BP donates $1 million to archive former Sen. Ted Stevens' papers
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Stevens sent more than 4,500 boxes of papers and other materials to UAF in March to archive, but the Rasmuson Library has had the records in storage ever since.
The reason was simple: UAF didn’t have the funds or work force to deal with such an enormous archive. Without the grant from the oil company it would have taken decades to sort through the archive, said Rasmuson Library Development Officer Naomi Horne.
“We were pretty upfront that we were going to need some money because of the sheer mass of this,” Horne said. “When we say (there are) 4,500 boxes, I don’t think people realize how big that is.”
The BP donation, which is spread across two years, will allow the library to hire additional staff to catalog and preserve Stevens’ public policy papers, digitize audio and visual materials, create an online exhibit and electronic catalog, and maintain the collection.
Horne said much of the collection will be available for public viewing when the process is complete.
BP Alaska spokesman Steve Rinehart said the donation appealed to the company as a way to preserve an important piece of Alaska’s history in the state’s 50th anniversary year.
“We saw it, frankly, as a way to celebrate the past and look ahead to the future,” Rinehart said.
Corporate donations to UAF and some other public entities can be offset by state tax credits, but Horne said only about a third of BP’s donation will be eligible for a tax break.
“They really went above and beyond,” she said.
The original documents and materials still belong to Stevens or his heirs. After 10 years, they may be transferred to a university library in Anchorage if a facility exists that can house the collection, according to the agreement.
Contact staff writer Jeff Richardson at 459-7518.
What did BP and Stevens do together in the past that's so dirty that makes BP willing to pay $1 million so Stevens can keep his political papers from all but the friendliest eyes??
put Steven's papers
under lock and key
just like the senator
should be...
what a stink weasel ..
"The material won't be available to researchers until five years after Stevens' death unless he gives special permission, according to the contract between Stevens and the university.
"Specially excluded from the collection are any personal papers, financial records or correspondence with members of his immediate and extended family. If archivists discover any personal documents in the collection, they must be removed and returned to Stevens or his estate. Among the members of his family to whom that section would apply is at least one successful Anchorage lobbyist, brother-in-law Bill Bittner, and a former state Senate president, son Ben Stevens, also once a Washington lobbyist and a consultant to companies seeking legislation from Congress.
"Even though the records will be maintained by the state, the contract specifically exempts the archive from the Alaska or federal public-records laws. If a judge ever disagreed and ruled they were public records, the contract specifies the entire collection must be returned to Stevens or his heirs as quickly as possible.
"As long as Stevens is alive, he can approve or deny requests made by the university on behalf of political scientists, historians, reporters and others to open sections of the archive before the entire collection is processed. If a demand for material comes to the university in the form of a subpoena or search warrant, the university is required, under the contract, to alert Stevens before it complies."
In other words, the university, with oil money behind it, is spending its good name and the traditions of open scholarship so that Stevens can for years freeze out any scholar or writer who he thinks might not give him a flattering review. Effectively, the collection, maintained at university expense with public money, will be available to Friends of Ted and no one else. One university historian, at work on a flattering biography of Ted, may be granted access, while a political scientist down the hall might be denied access if he has ever written critically of Ted in the past. The faculty Senate should oppose this travesty of the university's basic mission. And the News-Miner ought to report both angles of the story.
I sense corruption still live and well in the 49th state.
Thank you BP.