The principal and chair of governors of Ruskin College are accused of destroying important archival material in the course of relocating the historic institution from the centre of Oxford to a new £17m campus on the outskirts.
An online petition against “archive destruction” had been signed by 3,600 people as Museums Journal went to press.
Initiated by a former dean of the college, Hilda Dean, the petition alleges that “college principal, Audrey Mullender, and chair of governors, David Norman, have sanctioned the destruction of Ruskin College archives”.
Dean wrote on a blog, History Workshop Online, that “much material from Ruskin’s past has already been physically trashed. This includes admission records of some of the trade union students who attended Ruskin in its first decades.”
The college, which was due to open a campus in Old Headington on 27 October, dismissed the claims.
A statement posted on its website under the heading “Ruskin cherishes its archives”, said History Workshop Online “contained unfounded assertions that material there was wholesale destruction and discarding of Ruskin’s historic archives and memorabilia”.
“The truth is that we have actually expended a great deal of money, time and care on moving the college heritage and the MacColl Seeger archive [folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger] into a specially designed space in a new and enlarged library [in Old Headington] and other appropriate places around the college.”
Mullender said the decision to destroy student records was taken after consulting the college data protection policy, which states that records should be kept for only six years.
The college stressed that it had digitised student records on an interactive database, “in a way that complies with data protection legislation but which will allow alumni to stay in touch”.
An online petition against “archive destruction” had been signed by 3,600 people as Museums Journal went to press.
Initiated by a former dean of the college, Hilda Dean, the petition alleges that “college principal, Audrey Mullender, and chair of governors, David Norman, have sanctioned the destruction of Ruskin College archives”.
Dean wrote on a blog, History Workshop Online, that “much material from Ruskin’s past has already been physically trashed. This includes admission records of some of the trade union students who attended Ruskin in its first decades.”
The college, which was due to open a campus in Old Headington on 27 October, dismissed the claims.
A statement posted on its website under the heading “Ruskin cherishes its archives”, said History Workshop Online “contained unfounded assertions that material there was wholesale destruction and discarding of Ruskin’s historic archives and memorabilia”.
“The truth is that we have actually expended a great deal of money, time and care on moving the college heritage and the MacColl Seeger archive [folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger] into a specially designed space in a new and enlarged library [in Old Headington] and other appropriate places around the college.”
Mullender said the decision to destroy student records was taken after consulting the college data protection policy, which states that records should be kept for only six years.
The college stressed that it had digitised student records on an interactive database, “in a way that complies with data protection legislation but which will allow alumni to stay in touch”.