Re: paleonet FW: Potential closing of the University of Nebraska State Museum

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Requests such as this are dreadfully sad, but also sadly inappropriate. We know nothing of the context. Some Solomon somewhere is obliged to cut babies in half and they like doing that no more than we like having it done to us.

There is a reality out there that relates to money. For whatever reason(s) at the moment the economy is a secondary issue and we are all involved in a deep recession. As a result we are in some rather dreadful Darwinian times. At issue may be the survival of whole university departments and programs. But why should we be immune from this tragedy but not concern ourselves with the cuts applied across the board to Buildings and Grounds staffs or to Housekeepers in our dorms or to Joe down the road who just lost his job...? Places that are important hardly need a writing campaign to justify their continuation or future existence.

You have my deepest sympathy but I don't know enough about your state, your university, etc. to provide a meaningful letter.

Chris Baldwin

Michael Cuggy wrote:

I am forwarding this message sent to me from a friend in SVP.
-----------------------------------------------
Michael B. Cuggy

To SVP Members,

At the University of Nebraska, we, like so many institutions, have been
undergoing severe budget cuts over the past several months. The University
of Nebraska State Museum had been left spared from these cuts - until
yesterday. We received news of the Chancellor's recommendations for a
portion of the third round of cuts, as quoted from the Chancellor's email

to

faculty and staff and publicly announced:

"Eliminate the Research Divisions of the State Museum and Master's degree

in

Museum Studies ($1,103,614)
(Eliminate eight tenured faculty positions, 12 managerial/professional
positions and two clerical/technical/service positions)

Eliminate the research divisions of the State Museum and the Master's
program in Museum Studies. The Museum would cease to have a research
faculty, and eight tenured positions would be eliminated. The Museum would
maintain (but possibly with reduced hours) most public and outreach
programs, including those at Morrill Hall, at Ashfall Fossil Beds State
Historical Park and Trailside Museum. Mueller Planetarium would be closed.
The Museum would continue to maintain collections of particular

distinction

or Nebraska importance, including Vertebrate Paleontology, Invertebrate
Paleontology, Parasitology, Botany, and Entomology; these collections

would

continue to be available to support teaching and research by university
faculty and others. Collections that will no longer be a focus for the
Museum would be transferred responsibly to other museums through
deaccessioning, long-term loan, or outright transfer. Some tenured Museum
faculty may be re-employed in academic departments. The Master's program

in

Museum Studies will no longer be available."

This is truly a nightmare for me, a Ph.D. student, and my feelings cannot
compare to those of faculty and staff in all Museum divisions, many who

have

spent their careers here. I came to study VP at the University of Nebraska
because of the fantastic people and amazing collections, and have come to
call it home.

I am asking for help from the SVP community in showing the University that
eliminating research at the Museum would be a loss not only to the state,
but also to the country and the world.  Please show your support by

writing

to the Chancellor and President of the University. At the end of this
message, I've included a list of selected Museum faculty, information on

the

Museum, contact information for the University Chancellor and President

and

links to further information on proposed cuts.

With thanks,

Andrea Bair
Ph.D. Candidate
Division of Vertebrate Paleontology
University of Nebraska State Museum
Lincoln, NE 68588-0514
phone: (402) 472-2657 or (402) 617-1833
email: abair@unlserve.unl.edu



MUSEUM FACULTY (Vertebrate Paleontology and Zoology only):
VP: Michael Voorhies and Robert Hunt, Jr.
Zoology: Patricia Freeman and Hugh Genoways

COLLECTIONS: The Museum includes over 13,000,000 objects and specimens,
which include fossils from every Nebraska county, one of the earliest

known

fossil flowers, the world¹s largest and only completely articulated fossil
mammoth, in-depth collections of migratory birds, the Buros African
collection, and a magnificent library on human parasitic diseases. The
Museum is among the 25 largest museums of natural history in the U.S., and
its parasitology and fossil mammal collections are the 2nd and 3rd largest
and most important collections in the country, respectively. The
non-vascular plant and insect collections are both among the 25 largest in
the U.S., and UNSM scarab collections are the 4th largest in the world.
Databases built from these collections are a unique research resource for
the University, state, nation, and world. The Museum houses the earliest
records of biodiversity in Nebraska and the Great Plains and serves as a
repository for voucher specimens for several state agencies.

RESEARCH & CREATIVE ACTIVITIES: Museum staff i
s involved in studies of
modern and fossil biodiversity and evolution in the Great Plains, the
Neotropics, China, and Mongolia. From 1996-2000 UNSM faculty have

published

nearly ninety refereed research papers. One of the two 2000-2001 ORCA

awards

went to a UNSM faculty member for his work on the systematics of scarab
beetles.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor:
Harvey Perlman
201 Canfield Administration
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE  68588-0419
phone: (402) 472-2116
email: hperlman1@unl.edu

University of Nebraska President:
L. Dennis Smith
University of Nebraska Administration
Varner Hall
3835 Holdrege
Lincoln NE 68583
phone: (402) 472-8636
email: president@Nebraska.edu

Information about the Museum and collections from the UNSM website
(www.museum.unl.edu/mission.html):

You can read the Chancellor's email at:
www.unl.edu/pr/chancllr/2003-5budget/

More information on this budget proposal is available at:
www.unl.edu/pr/chancllr/2003-5budget/documents/20030310/summary.html




------ End of Forwarded Message