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This collection contains materials related to the lives of Bill and Andy Spence, including folk and traditional music and materials documenting the Fox Hollow and Old Songs Festivals.

Originally the Department of Speech and Dramatic Art, it encompassed the disciplines of Dramatic Art; Rhetoric and Public Address; Radio, Television and Film; and Speech Pathology and Audiology. The Department is responsible for the operation of the State University Theatre, is closely affiliated with the Northeastern New York Speech Center, and is the sponsor of a number of course-related student organizations

Born in Leavenworth, Kansas, Schein was a pioneer in the development of educational television and radio in New York State. During graduate study at Boston University, he became active in fundraising to help establish Boston's educational television station, WGBH and served on the Massachusetts Citizens Committee on Educational Television. In 1955, Schein came to Schenectady and served as associate producer and first president of the Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television, where he produced instructional programs for in-school use broadcast over WRGB-TV. Schein led the effort to launch the second public television station in New York State, Schenectady's WMHT in 1962, and was executive director and later general manager. He was instrumental in the addition of the all classical music radio station WMHT-FM in 1972 and the Radio Information Service (RISE), a radio reading service for the blind and print handicapped in 1978. He retired in 1986 as general manager, after concluding negotiations for the acquisition of Channel 45, WMHQ. The collection contains newsletters, programs and schedules, meeting minutes, photographs, and Schein's files as president of Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television, and files as executive director and general manager of WMHT.

The Bodky Papers include biographical materials, letters, musical programs, reviews, extensive manuscripts, arrangements, and printed material. Bodky studied piano with Ferrucio Busoni and composition with Richard Strauss and performed widely on harpsichord and piano. He left Germany and lived in the Netherlands, 1933–1938, and the United States from 1938 until his death. He was a professor of music at Brandeis University.

The Norman Studer Papers document his career as both an educator and ardent Catskill folklorist. The collection includes significant material relating to his work as director of the Downtown Community School in New York City and Camp Woodland in the Catskills.