To the editor,

I have suggested that the Chancellor’s Advisory Board reconsider its recommendation to close the Museum of Anthropology to save $150,000. The closing will have a serious effect on the university, its curriculum, faculty, students, and the national community. A major university can not reach the status of a prestigious university by closing its educational museums.

During the past three years, the museum has received several valuable collections of unique expressions of cultural diversities. For the most part, the acquisitions were of irreplaceable items and were quite valuable. Most of these collections would not have been given to KU if it were not for the museum.

Recently the university hired national consultants to conduct an external review of the museum. It is my understanding that reviewers felt that the museum was underfunded and that there should be a faculty curator position. If the university actually wanted the museum to achieve “a significant level of national recognition” why were the guidelines for achievement paid for but not followed?

Alfred Johnson retired as director of the museum in December 2000, but it appears that no serious attempt has been made to find a replacement. Does this indicate that a plan to eventually close the museum has existed even before budget problems arose?

I beseech the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee to rethink the action to close the Museum of Anthropology and thus save face as a university and as an institution that cares about the cultural history of mankind.

Orvel A. Criqui,

Lawrence