Political repression of faculty members and the use of an archive of records to help remedy this phenomenon are discussed. The focus is the use of coercion to compel the behavior of politically dissident faculty members, particularly by the use of dismissal. The archive of records would indicate faculty members fired, not hired, or harassed for their dissent against some aspect of established power. While the emphasis is upon repression of politically left academics, the problem includes sexual, racial, and professional uses of power to benefit some and discriminate against others. After tracing the history of political repression in academia starting in the nineteenth century, it is claimed that an archive would lead to exposure because it would demonstrate the fact of the tenacity of the problem and would attract scholars and lead to publications. As a guide to the workings of repression, the archive would gain political and historical value, and its psychological and moral value to the living victims of repression would be important. Hopefully, the result would be to strengthen the struggle to enlarge freedom of thought and speech and equal rights in academia. Principals for appraisal and selection of documents are considered. 12 references. (SW)