The Registrar’s Office was created in 1909 and served the dual purpose of admissions/registrar and bookkeeping for the school early on. The University Archives holds a complete run of undergraduate catalogs and commencement programs from the office. Commencement programs list the names of all graduates. The first graduate catalog in the collection is from 1941, the next is 1962. Please contact us if you have graduate catalogs published between 1942 and 1961.
Other less, well-known records include a short run of baccalaureate programs 1911-1918 and 1932-1965 and commencement schedules. In the early days, commencement activities included baccalaureate service, graduating exercises, alumni symposium, concerts, receptions, chapel services for alumni and an excursion to Mammoth Cave.
Student registers include student name, date enrolled, address, county and in some cases religious affiliation and parents’ names. They can also contain the number of course hours taken. The archives does not currently house student grades. These records are extant for the years 1907-1949; and 1956-1960. There is also a statistical file which gives information regarding enrollment numbers.
The records of the Registrar’s Office have been processed and finding aids posted in TopScholar. These records are available for researchers to use in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room.