This collection consists of planning documents, faculty committee reports for the college's initial study abroad programs as well as printed materials including general brochures on international study, early newsletters and a memo regarding the office's name change. The Cambridge/England program printed material includes brochures, and flyers as well as materials designed to assist the students in planning including packing lists, information on local customs, lists of attending professors, syllabi and general rules and guidelines. The correspondence is between Davidson's contacts in England and the Davidson program advisor, usually Dr. Malcom Lester.

The Administrative/Archival Records contain all information concerning the administration of the Program as well as those historical records documenting the major activities of the Dean Rusk Program. The Program's Calendar of Events and information on the Dean Rusk Advisory Council (formed in 1997), the Faculty Advisory Committee, the Student Advisory Committee, the National Steering Committee, and Corporate Affiliates Group are found here. In addition, all material printed by the Dean Rusk Program are located in the Administrative/Archival Files, i.e., Admissions Brochure, Annual Report, the Communique newsletter, Conference Series Brochures, Fund-Raising Brochures and the Dean Rusk Program Prospectus. Information is also available on the Dean Rusk Program Award, early Development and Fund-Raising ideas for the Program, the Atlantic Council, the Rusk Portrait in the Carolina Inn, the Summer Institute for Teachers that was sponsored by the Program, the Dean Rusk Endowment, and publicity such as flyers, logos and photographs used by the Dean Rusk Program. Specific folders are available on Dr. Daniel S. Papp, who gave a speech on Dean Rusk; Senator Wynche Fowler, Jr., who spoke at Davidson's Sesquicentennial Convocation; and Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter, Cyrus Vance, who received an honorary degree from Davidson. A letter signed by Secretary of State Dean Rusk is found in the February 1989 Correspondence file.

Correspondence Files contain all official correspondence as well as correspondence to students and intercampus correspondence. A vast majority of the official correspondence includes letters from Jack Perry inviting speakers for the Dean Rusk Program conferences. The correspondence in the June 1990 Official Correspondence file highlights Jack Perry's selection by the White House to be a member of the Presidential Observer Delegation that watched the Bulgarian elections in 1990. Much of the correspondence also involves fund-raising tactics for the Dean Rusk Program and the letters often cite individual donors. For this reason, serveral of the files are restricted. A letter signed by U.S. Senator Harvey B. Gantt is located in the March-April 1990 Correspondence file.

Conference Series Files contain information related specifically to the North Carolina NationsBank (NCNB) Conferences. NCNB gave the Dean Rusk Program a grant of $500,000 to be used to fund an annual conference. Information on the correspondence, planning and publicity of the first three conferences funded by this grant is available in BOX 6. In addition, individual files have been set aside on Dr. Alexander Dallin, President of the World Organization of Soviet and East European studies at Stanford University and Ms. Tatyana Mamonova, writer and artist expelled from Russia for her feminist views.

Boxes 7, 8, 9 10 and 11 constitute a major addition to the collection made at a later date than the original arrangement. As such, some material subjects overlap and cross-reference materials in the original collection.

The Summer Institute files contain plans, programs, participant and assessment information for these special programs which took place during the summers of 1988, 1989 and 1992. Their purpose was continuing education for secondary-school teachers in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area with an emphasis on current international awareness. Of particular interest is the transcript of a speech made by Peter Relic, one-time superintendent of public schools for Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

The bulk of the addition consists of the correspondence of the Dean Rusk Program's founding director, Jack Perry. Perry was an active correspondent and the collection contains many of his published and unpublished articles for The Charlotte Observer and other publications. The addition also contains files on other local and campus organizations and offices with which the Program had extensive interaction; including the Development Office, the Faculty Advisory Committee, and Dean Robert Williams. Separate folders are also available on the Atlantic Council, International House, and Bulgarian Affairs. Of special note is a letter from Dean Rusk to President John Kuykendall in the Intercampus Correspondence 1994-1995 folder.

The Phi Beta Delta folder contains information about the organizing of the honorary society and minutes of meetings.