The document outlines a Java programming assignment requiring the creation of an application to manage and sort lists of undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and staff using an array list. It includes instructions for implementing a main method, utilizing compareTo for sorting by specific criteria, and details of necessary classes such as Person, Student, Employee, Faculty, and Staff. The provided code snippets illustrate how to instantiate objects and print sorted outputs based on defined fields like student number, department, and salary.