UGA ARCHIVES

Finding Aid for UGA 92-256 John L. Green Papers 1923-1974

John Lafayette Green Jr. Creator Note

John Lafayette Green Jr. was born on April 4, 1929. He was an honor graduate form Mississippi State University with a degree in accounting and business administration. He did additional graduate work in Business Administration at the University of Georgia.

Prior to coming to the University, he served as a finance officer in the U.S. Army for three years. He spent an additional three years as the assistant director for the Virginia State Council of Higher Education. In addition, Green served in a number of capacities in California, including: fiscal analyst for the California Coordinating Council for Higher Education, budget analyst for the California State College Board of Trustees, and accounting officer of Hayward State College.

Green came to Georgia from his position as principal budget examiner for higher education in the Department of Administration in Michigan. He was confirmed by the Board of Regents as Comptroller and Treasurer of the University of Georgia as of January 1, 1966. By mid 1967, his title as chief financial officer of the University had been changed to reflect the reorganization of the fiscal arm of administration. Green was redesigned as the first Vice President for Business and Finance at Georgia.

The balance of Green's tenure at Georgia, Green was appointed as executive vice-president for administration and finance at the University of Miami (1976). He is currently serving as the Vice President for Finance at the University of Houston. (as of July 23, 1984)

A Note On Organization

The John L. Green Papers were transferred from the Records Management Annex of the Division of Business and Finance to the University Archives on July, 28, 1983. They were held in a processing area until processing could begin.

Work was begun on the collection on May 18, 1984. As received, the papers were in 70 RC boxes, maintaining the same provenance (or lack thereof) that the records had enjoyed at the Business and Finance Annex, where they had been stored in a series of 5 vertical filing units.

After a box label manifest had been assembled, it remained to be seen whether or not the contents retained any organizational integrity. Random examination of 25 boxes established the fact that original office provenance (as provided for in the file guides in the collection) had been disrupted. It remained for an organizational scheme to be drafted for the records.

Fortunately, further examination revealed that the papers basically broke down into two major series, with a 1 cubic foot (sub) series of personnel records. This division follows roughly a chronological sequence, and recognizes the passing of the office of University Comptroller form J.D. Bolton to J.L. Green.

At this point, it should be noted that there was a major organizational shift that took place in the University's fiscal duties sphere, and this reorganization radically altered the structure (if not necessarily the scope) of Green's duties. To some extent, the shift from Comptroller to Vice President for Business and Finance is represented in the organizational shift between the two main record series.

Finally, a word about the first major series. The first Administrative Subject File in the Green papers is largely a product of the J.D. Bolton tenure as Comptroller; this is reflected both temporally and organizationally. Consequently, this series should not stand alone, but should be assessed in the larger context of the Bolton papers. At the same time, the presence of this much material in the Green collection allows for an insight into the period of transition represented by J.L. Green's tenure as the University's Chief Fiscal Officer.

Processing if the collection was completed on July 23, 1984.

Scope and Content Statement

A brief examination of the Green papers reveals the fact that they are broken into two major series, and separated by a (sub) series of one cubic foot of personnel records. Each of the series will be examined briefly in this statement.

1) Administrative Subject File- 1916-66. The majority of the records in this series range temporally from the mid 1940's to the mid 1960's. Among the subseries of interest are:
Budgetary materials- These records represent a full examination of the budgetary process at the University, from needs projections to budget amendments.
Buildings- There is a rather comprehensive section of materials on University buildings, dealing chiefly with maintenance, requests for modification, new construction, and building usage. Of particular interest are the records pertaining to the construction of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
Departmental Files- These records deal with the numerous financial requests made by University departments. This is the most comprehensive of the subseries.
Financial materials- Consisting largely of bound Financial Reports, this subseries, when coupled with Budgetary Materials, gives a fairly complete picture of fiscal records at the University.
Regents materials- Due to Bolton's (and later, Green's) active role as regents associate, there is a representative cross-section of regents records from the 1950's through the mid-1960's.
In addition, there are short runs of records dealing with Physical Plant operations, Teacher's Retirement, and Vocational Education.

It should be remembered that this first series should be always be examined in the larger context of its parent, the J.D. Bolton collection.

2) Personnel File- 1956-67. This file is almost exclusively confined to the years 1965-67, and deals mostly with employment support documents such as payrolls, security questionnaires, transmittals, etc.

3) Administrative Subject File 2- 1966-70. This series can truly be identified as "Green's series." It reflects a complete reorganization of the Division of Business and Finance. Accordingly, the subseries of interest deal with this reorganization:
Budget Management System- Coupled with the Payroll/ Personnel Budget System, this package was designed to modernize the budgetary process at the University. It was developed between 1966 and 1970.
Business Manager- Active use of this position by Green freed him from a great deal of routine obligations, allowing him more time for a broader administrative focus.
Physical Plant- As in the first series, there is a substantial subseries of Physical Plant materials. Once again, emphasis is placed on new construction and building usage. This designation replaced that of "Buildings" in the first series.
Regents- This material represents Green's involvement on the Board of Regents, both as a secretary and as a committee member.

Once again, there are smaller runs of interest, including the Public Safety and Staff Benefits records.

In addition to the above series, there are four Hollinger boxes of displaced material. This material has been displaced because of:

Physical limitations- This is why the materials in Hollingers A, B, and D have been relocated; and their physical size did not allow integration with the main collection.

Temporal ranges- This applies to materials in Hollinger C, whose two files have materials which span the temporal range of both Administrative Subject Files. Of special interest here is the File Guides file.

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