Field Museum research faces uncertain future.
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After years of financial woes, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, is slashing US$3 million from its annual budget for science operations, which include a $10-million program for research on the institution’s collection of some 25 million specimens of fossils, plants and animals. Museum president Richard Lariviere unveiled the cuts to museum staff on 18 December as part of a plan to reduce the museum’s total budget by $5 million next year.
For some in the scientific community, the changes signal the end of an era. “It’s one of the great research institutions in comparative zoology, biodiversity and natural history, and it has been one of the leading centers of research for more than 100 years,” says James Hanken, director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “There’s no way the Field Museum will be able to maintain its position of prominence under those circumstances.”
Endowments for museums and universities across the country have been hit hard by the economic recession, but the Field Museum has been pushed to its financial limits in part by recent expansion projects, including the $65-million Collections Resource Center, a storage and laboratory facility that opened in 2005.
“We took on a lot of debt, more than we could sustain, to do some really exciting things, but now we’re paying for it,” says Mark Westneat, a Field Museum curator and chair of zoology.
Despite weathering hiring freezes and repeated budget cuts in the past few years, Field Museum scientists are reeling from the latest announcement, which they feel may cut into crucial scientific capabilities.
“We’ve already cut all the fat off the bone,” says Westneat.
The budget cuts will be accompanied by the dissolution, on 1 January, of the 120-year-old institution’s classical academic departments — zoology, botany, geology and anthropology — and by the shuffling of member scientists into a new, leaner organization, broadly titled Science and Education.
No plans have been released about how the cuts will be applied. “There will be staff input on all the recommendations,” says Debra Moskovits, who will head the new organization.
But most scientists believe layoffs and incentivized retirements are likely to have a big role. “Morale is extremely low,” says Peter Makovicky, curator and chair of geology at the Field Museum. “I would imagine that there will be a lot of résumé polishing in the near future.”
At present, the museum employs 168 science staff, 27 of whom are curators — scientists who collect specimens from around the world and maintain research labs to study the museum’s collection. Much like academic professors, some curators are tenured, but others are not.
At the president’s request, Makovicky and other members of a special museum committee have begun the formal process of declaring 'financial exigency' — an emergency status that would allow for layoffs of tenured scientists at the world-class institution.
“To have that put on the table is frightening,” says Corrie Moreau, assistant curator of zoology and one of four 'pre-tenure' curators at the museum.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI did some research in the collections in the late 1980's. An incredible facility. There has been a reduction in the natural history research of most universities and thus less need for facilities of this museum and other collections. The mantra of so many museums is 'growth', 'building expansion', 'bigger', and then they hit a financial wall and the science suffers because of most budget going to bloated salaries.
If you feel strongly about protecting research at FMNH, and want to help, please sign this petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/protect-research-at-field-museum-of-natural-history-chicago
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisQuick! Add a football stadium.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is misleading to say there are 168 scientific staff in the collections and research division that is targeted for cuts at the Field Museum. That number includes staff supported by grant-related funds brought in by research scientists, faculty from neighboring institutions with adjunct (unpaid) appointments, and volunteers. There are only about 90 staff who are actually salaried by the museum. The cuts will remove approximately half the salaried positions if split equally among support staff (collection managers, administrators, and preparetors) and curators (research scientists) or nearly all the research scientists if targeted only at them. It is important to put the museum on solid financial footing, but gutting its scientific mission is not the way to do it. If you would like to help, please sign the petition at: https://www.change.org/petitions/protect-research-at-field-museum-of-natural-history-chicago
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks Pselaphinae and Microtuslover, I've just signed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith the world facing so many environmental problems, and because I sometimes can't help feeling that the best of human culture is the only thing to justify the continued existence of our species, the last thing we need is cuts to science and culture research.