CHEYENNE, Wyo.—Paleontologists are in an uproar over a decision by the University of Wyoming to save money by closing its Geological Museum, home to dinosaur specimens including a rare skeleton display.
Closing the museum—and laying off its director and a part-time employee—is expected to save about $80,000 a year. It’s part of $18 million in cuts the university in Laramie announced last week amid predictions of declining state revenue.
But paleontoligsts, including ReBecca Hunt-Foster of Grand Junction, Colo., say closing the museum would be a mistake. “I really don’t think they’ve thought this through,” she said. “They’ve got world-class specimens.”
Hunt-Foster, of Grand Junction, Colo., writes a paleontology blog and calls herself “Dinochick” online. She has been circulating an online petition that as of Friday had more than 800 signatures.
She said schoolchildren from all over Wyoming and Colorado visit the museum, which includes an apatosaurus skeleton that is one of only about a half-dozen such displays in the country.
“You can go to a lot of little museums and see the same thing over and over and over again. But at the museum in Laramie, they really do a good job of interpreting their local paleontology and geology,” she said.
The museum is a “wonderful resource for schoolchildren” but doesn’t fit into the school’s core mission, said Myron Allen, vice president for academic affairs.
“There were some areas we decided we’re just going to have to do less of with less money,” Allen said.
Blaire Van Valkenburgh, president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, said other natural history museums have had to reduce staffing and hours of operation due to decreased funding, but this is the first natural history museum she knows of that is closing.
“Of course we’re very horrified and these are very tragic decisions if they do follow through with it,” said Van Valkenburgh, who is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s very unfortunate.”
Dewey Blanton, a spokesman for the American Association of Museums in Washington, D.C., said other natural history museums facing budget trouble recently include the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, which cut back its hours of operation; the San Diego Natural History Museum, which cut staff pay 10 percent; and the University of Connecticut’s Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, which has cut both its hours and staff.
“It’s certainly not confined to natural history museums but all museums—all nonprofits are suffering in the economy,” Blanton said.
The University of Wyoming’s budget cuts are in response to low natural gas prices. Taxes and royalties on natural gas production provide a significant chunk of Wyoming’s state government revenue.
