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Hi again,
Below, you will find a sample letter provided by Dr. Schultze (the letter was actually written and sent by another person). Based on Dr. Schultze's original message (with Dr. Evans' correction on one of the fax numbers), your letter of support should be faxed and/or e-mailed to the following German authorities:
An den
Regierenden Bürgermeister
Klaus Wowereit
Berliner Rathaus
Rathausstr. 15
10173 Berlin
GERMANY
Fax: XX49-30-9026-2013
email: Der-Regierende-Buergermeister@SKZL.Verwalt-Berlin.de
Senator fur Wissenschaft, Forschung, and Kultur
des Landes Berlin
Herrn Dr. Thomas Flierl
Brunnenstr. 188-190
D-10119 Berlin
GERMANY
Telefax: ++49 30 9022 8450 or 8451
Der Präsident
Prof. Dr. J. Mlynek
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Under den Linden 6
D-10099 Berlin
GERMANY
Telefax: XX49-30-2093-2729
email: praesident@hu-berlin.de
SAMPLE LETTER
>>> "Schultze, H.P." <H-P.Schultze@MUSEUM.HU-Berlin.de> 05/17/02 03:03AM >>>
______________________________________________
Address
Address
Address
Address
14 May 2002
Dear *******************,
Future of the Palaeontological Institute, Museum für Naturkunde
I learnt today that the Expert Commission, set up to determine the future of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, has recommended that the professorship of Palaeontology at the Museum be replaced with a professorship of Systematics and Biogeography, and that the Institute of Palaeontology should cease to exist as a distinct entity within the Museum. I am writing to express my deep concern at this proposal. As a palaeontologist and systematic biologist with 17 years' academic experience in the Zoology Departments of the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, as well as the Palaeontology Department of the Natural History Museum (formerly British Museum of Natural History), I believe I am qualified to comment on the situation.
The statement by the Expert Commission, that palaeontology "has no scientific autonomy" and is therefore inappropriate for a professorship, is so extraordinary that it cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. At one level, no branch of science is "autonomous", as all connect with adjacent disciplines to form part of a greater whole. However, it is a grave misunderstanding to claim that palaeontology has no internal coherence beyond the fact that it deals with fossils.
In the first instance, all areas of palaeontology are unified conceptually by the unique challenges and possibilities offered by the study of evolution and ecosystem change through deep time, using a time-extensive but incomplete record of organismal diversity. There is an extensive literature dealing with the highly distinctive methodological framework for this science, including numerous publications in the highest-profile international journals such as Nature and Science. Secondly, from a collections management perspective, palaeontological collections present a set of distinctive challenges in terms of specimen conservation, locality documentation, conservation and ownership of localities, and so on, all of which differ substantially from those attaching to collections of modern organisms. Thirdly, from the point of view of the visiting public, palaeontology most certainly does form a distinctive and coherent whole - and is usually the overwhelmingly most popular part of a museum's displays: children come to see dinosaurs, not "the fossilized forms of zoology"!
For all these reasons, I believe it is essential that the Institute of Palaeontology is retained in its present form within the Museum für Naturkunde, and continues to be headed by a Professor of Palaeontology - as is normal practice at almost all comparable institutions in other countries. The Institute commands international respect as one of the world leaders in palaeontological research and curation: it would be a tragedy, and a significant blow to the Museum's international standing in this area, for it to be dismembered.
Yours sincerely,
****your name*****
_________________________________
Kenshu Shimada, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Environmental Science Program
and Department of Biological Sciences
DePaul University
2325 N. Clifton Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614, USA
AND
Research Associate
Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Fort Hays State University
Hays, KS 67601, USA
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