The Records of the Office of the President, Walter S. Newman span the years 1947 to 1962, with the bulk of the material dating from 1947 to 1961. The collection consists primarily of Newman's General Correspondence. Also included, and interfiled with general correspondence, are budget requests and statements, financial reports, enrollment statistics, architects' contracts, audits, commencement and inaugural ephemera, statements to the Federal Power Commission, a few photographs, and reports on Virginia's public school system submitted to the Moses Commission.

There is also inauguration material, including programs, invitations, clippings, correspondence, speeches, and certificates of congratulations and greetings from other universities. Other materials include correspondence, reports, and some committee minutes dealing with the VPI World War II Memorial; correspondence, reports, and some minutes of the Research Council on Education (Governor's Advisory Committee) which Newman chaired; a folder of correspondence by John Hutcheson as Chancellor; and correspondence, reports, and other documents relating to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Educational Foundation, Inc.

The records document Newman's administrative activities as president of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and many of the major developments that took place in the university's history during his term. In addition to General Correspondence, which constitutes the bulk of the collection, the records are organized into the following series: Honorary Awards Committee, Newman Library Building Project, and Oversize Materials.

General Correspondence consists of Newman's office files for each year of his presidency. The series is subdivided chronologically, and in each sub-series, materials are filed alphabetically by correspondent or subject, reflecting their original order.

Subjects discussed in Newman's correspondence include racial relations and desegregation, building projects, development of an adequate water supply for Blacksburg and Virginia Tech (see 1951 correspondence with Governor Battle), the Corps of Cadets, possible merger with Radford College in 1949, expansion of graduate programs, acquisition of a nuclear reactor simulator, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Moses Commission, development of radio and television stations at Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech faculty's statement of support of the House Un-American Activities Committee, football, the Southern Athletic Conference, concerns about hazing and panty raids at Radford College, and a petition on the part of the town of Blacksburg to annex the Virginia Tech campus.

Major correspondents include Virginia Attorney General and Governor Lindsay Almond, T.W. Mumford and John M. Devine, Commandants of the Corps of Cadets; L.A. Pardue, Vice President and Director of Graduate Studies; E.B. Norris, Director of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Research Foundation; L.B. Dietrick, Dean of Agriculture, Dean John W. Whittemore, Hart Harris, Director of Personnel for the State of Virginia; Earl Fisher, Director of Development for Virginia Tech, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Educational Foundation, Inc., the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities, and the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council.

Notable correspondents include Virginia Governors William Tuck, John Battle, and Thomas Stanley. There is one letter from President Dwight Eisenhower and another from his brother Milton Eisenhower. Correspondence files labeled Legislation include a 1959 letter from Senator Lyndon B. Johnson as well as letters from Virginia Senator William Byrd, and other Virginia senators and congressmen.

Correspondence with Virginia Attorney General Lindsay Almond and Director of Admissions Paul Farrier in the early 1950s documents the University's strategy in response to efforts to challenge segregation in Virginia's public schools and universities and the decision to admit Irving L. Peddrew III, the first Black student enrolled at Virginia Tech. Files labeled "Racial Relations" from 1951 and 1952 document Newman's attempts, which proved unsuccessful, to help the defense in Dorothy Davis v. County School Board, Prince Edward County by providing historical evidence of equality of resources within segregation. A file of correspondence from 1961 with Mary Fessler, President of the Blacksburg Branch of the American Association of University Women, records Newman's decision to bar the organization from meeting on campus after a Black woman joined.

Subject and correspondence files on the Corps of Cadets document concerns about how mandatory participation in the Corps was effecting enrollment and efforts to strengthen the Corps during the 1950s.

The Honorary Awards Committee series consists of one folder of correspondence from 1962 pertaining to a proposed Honorary Awards Committee and expansion of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Citation Committee.

The Newman Library Building Project series contains correspondence, bids, reports, color samples, and clippings pertaining to construction of Newman Library. Materials in this series date from 1949-1957. They are arranged alphabetically by subject, reflecting their original order.

The Oversize Materials series comprises organizational and financial charts, maps, and architectural drawings dating from the period 1957 to 1955. Much of this material was taken from the Newman Library Building Project series, but a few items were taken from the General Correspondence series. There is also material on Newman's inauguration