[Nhcoll-l] Urgent: University of Louisiana at Monroe Museum of Natural History facing imminent divestment or destruction

[Andrew Cabrinovic]

Quite apart from all the other valid sentiments that have been expressed – How on earth could proper arrangements be made to pack and transport such a huge collection – in such a way that looks after the specimens, abides by considerations of health & safety, and follows rules for transportation of chemicals – in such a short timescale?!

Andrew Cabrinovic / Inverts Curation Group / Dept Life Sciences / DC1.505
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K. / Tel (+44) (0)20 7 942 6447 / Fax (+44) (0)20 7 942 5054
Email  A.Cabrinovic at nhm.ac.uk<mailto:A.Cabrinovic at nhm.ac.uk>  / Web https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nhm.ac.uk_research-2Dcuration_staff-2Ddirectory_zoology_a-2Dcabrinovic_index.html&d=DwIGaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=HLRFTeFr7XWrPGmMX8TA9NPtS9KHD5Xx__erpyTa2m4&s=G_IqdIoPtuXtuco-BJ0F9Men-VVCsINQVB8pHS_X5vM&e= 

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Doug Yanega
Sent: 28 March 2017 23:03
To: nhcoll
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Urgent: University of Louisiana at Monroe Museum of Natural History facing imminent divestment or destruction

>From the University of Louisiana at Monroe Museum of Natural History’s Facebook page, dated today (March 28):

"Dear Friends,

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. 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.

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.

Oh, in other sad news, we were informed that there will not be any expansion of the public displays in Hanna Hall."

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.

Sincerely,


--

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)

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  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness

        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
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