Kathryn Palmer at Inside Higher Ed:
More than 450 cubic feet of material related to former congressman Elton Gallegly’s 26 years in office are available for in-person research at the Elton and Janice Gallegly Center for Public Service and Civic Engagement at California Lutheran University. The 356 boxes in the collection contain correspondence, testimonies, bills and other materials that illuminate Gallegly’s political career.
When Gallegly, a Republican who represented Ventura County from 1987 to 2013, signed a gift agreement in 2017 giving the university its first major archival collection, he was under the impression the collection would be digitized. However, none of it is available for browsing online.
And over the past six years, numerous students and faculty members have raised questions about how well Gallegly’s political record fits with the school’s mission as a Hispanic-serving institution, according to legal documents. In 2020, a group of faculty and staff members sent a letter to university leaders characterizing the center as a “racist space” that “further serves to reinforce the oppression of marginalized voices on our campus” and calling for its removal.
The center is still open, but now Gallegly is knee-deep in litigating a lawsuit he filed against the university in 2021. It alleges a breach of contract and fiduciary duties over the nearly $1 million he helped the university raise for his public service center. Donors were told their money would support a fellowship, a speaker series and a digitally accessible archive of his political records, but none of those things are happening right now.
Cal Lutheran disagrees. More here.