Copy of Suffolk University Annual Commencement Booklet 1986
- Found in Moakley Archive commencement records
- Produced by the heads of Suffolk University to show the organizing schedule of the University’s commencement schedule.
- Produced in June of 1986
- Obviously meant to show the diversity of Suffolk and the worth and prestige that comes with a Suffolk education
- Written for the audience of the people attending that year’s commencement
- The main purpose of the document is to convey the order of the ceremony to properly move them in place for the graduation line. There are some social signifiers in the document such denoting which students received honors.
- To pursue further research based on this document I’d like to examine other commencement documents and track their evolution. Specifically, with my research, I’d like to look at the number of students from Vermont and calculate changes in how many Vermonters have passed through Suffolk
- I specifically chose this page section because it represented a trend in my study of Suffolk records. An overwhelming amount of students are all from Massachusetts and best 1 page out of a dozen would have a single Vermont name. It brings up questions related to Vermont such as why no one from the state would attend a nearby school geographically such as Suffolk.
Suffolk University Entrance Information Bulletin, 1982-83
• Found in Moakley Archive – student recruitment files
•Produced by Suffolk University to convince students during the 1982-83 semester to attend Suffolk
•Written just at the start of Boston’s turnaround from its bad 1970’s (busing riots, economic downturn) I imagine the university wanted to present its urban campus in central Boston as a bustling and prosperous place taking advantage of the general feeling of economic prosperity of the 1980s.
•The biggest takeaway from the bulletin is how much it uses the city of Boston as advertising for the university. Images of Boston are used just as much as images of the university and it’s student body. The key phrase used in the bulletin is “a cosmopolitan university” while Suffolk could not offer students beautiful brick buildings or a green campus it could offer them a city living experience.
• This document was chosen for my research project because while there was practically nothing in the Moakley archive to directly tie in with Vermont, I did find it interesting how at Suffolk we center so much of our school’s identity on being an urban campus in the largest city in New England. Which I believe would be appealing to students from rural areas and outer New England in general. But when you look at the statistics for Suffolk’s enrollment it’s almost totally Boston, international, or suburban Massachusetts and Connecticut students.
•For further research I would need to look at research papers analyze where rural students go to university.
Calvin Coolidge Press Conference Held at Ford Hall Forum, date unknown
•Early sound recording made by Calvin Coolidge discussing his life, presidency, and relationship to the Hoover administration.
• The recording was made sometime after leaving office. In the archive it was dated 1932 in which case it’d be his last public appearance since he died in January of that year.
• Found in Moakley archive, available digitally
• Chose for my research because Coolidge discusses his childhood growing up in Vermont . Basically he wanted to leverage his identity as a simple, plain-spoken, Yankee yeoman farmer to enact a broad based economically conservative capitalist agenda. Using his identity as a rural Vermonter to advance in Mass politics and then the White House.
•Apologies for this section, the Suffolk Sites builder didn’t save this part last night so I am writing up what notes I have with me on the train.
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