Alternative to fate of Museums and Research in Nebraska

[Curtis Clark]

At 10:01 2003-03-14, Doug Yanega wrote:
>I know I'm not alone in wracking my brain trying to imagine a
>geuinely persuasive argument, one that an administrator could take
>back to the Board of Trustees and say "Look, here's why this would be
>a *mistake*" - but it's not easy.

Museums, libraries, and other long-term institutional commitments are a
crucial part of undergraduate education (not to mention graduate and
professional education). There are even community colleges with museums. If
Nebraska is willing to see their best organismal biology students leave the
state to get an education, we're happy to get their non-resident fees here
in California.

And as Doug pointed out, what took 125 years to build can be destroyed in a
day, but it will take far more than 125 years to rebuild, even if the will
and resources are there: expertise is gone, collections are gone (and some
of their collected species now extinct), and most important, who of any
stature will want to work at a rebuilt Nebraska State Museum, after what
has happened?


--
Curtis Clark                 http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Biological Sciences Department             Voice (909) 869-4062
California State Polytechnic University      FAX (909) 869-4078
Pomona CA 91768-4032  USA                 jcclark at csupomona.edu