Sub-series consists primarily of photocopied material related to the trusteeship over the PSA department, the PSA Strike, and the subsequent dismissal of eight faculty members of the PSA department. Subjects, events and activities documented include the PSA Tenure Committee; the SFU Faculty Association; the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee and statements; the CAUT Committee of Inquiry and motion of censure; the American Anthropological Association (AAA) ad hoc committee to investigate the SFU dispute; the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association (CSAA)'s boycott of SFU; the American Sociological Association ad hoc committee on the SFU dispute; the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA)'s position; the Association of University and Colleges of Canada (AUCC)'s Committee on Academic Freedom; the Palmer Committee decision; the Rosenbluth Committee Report; the Supreme Court of BC in Wheeldon vs. SFU; and the university administration's actions under Presidents Kenneth Strand and Pauline Jewett. Sub-series consists of reports, issues of the Peak, minutes, memoranda, abstracts, press releases, correspondence, research notes, telegrams, newsletters, newspaper articles, strike bulletins, CAUT bulletins, book excerpts, journal articles, and printed online material.

Sub-series consists of correspondence generated by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) on a range of topics, including the censure of SFU, women's rights, disaffiliation from the CAUT and others.

Sub-series consists of records relating to the Vice-President, Academic's interactions with the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Activities and topics documented include CAUT's 1971 censure of SFU relating to the dispute in the university's Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology (PSA) Department, university governance, faculty benefits, and development of research ethics policies. Records include correspondence, reports, news releases and other CAUT printed material.

Sub-series consists of records made or received by the Head of the Department of Behavioural Science Foundations, R.J.C. Harper, in the course of administering the department. Activities documented include departmental planning (budget, enrollment, staffing, space); curriculum and program development (course planning, development of the Communication Studies program and establishment of the Department of Communication); student relations (enrollment, applications for graduate studies, registration and examinations); relations with faculty members (appointments, tenure, salaries); liaison with other university departments and participation in university, faculty and departmental committees; and liaison with external agencies and associations involved in education. Records include correspondence, reports, invitations, statistics and estimates; course proposals, outlines, and descriptions; and committee meeting agenda, minutes and supporting papers.

For a list of the departments, committees, and external organizations represented in the correspondence and subject files, see the "Access points" section below.

Sub-series consists primarily of interviews with prominent members of the SFU community, including faculty, administrators, and students. Hugh Johnston conducted interviews; however he also collected audiocassette recordings and transcripts of interviews conducted by other researchers. They include Liisa Fagerlund, Ken Nielsen, Elika Kohler, Robin Fisher and Ruth Sandwell. Johnston's research assistants, John-Henry Harter and Dionysios (Dino) Rossi, also conducted interviews. Subjects, events and activities documented include student activism, the governance and administration of SFU, the 1968 CAUT motion of censure, the PSA affair and the history of SFU. Sub-series consists of audiocassette recordings and transcriptions of the interviews.