination information; progress notes by doctor; social service notes by case social worker; laboratory notes; consultation requests (for x-rays, etc.) signed by doctor; prescription records; nurses notes; dental and weight charts; medication records; clothing lists; and correspondence from other institutions.
Access restriction: Restricted in accordance with Mental Hygiene Law relating to confidentiality of clinical records. Permanently.
Finding aids: Folder list.
Linking entry note: Agency record NYSV86-a380 describes the history and functions of the Dept. of Mental Hygiene resulting in creation of the records series.
