The records in this series include newsclippings, press releases, and correspondence relating to Mendenhall and his presidency. The bulk of the information relates to the beginning of his career at Smith. There is also information about his family, his tenth anniversary at Smith, and his retirement.

The files in this series are arranged alphabetically by the most recent name of the department. Included are news clippings, correspondence, and reports from the undergraduate departments of the college. Also included are programs administered by the departments. For example, files from the Smith College Day Schools are included as a sub-series of the Department of Education. However, undergraduate and graduate academic programs administered either jointly by two or more departments, or by a separate and autonomous college office are filed either with Academic Programs or Administrative Offices. Information about Five College joint academic programs in English, History, Music, and the Sciences can be found in the Intercollegiate Associations series.

The Academic Programs series consists of correspondence, news clippings, and reports regarding academic programs administered by the college outside of the regular operations of the academic departments. Those programs include: the Ada Comstock Scholars Program; the Honors Program; Pre-medical studies; Smith Scholars/Independent Study; the National Defense Education Act Institutes, interdepartmental courses and majors; Operations Crossroads Africa, Junior Year Abroad; and a number of exchange programs. The exchange programs involve colleges in India and Nigeria, as well as historically African-American colleges and universities within the United States. The Junior Year Abroad program files include information on studies in Toronto, Canada; Paris, France; Munich, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Geneva, Switzerland; Florence and Rome, Italy; Japan; the Philippines; China; and Latin America.

The files in the Administrative Issues series document activity in the President's Office which is either of a general nature, requiring the attention of only the president and his closest assistants, or requiring the participation of a number of administrative bodies at once. Included in this series are records relating to a number of general issues, such as administrative structure, the curriculum, the college calendar, disaster preparedness, bomb threats, and energy conservation. The issues generally requiring the attention of the president and his assistants include the president's annual reports, town and gown relations, secondary education, and emeritus Smith presidents and their families. Issues that involve a number of administrative bodies include computer and audiovisual equipment and facilities, and the confidentiality of student records. There is also a collection of miscellaneous correspondence handled by the President's Office.

The Administrative Offices series is the largest series in the Mendenhall Files. It includes correspondence and reports from individual offices as well as news clippings and other general information about their activities and functions. The files are arranged alphabetically by the most recent name of the office.

See Series V. Administrative Offices - Vocational Office