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On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 9:51 PM, Martin Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Budget Crunch to Shrink Science Programs at Chicago's Field MuseumScience 4
> January 2013:
> Vol. 339 no. 6115 p. 19
> DOI: 10.1126/science.339.6115.19
> [image: Figure]
> Ruffled feathers.
>
> Scientists say proposed layoffs at the Field Museum are "a really dumb
> move."
> CREDIT: JOHN WEINSTEIN/THE FIELD MUSEUM
>
> The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, is planning
> significant layoffs to its world-class faculty in a cost-cutting move that
> threatens to erode its international reputation. The news has shaken the
> Field Museum's scientists, and left researchers at other museums puzzled
> and dismayed.
>
> "It feels like we're watching the Field Museum publicly commit suicide,"
> says Michael Donoghue, a botanist at Yale University and the former
> director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. "They've basically
> announced that they're going to drain the scientific lifeblood out of the
> place. And that means they're no longer going to be a player on the stage
> of the great museums of the world. It's a really dumb move. There has to be
> an alternative."
>
> Last month, the Field Museum announced that it needs to shave $5 million
> from its overall annual budget of about $70 million to stave off a fiscal
> crisis. Museum President Richard Lariviere says that the Field Museum's
> science departments will likely lose $3 million from a $10-million-a-year
> budget. That account supports 27 curators and 116 other staff scientists.
> Some will necessarily lose their positions, Lariviere says, although "how
> many has yet to be determined."
>
> Lariviere, a classical Indian scholar who became president in October,
> says he reached the decision reluctantly and that there are no better
> options. "The fact that there isn't more money for science isn't a point of
> satisfaction for anyone," he says. "But to deny the financial reality, and
> to continue to spend more money than comes in, is to doom this place. Our
> goal is to grow the museum, but to do that we first need to balance the
> budget."
>
> Created in 1893, the Field Museum is a leading research center in the
> natural and anthropological sciences. It houses some 25 million specimens
> of fossils, plants, and animals, as well as millions of cultural items from
> around the world. Many of the specimens were collected by the museum's
> curators, who also maintain labs and obtain outside funding to do research
> on the collections. Last year, for example, Field Museum scientists
> discovered more than 200 plants and animals and published numerous articles
> in peer-reviewed journals.
>
> "Our scientific colleagues acknowledge that we're in the top ranks of
> world researchers," says Peter Makovicky, a geologist and chair of the
> museum's geology department. "So when the administration makes an
> announcement to the world that it's willing to sacrifice that, it is
> worrying."
>
> At Lariviere's request, the museum has formed a special committee to
> review the museum's finances and decide if a "financial exigency" exists.
> Such a declaration would allow the museum to lay off its tenured scientists
> (most of the curators have tenure) along with other professional staff
> members. But because Lariviere told local media that curatorial positions
> would be cut, museum staff members believe "that the administration already
> has a foregone conclusion about the committee's decision," says Makovicky,
> a committee member. "But we haven't met yet to discuss the exigency issue."
>
> Lariviere tells *Science* that "it is up to the committee to answer the
> question" about whether the museum is in financial exigency. "I hope that
> they find it is not the case," he says. "But I don't think that they will."
>
> The current fiscal crisis has several elements. Its $300 million
> endowment, which provides roughly one-fifth of its operating budget, was
> hammered in the 2008 recession. Although it has bounced back, it has not
> grown as fast as had been anticipated before the crash. Attendance has
> remained flat for decades, and revenues from the city of Chicago and from
> private sources are down. In addition, the administration has revised the
> museum's accounting practices, so that the $12 million a year spent on
> maintaining the museum's 90-year-old building is now part of the operating
> budget.
>
> Another major component is the $7-million-a-year cost of servicing debt
> for projects such as the $90 million Collections Resource Center, a
> state-of-the-art facility for storing and studying specimens that opened in
> 2005. "It's a very impressive [facility]," says James Hanken, a
> herpetologist and the director of Harvard University's Museum of
> Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "But they made a financial
> gamble when they built it, and they lost."
>
> Over the years, these factors have contributed to a growing imbalance
> between revenues and expenses. In 2008, museum officials imposed several
> cost-cutting measures, including a hiring freeze; slashing its
> housekeeping, security, operations, and exhibitions staff; and trimming
> exhibition budgets. The museum has also reduced its scientific staff
> through attrition. In 2004, the museum employed 40 curators compared with
> the current 27; among those losses are the two herpetologists once employed
> to maintain its internationally acclaimed collection of reptile and
> amphibian specimens.
>
> Lariviere says that a smaller staff is still capable of doing world-class
> research. "It's absurd to think that we can't do science because we don't
> have a herpetologist. The very notion that these cuts mean the end of
> science at the museum … doesn't make sense." He says the collections will
> remain available to outside researchers. "The enhancement of the collection
> lies in the scientific studies done on them, but the Field Museum staff
> scientists aren't the only ones who do this," he adds.
>
> Outside scientists say that layoffs could do permanent damage to the
> museum's reputation as a first-rate scientific institution. "An inevitable
> decline will follow from those cuts," says Neil Shubin, a paleontologist at
> the University of Chicago. "They'll lose what is unique about the Field:
> Its scientific authority, which comes from the eminence of their scientists
> and collections. It will take years to replace, if it can ever be done."
>
> --
> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
> Martin Weiss, PhD
> Senior Scientist
> New York Hall of Science
> mweiss at nyscience.org
> cell   347-460-1858
> desk 718 595 9156
>



-- 
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Martin Weiss, PhD
Senior Scientist
New York Hall of Science
mweiss at nyscience.org
cell   347-460-1858
desk 718 595 9156

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