paleonet Crisis at the Milwaukee Public Museum

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Title: Crisis at the Milwaukee Public Museum

During the last 4 months the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) has gone through a monumental budgetary crisis. An aggressive expansion of programs designed to increase funding failed catastrophically. We suddenly found that all funds, including our endowments, had been spent. The museum did not have enough funds to meet the next payroll. This occurred without being noticed by our board of directors or the museum president. It became a front-page scandal in Milwaukee. A massive layoff followed, which cut the curatorial staff in half, especially at the higher salary levels. We went from a staff with 12 PhDs to two PhDs. The exhibits staff suffered similar losses.

In the Geology Department two curators, Dr. Rodney Watkins (D.Phil, Oxford) and Paul Mayer (completing his PhD at the University of Wisconsin), were give two weeks notice. Rodney retired and is an emeritus curator (with a tiny pension and medical coverage). He will be teaching with a short-term appointment this fall at Chico State University. We are indebted to their faculty for a rapid response to the crisis. Paul has become a full time student, working on the MPM Devonian collections, with an adjunct position at the MPM. Both Rod and Paul retain their offices at the MPM.

The Geology Department now has only two members. Patricia (Coorough) Burke, is the collections manager, and I am the curator.

The primary culprit is gone as is the president. A new administration is in place. The short-term goal will be to regain the confidence of the community, especially donors who have seen their contributions squandered. Fortunately, we continue to have very strong community support.

Peter Sheehan
Robert and Sally Manegold Curatorial Chair of Geology