Twenty Kansas University students this semester have been granted access to Bob Dole’s political papers from his tenure in the U.S House of Representatives, which previously were closed to the public.

When Dole donated his 4,000-plus boxes of papers to Kansas University in 2001 to establish the Dole Institute of Politics, he laid out a timeline for opening the papers to the public.

Public-domain materials such as photos, speeches and press releases already are open. Most legislative and campaign materials weren’t supposed to be open until 2011 or 2016. Some personnel files won’t be open until 2051.

But Jonathan Earle, associate professor of history and associate director of the Dole Institute, thought that was too long to wait. So he approached Dole and asked whether the former senator and presidential candidate would open his House papers to his students for one class project. Dole served in the U.S. House from 1961 to 1968.

“Politicians are naturally cautious about these things,” Earle said. “They don’t want things out there for scholars and other politicians to see until the time has gone by. In this case, the time has gone by. The most recent papers are 35 years old.”