As a Penn graduate, I wrote directly to both the Director of the Univ.  
Museum, Richard Hodges, and the President of the University. While the  
President has not replied, I did receive the following from Dr. Hodges.

Thank you for your email about the Penn Museum's research  
specialists.  I
appreciate your sincere concern and your willingness to write so fully  
to me
about this issue.

Let me begin by emphasizing that archaeological research has been and
continues to be central to the mission of the Penn Museum, and we  
continue
to support it. Even after the recent position cuts, we still have forty
researchers working within the Museum on our collections and field  
projects.
This is as many if not more scholars than can be found at any other
archaeological institute or museum in North America.

As you know, the Penn Museum has had two missions as (i) a center for
independent archaeological and anthropological research, and (ii) a  
Museum
devoted to the world's great civilizations-through collections  
maintenance,
interpretation and outreach. Maintaining these two missions has become
increasingly difficult as costs have increased steeply over the past  
decade.
Both parts of the mission, therefore, need to generate revenues  
following
contemporary standards to help us sustain them. In the case of MASCA,  
this
was its original intention. It was designed to provide services for the
Museum and raise income. This original intention has not come to  
fruition,
with the result that the Museum has not only supported MASCA but also  
seldom
sought to use its services. You will readily recognize that this is
untenable in 2009. So, we have set out a new 5-Year strategy in which  
we aim
to sustain both missions, but as is normal international practice in the
sciences, we have asked   the researchers to (a) work with the  
mission, (b)
raise - with our help - their salaries by grants or other generated  
income.
We set this in motion on 19 November 2008 with a view to working with  
all
who wished to do so by 31 May 2009 to identify new funding streams.

The media reports of 18 layoffs are not accurate.  What we have done is
discontinued a category of position here-the Senior Research  
Scientist. Five
of the 18 scholars who have that current designation will in fact  
continue
working on the Museum's staff, although with duties that are more  
aligned
with the research goals of the Museum, which will include an increased  
focus
on the publication of the Museum's older field projects. We are doing  
what
we can to identify and secure external funding for more of them.

Given the particularly difficult financial times in the global economy  
at
present, I hope that you will join me in supporting both of the Museum's
missions and our strategy to sustain them.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Hodges
Williams Director

Hodges has only been with the Museum since October of 2007. I t was  
reported in both the Philadelphia Enquirer and the Penn newspaper that  
he has made it a major goal to attract more tourists to the museum.  
While a laudable goal, given the unfortunate lack of interest in  
history on the part of the American public, he will probably not get  
very far. To this end he is devoting funds to redesigning exhibits and  
generally "modernizing" the facility. All of this costs money, which  
is probably part of the reason that funds for the research staff have  
become tighter.