Phyllis Wise correspondence regarding Steven Salaita

August 22, 2014

J.K. Trotter
MuckRock News
requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>

Re: FOIA 14-551

Dear Mr. Trotter:

I write to respond to your Freedom of Information request of August 15, in which you requested:

"All emails, dated between May 1 2014 and August 15 2014, sent or received by Chancellor Phyllis Wise concerning the appointment and/or employment of Steven Salaita.

Requested records include any emails, dated between May 1 2014 and August 15 2014, sent or received by Chancellor Phyllis Wise that contain the following phrases:

- "Steven Salaita"
- "Salaita"
- "Israel"
- "Palestine"
- "Palestinians"
- "Gaza"
- "Twitter"."

Our office has conducted a preliminary search for the documents.

Your request for documents and information listed in your email is considered unduly burdensome to the University, inasmuch as the request would unduly burden the public body by reviewing more than 6,500 emails. Pursuant to Section 3(g) of the Act, we would like to extend to you an opportunity to modify your request to make it of more manageable proportions. Specifically, we request you narrow the time frame of your request. Please note, the majority of the emails are from August 2014, so if you choose to focus on that month, please limit your request to a narrow date range. Please contact my colleague Kathy McCarthy at the phone number listed below to further discuss ways to narrow your request. If you do not reduce the request, it shall be treated as a denial.

You have a right, under the law, to seek a review of this response by the Public Access Counselor (PAC) in the Office of the Attorney General. The PAC may be reached by phone at 217-782-1396, by email to publicaccess@atg.state.il.us<mailto:publicaccess@atg.state.il.us>, or by postal mail at the Public Access Bureau, 500 S. 2nd Street, Springfield, Illinois 62706. You also have the right to seek judicial review under section 11 of this Act.
If you have any questions, or would like to discuss how to narrow the scope of your request, please contact me at 217-333-6400.

Sincerely,

Thomas P. Hardy
Executive Director
and Chief Records Officer

September 2, 2014

J.K. Trotter
MuckRock News
requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>

Re: FOIA 14-551

Dear Mr. Trotter:

I write to respond to your narrowed Freedom of Information request of August 15, in which you requested:

"Requested records include any emails, dated between August 1 2014 and August 25 2014 , sent or received by Chancellor Phyllis Wise that contain the following phrases:

"Steven Salaita"
"Salaita"
"Israel"
"Palestine"
"Palestinians"
"Gaza"
"Twitter"."

Our office has conducted a preliminary search for the documents.

We appreciate that you narrowed the timeframe of your original request. However, even with this narrowed scope, your request for documents and information listed in your email is still considered unduly burdensome to the University, inasmuch as the request would unduly burden the public body by searching and reviewing approximately 1,000 pages of responsive documents.

Pursuant to Section 3(g) of the Act, we would like to extend to you an opportunity to modify your request to make it of more manageable proportions. Below, our office has provided you a link to the documents that have already been produced on this topic. You may find some of the information you are looking for in those documents. If you wish to proceed with your FOIA request, we ask that you reduce the scope of your request to more manageable proportions. In this case, most of Chancellor Wise's correspondence on this topic is from private citizens voicing their opinion. If you are not seeking this type of correspondence, it would be helpful if you limited your request to communications regarding Steven Salaita between the Chancellor and a limited number of specified University administrators. If you do not reduce the request, it shall be treated as a denial.

You have a right, under the law, to seek a review of this response by the Public Access Counselor (PAC) in the Office of the Attorney General. The PAC may be reached by phone at 217-782-1396, by email to publicaccess@atg.state.il.us, or by postal mail at the Public Access Bureau, 500 S. 2nd Street, Springfield, Illinois 62706. You also have the right to seek judicial review under section 11 of this Act.
If you have any questions, or would like to discuss how to narrow the scope of your request, please contact me at 217-333-6400.

Sincerely,

Thomas P. Hardy
Executive Director
and Chief Records Officer

To access your documents, please use the following link:

https://uofi.box.com/s/k4ksilmgsvpqwx81snsd

This link will stay active for 10 days

You submitted a request on August 15. On Sept 2, our office responded and noted that your original request (14-551) was determined to be burdensome. We offered you an opportunity to narrow your request and also noted the availability of documents provided to other requestors who sought similar records.

You responded to our narrow letter on Sept 2, and said that we could "consider [your] request completed and closed." Based on that response, your request of August 15 was closed. The box link provided below is active and documents are available for download.

Thanks.
--ginny hudak-david