I want to thank everyone out there who has contacted University of Illinois President, B. Joseph White, calling on him to take immediate steps to insure the safety of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge records, to release the identity of the Collection’s donor, and to swiftly make the Collection available to me, and to the public at large. I’ve received about 200 cc’s of e-mails sent to President White, and I’ve thanked just about all of these folks personally. But I suspect that the number of people ccing me is only a fraction of the actual number who have written to President White. So again, my sincere thanks to all of you for pumping up the pressure in this critical public battle. Public scrutiny is our best option for maximizing the safety of the records, and for forcing them out into the public domain.

I’ll comment here on one specific point–my call for the University of Illinois to release the name of the donor. I cannot see any legitimate reason for keeping the name of the donor secret. This is not a collection of personal memorabilia from some private individual. If it was, the name of the individual would probably be public anyway, even if there were time restrictions on some personal papers. But the Chicago Annenberg Challenge has always been a very public matter. The original national Annenberg Challenge was announced by President Clinton. The purpose of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was to improve the Chicago public school system. The board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was filled with public figures, certainly including board chair, Barack Obama. I cannot imagine that any person, persons, or body able to donate these records to UIC would have any legitimate reason to shield their identity from the public. From the start, everything about the Chicago Annenberg Challenge has been a matter of direct public interest. Given this, what possible grounds could UIC’s Richard J. Daley library have for shielding the name of the donor?

For further background, see this important post, especially the last half, from Steve Diamond, who has been the key blogger on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge issue. You can also read this brand new post over at Tom Maguire’s JustOneMinute.

I think we need to keep up the pressure on the University of Illinois. For anyone interested in helping with this battle, you can read more about it in my piece, “Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown?” If you’d like to contact President White, you’ll find an email link here. Phone numbers for President White’s two offices are: (312) 413-9097 and (217) 333-3072. Mailing addresses can be found here.