This material includes records of the USC Student Institute for Population and the Environment; some materials on USC PROBE (People's Response on a Better Environment); the Biology Students Association, which gave rise to the Student Institute and other regional associations, such as the Southern California Student Environmental Coalition (a confederation of local activist groups) and the Student Environmental Confederation of California (statewide). The largest file is an accumulation of papers from the Student Council on Pollution and the Environment (SCOPE), which was an advisory body to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under William Ruckleshouse.

Also included are papers relating to Guidotti's early formative career influences, which reflect the considerable opportunities for enrichment available to young adults in Los Angeles during Guidotti's high school years in the 1960s. These include the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Saturday classes in Biology and the affiliated Museum Student Association (MSA). The MSA program, managed by biologist Gretchen Sibley, was a formative experience for many students who went on to attend research‐oriented California universities such as USC, UCLA, and Caltech. Guidotti references his high school experience serving as President of the MSA in 1966 as an early catalyst that eventually led to his becoming President of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, in 2016, 50 years later.