University Of Chicago Professor Fights Obama Library

By Amy Cavanaugh in News on Jun 24, 2012 6:00PM

A University of Chicago political science professor is campaigning to keep the University from becoming the future home of the Obama presidential library. The Chicago Sun-Times talked with professor Charles Lipson, who said that he thinks "a presidential museum will inevitably become our university’s highest-profile institution on a national basis… It will not be a disinterested, scholarly institution. It will be advancing a political agenda, funded by President Obama’s political allies, including foreign donors who cannot give money to his presidential campaigns.”

Lipson argues that the Reagan library in California brings in conservative speakers and is a place to discuss republican ideas, while the Kennedy and Carter libraries in Boston serve the same role for liberals. He says that the University's Kalven Report was designed to keep the school from becoming partisan.

Lipson's colleagues say it's still too early to be thinking about this, but argue that the library could help the South Side economically and make it an important site for scholarship. They also cite that the University already has the Becker-Friedman Institute, the Paulson Institute, and David Axelrod’s brand new Institute of Politics, all of which raised concerns about partisanship but ultimately did not violate the Kalven Report.

Obama was senior law lecturer at the University and his home is a few blocks from the campus, so it's become one of two possible locations for the future library. The University admits to scouting out sites south of Midway for future projects, so that could be where we see the library. The other location in the running is the University of Hawaii.

The state’s legislature passed a resolution encouraging Obama to put the library in the tropical paradise he called home for most of his first 18 years. Even the Chamber of Commerce is on board, said University of Hawaii Professor Robert Perkinson: “Obama is quite a beloved figure in Hawaii.”

Library fundraising doesn't usually start until a president's second term (or after his presidency), so it's still early in the game. But come November, whatever happens in the election, we're expecting the debate to heat up.