The collection documents the professional career of Dr. Mary Peterson Arnold as a journalism educator, administrator, researcher, and advocate for scholastic journalism and student press rights. Materials include course syllabi and instructional content for undergraduate and graduate journalism courses at South Dakota State University, particularly media law, international women’s issues, and science writing. The collection contains correspondence, sabbatical records, promotion and tenure materials, departmental reviews, and institutional branding records reflecting her administrative and faculty roles. Also present are research papers, published and unpublished writings, conference materials, reports, and policy documents addressing high school journalism, student freedom of expression, diversity and recruitment, women in media management, and journalism education. Awards, plaques, certificates, photographs, and commemorative items document professional recognition from national journalism and education organizations. Records related to high school journalism associations and youth media programs further illustrate Arnold’s sustained engagement with scholastic journalism at the state and national levels.

The collection documents journalism education and media law instruction in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries, with particular emphasis on scholastic journalism, student press freedom, and the role of women in news media leadership. It reflects national professional networks in journalism education and records institutional leadership and curriculum development at South Dakota State University. The materials support research on journalism pedagogy, youth media advocacy, gender equity in media organizations, and the professionalization of high school journalism programs.