what are we going to do

[Scott Schaefer]

Anita Cholewa wrote:
>
> In line with the U. of Mich., the Univ. of Minnesota has
> decided to go to "value-centered management" in which each
> dept./unit will be charged for the space it occupies.
> While the administration has said "it" will pick up the cost
> for such facilities as the libraries and other such cross
> discipline resources, it is by no means clear that it will
> do so for the musuems.  It has already been suggested to us
> that we charge researchers for the cost of mailing loans.
> We tried to charge for remote access to our vascular database
> but NSF told us we wouldn't be able to obtain their funding
> if we did such a thing.  With decreasing monies being spent
> on herbaria (and other biological collections) by administrations
> and outside agencies saying we can't charge for anything where
> does that leave us.

That leaves us in the position of facing the task of convincing these
same administrators looking for added revenue that their actions will
increase research costs at their own institutions. Of course, this point
is lost because the researcher is expected to come up with the required
funding, in a system that views the responsibility for these expenses
back on the research institution.

--
Scott A. Schaefer                                schaefer at amnh.org
Associate Curator
Dept. of Ichthyology                           voice: 212-769-5652
American Museum of Natural History             fax:   212-769-5642
Central Park West @ 79th Street
New York, NY 10024-5192 U.S.A.