[NHCOLL-L:4148] Fwd: FW: bad news! Field Museum

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Sent:  1/12/2009 9:09:32 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: FW: bad news! Field  Museum


Subject: Complete Field Museum  story 
wow. 
To make matters  worse, Harold Voris just accepted the offer of early 
retirement, leaving no  curators in the FMNH Herpetology division and no hires in the 
foreseeable  future. 
Downturn hits Chicago's natural history  museum
Staff and science cut as museum's  endowments crash. 
Rex  Dalton   
_<http://www.nature.com.ezproxy1.lib.ou.edu/news/author/Rex+Dalton/index.html>_ 
(http://www.nature.com.ezproxy1.lib.ou.edu/news/author/Rex+Dalton/index.html) 

The Field Museum is slashing its budget by  15%, thanks to the economic 
downturn.The Field Museum
The venerable Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is cutting its  
budget by 15% - laying off staff, paring salaries and cancelling projects -  after 
being hit by the economic recession. The value of the museum's endowment  has 
plunged by nearly US$100 million (31%) in the past six  months.

Employees at the 115-year-old institution, known for its  historic collection 
of 25 million specimens, were notified in a memo on 19  December of plans for 
weathering the financial downturn. "We are trying to  hold everything 
together on the scientific side," says museum president John  McCarter. "But who 
knows where the bottom of the downturn is."

Early  retirement packages with emeritus status have been offered to 68 
museum  employees, including 27 scientists, and more staff departures are expected. 
 Members of the museums 564 staff who earn more than $75,000 per year may 
face  salary cuts of 3-5%, and McCarter's own $450,000 base salary has been 
chopped  by 20%. The science operating budget for 2009 will end up being sliced by 
$1.7  million, down to $7.4 million.

Shannon Hackett, an ornithologist  elected to head the panel that oversees 
the scientific staff of 179, says that  the mood is grim. "I find it sad and 
tragic to put senior people in this  position," says Hackett. "These people are 
highly specialized. They are not  interchangeable pieces of a puzzle. Once you 
lose your academic stature, it is  very difficult to regain."
Boom and bust
The reductions come after more than five years of major expansion,  including 
the hiring of University of Chicago palaeontologist Neil Shubin as a  provost 
in 2006. The position has now been eliminated.

A new collection  resource centre was constructed underground for $70 
million, and refurbishing  the 1921 building's original heating and cooling plant 
cost $23 million. The  museum has also created a $4-million genetics lab, a 
$3-million herbarium and  a $3-million Biodiversity Synthesis Center - a key 
component of the  international Tree of Life project to map phylogeny and  
biodiversity.

Although these projects show a commitment to scientific  frontiers, the 
museum now faces the harsh realities of a recession. "We are as  a whole reaching a 
breaking point," says Peter Makovicky, chairman of  palaeontology. "We don't 
know the full effect of the cuts, but the fear among  the professional staff 
is that they will bear the brunt. We know the trustees  are concerned about the 
overall survival of the museum."

McCarter says  they will assess the voluntary retirement acceptances by the 
end of 2008. The  museum's unrestricted operating budget for 2009 will be $50.7 
million, down  $8.9 million on the figure for 2008.

The museum has sought more  endowments to cover scientist costs ($2.5 million 
per researcher), but the  falling value of investments has sent the museum's 
endowment from $320 million  last spring to $215 million at the end of 
November. 
Museums and universities across the United  States are facing a similar 
financial landscape, but are following different  paths for survival. From 31 May, 
for example, the University of Pennsylvania's  Museum of Archaeology and 
Anthropology in Philadelphia will no longer fund 18  'research specialist' 
positions. Officials hope that these jobs, in the  curatorial department and the 
Applied Science Centre for Archaeology, will be  funded through future grants or 
contributions. 
--  
George  Zug 
Emeritus Research Zoologist, Divis  Amphibians & Reptiles 
PO Box  37012                   vertebrates.si.edu/herps/ 
Smithsonian  Institution                 acsmith.si.edu/  [colln.  info] 
Natl Mus Nat Hist: mrc162      
Washington  DC   20013-7012 
voice 202.633.0738   fax 202.357.3043 
_www.calacademy.org/research/herpetology/myanmar/_ 
(http://www.calacademy.org/research/herpetology/myanmar/)     


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