This series includes materials documenting general activities within Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost that span multiple provosts/vice presidents or that were most likely not necessarily part of one particular provost’s or vice president's office files. Certain issues or topics are very well documented and these are outlined below. In addition, this series includes a smattering of brochures, reports, and publications from Academic Affairs and its sub-units, Academic Council minutes, and data on instruction and courses. Other topics include: Charting the Future, instruction, international education, hiring/employment, and mission statements.

This series contains a relatively large amount of material documenting the university's activities with the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE). The CCHE materials address a broad swath of issues often responding to requests from CCHE or informing this governing body of policy compliance. Topics include: discontinuance and establishment of academic programs and degrees, academic initiatives and planning, staffing formulas, information technology, credit transfers, and diversity initiatives. CCHE reports may not be specific to only UNC, but all Colorado institutions of higher learning.

There is a good deal of information regarding Reduction in Force (RIF) and retrenchment, which occurred in the early 1980s and was examined as a possibility in the early 2000s. Documents from the 1980s include policies and procedures about reducing the university’s labor force due to financial exigency, the controversy and hearing process that ensued (including transcripts of the 1983 hearings), and options for effected faculty. It also includes reports from all academic departments on the impacts of the Reduction In Force, historical enrollment information, proposals, task force recommendations and reports, and administrative memos. In the early 1980s, twenty-five faculty members had their contracts reduced and brought the issue to the Grievance Committee, which found that the university did not adequately demonstrate financial exigency. Folders with information about individuals who filed grievances are restricted until 2057. Several documents are from Faculty Senate and the University of Northern Colorado Education Association. The 2000s Reduction in Force material includes documents from the Joint Retrenchment Committee (JRC), whose purpose was to explore the possibility of a Reduction in Force. Materials include meeting minutes and reports about the university's finances and establishment of the JRC, and audio recordings on cassette tape of committee meetings.

There is detailed information about the M. Lucille Harrison Teaching Excellence Award such as correspondence about the award's finances and Harrison Trust (including a law suit), procedural questions and changes, activities of the award committee, and information about nominees and winners.

Another major topic in this series is Term Issues, that is, equity and other issues for contract-renewable faculty or faculty who are not tenured or tenure-track. This issue came to light in 1994 by the Welfare Committee, and was dealt with subsequently by the Welfare and Codification committees and Faculty Senate to "provide more equitable treatment for term faculty" (1996 memo in Term Issues folder, 1996). A Term Faculty task force was created which produced a report and proposals. Presumably, all of the documentation found here about the term issue was accumulated by the Task Force. Researchers will find the task force’s reports, proposals for conversion, decisions by faculty senate, memos, and objections.