Jay Rochlin is a native Arizonan from Nogales. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and education (1973), a master's in business administration (1987), and a PhD in higher education (1993), all from the University of Arizona. Rochlin's career has included work in both radio and television broadcasting, having served as the editor of the University of Arizona Alumni Association magazine for 20 years, and as an assistant professor of practice in the UA's School of Journalism for eight years before his retirement in 2012.

The Jay Rochlin oral history project audio cassettes measure 1 linear foot and contain oral histories conducted by Rochlin with 16 African-American and 31 Mexican-American University of Arizona alumni and alumnae recorded on 58 compact audio cassettes.

The collection consists of audio interviews, correspondence, oral history transcripts, and research files. These oral histories were collected by Jay Rochlin as research data for his 1995 Higher Education Ph.D dissertation "Conversations with Ricardo's daughter: The minority experience at the University of Arizona between 1925 and 1994 from a critical race theory perspective." The dissertation examines the occurrence of racial and ethnic prejudice against underrepresented groups at the University across time, and the factors that encouraged these individuals to pursue higher education in spite of socio-economic and systemic barriers.