This series contains legislation introduced by Assemblyman Joseph Nowicki, and supporting materials including related correspondence and newspaper clippings. The series also includes statute books that Nowicki kept for reference.
Series 4, Local Program Studies, includes documentation about the various projects and programs that the LWVRC has taken on. Again focusing on elections and financing, particularly in the schools, the LWVRC provided information to the citizens of the county. Aside from public school related projects, the LWVRC took on apportionment, city planning, land use, criminal justice court reform, human resources development, environment, ERA, health care, housing, international relations, arms control, New York State politics, revenue sharing and reproductive rights.
Organized by Harry F. Ward in 1952 at the suggestion of Methodist pastor, Lee Ball (who was largely reacting to the McCarthyism of the times), the RFC had a national membership of lay people and clergy pledged to work to maintain free exercise of religion as granted by the Bill of Rights. The national executive committee of the RFC consisted of thirty-five and an administrative committee of seventeen consisted of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish members who were both black and white. The steering committee which was the true energizing force of the RFC included Ward, Ball, Richard Morford (long-time director of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship), and William Howard Melish, an Episcopal priest. The lawyer of the group was Royal France, whose wife, Ruth, was an active admirer of Ward.
This series contains legal material and correspondence related to the trials of Bennie Demps.
This series includes miscellaneous reports and legal documentation. Box 1 contains GAO Reports, DEC and DOE publications. Box 2 contains several annual DOE Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Five-Year Plans. Box 2 also contains several books and publications prepared by organizations and authored by individuals advocating disarmament and economic conversion. The publications in Boxes 1 and 2 are listed in the order they can be found in the boxes. Box 3 contains copies of reports and surveys, some dating as far back as 1956. Some copies are of poor quality and difficult to read or determine the date. Some of the documents were obtained through FOIA requests.
The series consists mainly of correspondence and meeting minutes of the New York Temporary State Lobbying Commission regarding lobbying regulations and documentation on two court cases involving the commission, the most prominent being "Hobday, et al., v. the New York Temporary State Commission on Regulation of Lobbying." As an early advocate of the creation of the Lobbying Commission, NYSCC was represented on the commission by its director. The series also contains an analysis of New York State government agency logs, NYSCC lobbying registration forms, lobbying reports and studies on the amount of money spent on lobbying by business interests. New York State Common Cause
John Fried served as Legal Consultant to the Somalia delegation at the U.N. from 1966-1970. This series contains primarily reports composed by Fried on various issues dealing with Somalia / French Somaliland.
This series contains the records of the Capital-Berkshire Area Economic Conversion Study Group and Task Force (CABEC). The collection contains information about the organization and its activities from 1986-1992. Series 4 also contains information on several other local groups that supported economic conversion. Many of the groups fell under the umbrella of the Social Justice Center. There are also several news clippings and reports that help shed light on the issues surrounding economic conversion.
This series documents the legislative concerns of the organization during the 1970s. The series contains SASU's annual legislative agenda, memos to State legislators and SASU officers at member schools, information packets distributed at the annual legislative conference, and periodic legislative reports compiled by SASU's legislative director. Since SASU did not start lobbying until December/January 1973-74, at which time it registered its legislative director with the New York State Secretary of State, most of the material covers the period 1974-80. SASU was especially involved in lobbying for the passage of the following legislation: mandatory provisions of absentee ballots, upon request, to eligible, unavoidably detained voters in primary elections (1974); the age of majority bill, lowering the age of majority from 21 to 18 (1974); the creation of the Tuition Assistance Program, (TAP), the nation's largest and most comprehensive student aid program (1974); mail voter registration (1975); a student trustee bill, drafted and initiated by SASU, which resulted in students becoming non-voting members on the SUNY Board of Trustees, the City University of New York Board of Higher Education, and on college and university councils and boards of trustees for all New York State's public colleges (this legislation was enacted despite strong opposition by many trustees and SUNY Central's legislative effort), (1975); the establishment of four students as voting members on the Higher Education Services Corporation's Board of Trustees, and four students on the HESC's Advisory Council, (the Board and the Advisory Council are responsible for determining administrative policies for HESC, which controls student financial aid), (1976); restoration of four of the five TAP programs cut in proposals by Governor Carey, (1976); the guarantee of all parliamentary rights, excluding the right to vote, for student members of the SUNY Board of Trustees, CUNY Board of Higher Education, and university and college councils for all public colleges, (these rights include, for example, the privileges of making and seconding motions, and attendance at executive sessions) (1977); marijuana decriminalization, preventing criminal penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana, (1977); an increase in the maximum allowable TAP eligible income, from $2,000 to $2,750 to allow for inflation, (1978); defeat of an attempt to cut off Medicaid funding for abortions, (1978); the repeal of the student health fee, (1979); and finally, after intensive lobbying by SASU, Student Trustees and student College Council members were granted the right to vote