Museum researchers speak out against firings

The forthcoming discontinuation of 18 research specialist positions at the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, which was announced last Friday, may stem from reasons other than the financial crisis.

According to several researchers who declined to use their names due to the sensitive nature of the situation, the economy's downturn is simply the trigger for the changes. Rather, they say the changes are due to both poor financial planning and long-standing University and museum priorities that do not emphasize scientific and historical research.

Penn President Amy Gutmann said the discontinuations result from a "strategic planning exercise" that is unrelated to the recent economic downfall.

But museum Director Richard Hodges still maintains that the cuts were made for budgeting reasons.

"Our circumstances have never been healthy, and with the financial crisis, there's no doubt that they're much worse off," said Hodges, who added that the money saved will lessen future museum debt.

The museum's Overseers Board is meeting today to finalize parts of its new "strategic plan" to maintain fiscal stability, said Hodges.

The Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology unit will be disbanded, as will researchers specializing in several geographic areas that span the world.

"There was pressure from the director's office to make it more profitable and run it more like a business," said a student who works at the museum, who also wished to remain anonymous due to job security concerns.

"They fired everyone, handed them a folder, explained what was going to happen and told them they weren't allowed to talk to anyone."

Other researchers said that though they knew they could be laid off at a moment's notice, they were shocked at the prominence of the people laid off - "many who have been there for decades and who are in the newspaper every couple of months," said one Near East research associate.

"I basically gave my whole life to discovering where humans came from," said another researcher. "What you're doing is erasing the entire historic memory of the museum - they say they need it to balance the budget, but maybe someone else can take a pay cut with very low pain, like Amy Gutmann."

In an interview, Gutmann declined to answer questions about her salary, calling it "inappropriate."

The discontinued salaries will be removed from the museum's operating budget, which is not released to the public. One researcher said the museum's finances have been "disastrous since the 1970s."

"They made no effort to cut spending and are still hiring," said another employee.

Several new administrators will also join the staff as part of the restructuring.

The departing members have a combined total of about 300 years of experience in archaeology, compared to the new administrators' 15 years, according to one researcher.

According to Hodges, the museum will retain 12 curators and reach out to students to play a greater role in both research and visiting the museum.

"I don't see any end to doing research," he said. "We had the wrong fiscal strategy in the past and we're now aligning ourselves to a fiscal model which is sustainable."

MASCA researcher Naomi Miller, who has worked at the museum for more than 20 years said, "When I was hired, the director at the time, Bob Dyson, understood that a great institution like the museum can do things for archaeology that archaeology can't do for itself, like fund research."

"I don't think archaeology should be a luxury, but I don't think the people who run the University understand that," said one researcher, who added the change will also hurt the school's reputation. "Penn is always comparing itself to Harvard, Yale and Princeton, all of which have museums," the researcher said.

Researcher Paul Zimmerman, who is not involved in the discontinuations, said, "A lot of what makes the Penn museum so special is that everything is based out of original field research."

Alumni of the museum have also spoken out about the changes.

One researcher indicated that in an e-mail sent to several prominent members of the University and museum administration, a well-known archaeologist and former Penn Museum researcher protested the legitimacy of the dismissals and questioned the lack of transparency behind the decision of which positions to eliminate.

Several of the dismissed employees are pursuing other positions within and outside Penn. Others said they doubted they would find a comparable job.

"The administration . has never been willing to make any serious commitment to the funding of the University Museum," wrote emeritus professor and former museum research associate James Muhly in an e-mail.

Calling the dismissals the "easy way out," he added, "the University could always find the money to do whatever it wanted to do."

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