<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<meta charset="utf-8">
From the University of Louisiana at Monroe Museum of Natural
History’s Facebook page, dated today (March 28):<br>
<br>
"Dear Friends,<br>
<br>
It is my sad duty to report to you that the ULM administration has
decided to divest the research collections in the Museum of Natural
History. This includes the 6 million fish specimens in the Neil
Douglas fish collection and the nearly 500,000 plant specimens in
the R. Dale Thomas plant collection. They find no value in the
collections and no value of the collections to the university. The
College was given 48 hours to suggest an alternate location for the
collections so that Brown Stadium can be renovated for the track
team. With only about 20 hours left, we have found no magic solution
yet. <b>To add insult to injury on what was a very hard day, we
were told that if the collections are not relocated to other
institutions, the collections will be destroyed at the end of July</b>.<br>
<br>
While we weep that our own institution would turn its back on 50+
years of hard work and dedication, we will not abandon the
collections to the dumpsters. They did not have the courage to
inform us face-to-face, but we have the courage to persevere through
these dark times.<br>
<br>
Oh, in other sad news, we were informed that there will not be any
expansion of the public displays in Hanna Hall."<br>
<br>
Not sure what we can all do about this, but I'm betting this is not
going to be the last time we see this sort of sudden decision to
eliminate collections under the new political climate.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314 skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cache.ucr.edu_-7Eheraty_yanega.html&d=DwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=UKtxWb_xn3X4vjRozNxNzC1lTeH0mSJWRQoKJKFmgsM&s=FhA9wiedAgS9JYB7MzEgJURSH15DJstK5YV-oX04Cdg&e=">http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html</a>
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82</pre>
</body>
</html>