Fort Hays State Rescinds Natural History Museum Closure

One month after announcing its plan to close the Sternberg Museum of Natural History following a $2.4 million state funding cut, Fort Hays State University is backtracking.

“In September, I announced the difficult decision to close the Sternberg Museum. Since then, community groups, individuals, and small businesses have stepped forward to support Fort Hays State and our Hays community,” FHSU President Tisa Mason said in a Monday news release. “Our focus has shifted to developing a right-sized, sustainable, long-term business plan for the museum.”

The reversal comes after word of the impending Dec. 18 closure sparked community outrage. The museum houses more than three million paleontology, zoology and geology specimens that support academic programs and research. And though just 14 percent of university-operated museums specialize in natural history, Sternberg isn’t the only such institution caught in the crosshairs of austerity measures. Troves of Philadelphians have criticized the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University—which is trying to close a roughly $20 million budget gap—for closing to the public last month.

Both decisions have illuminated the broad public appreciation for these museums, while also raising questions about university priorities.

“A lot of people right now have doubts and are untrusting of Fort Hays, about the way the school has gone about this whole situation, and also how their true values seem to be focused elsewhere,” reads a petition urging the university to find a way to avoid closing the museum. “We are confident that, with collective effort and support, we can ensure the museum remains a vibrant part of our community.”

The FHSU Foundation sought to raise $1 million to keep the museum open for another year to give staff and administrators time to develop a new business model. The museum has an operating budget of $1.3 million and last year received $856,000 from the university and another roughly $470,000 from a mix of donations and revenue from summer camps, memberships and visitor fees. Earlier this month, the Bob and Pat Schmidt Foundation—named for two FHSU graduates—pledged to match every dollar donated to the Save Sternberg fundraising campaign, up to $1 million.

By Monday, the university had raised more than $638,000, surpassing its original $1 million goal with the match; Mason added that with additional fundraising, “there’s still potential to unlock a full $2 million in support.” As of Tuesday afternoon, it had raised $733,671—or nearly $1.5 million with the match.

“This is not a rescue of the status quo. It’s breathing room—the year we need to develop a sustainable business plan. And it’s within reach because our community partners changed the picture and came forward to help,” Mason told the Kansas Legislative Budget Committee at a hearing Monday. “That response did more than raise money. It opened possibilities we did not have when the decision was made. What started as a way to close a budget gap has become a network of community partners to invest in Sternberg’s future.”

‘Last Resort’

While Mason acknowledged that she was responsible for making the original decision to close the museum, she said it was a “last resort” to address a $2.4 million legislative budget cut earlier this year from the university’s budget after it had already been “running lean for years.”

According to Mason, Fort Hays State has the lowest funding per full-time-equivalent student among Kansas’s six public universities. Over the past five years, the university has cut its budget by $7.4 million, including eliminating 55 staff positions. In the current budget cycle alone, it’s already cut 12 additional positions and some activities and suspended its golf programs, while also absorbing rising health-care costs and state-mandated employee pay raises.

“I’m not asking the Legislature to own my decision. I am asking, however, that you recognize the constraints of the inequitable funding that served as the context for this decision,” Mason told the committee. “I’m not here today asking the State Legislature to fund the museum, but I am asking you to please hold Fort Hays harmless from further reductions in the budget process when the Legislature convenes next session.”

Some legislators said they were disappointed that they didn’t hear about the possibility of closing the museum before approving the budget cuts, though Mason said she didn’t know the museum would be at risk until after the budget was finalized.

“I would have done something different in conference had I known that was possibly happening,” Republican Rep. Troy Waymaster told Mason. “There would have been outlets we could have used to try to make the Sternberg Museum survive.”

But as the success of the fundraiser has demonstrated, generating public outrage over the museum’s sudden closure has also proved an effective preservation strategy.

While the museum has always accepted donations, “people anticipate that the university will continue to do all of these things for the community” despite funding decreases, Eric Grospitch, senior adviser for executive operations at Fort Hays State, told Inside Higher Ed. “This was probably the first budget shift that felt a community impact. As a result, people who were watching and enjoying it finally said, ‘Oh, wait a minute, this is important to us.’”

Public Pressure on Drexel

The community support that has so far saved Sternberg is also giving hope to advocates for the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University, which closed to the public last month amid reported financial strain.

“I’m grateful that [Sternberg is staying open] because it shows a really straightforward, solution-oriented approach,” Isa Betancourt, a former entomology researcher at the museum who is helping to organize efforts to keep the museum open to the public, told Inside Higher Ed. “The contrast between that and the Academy is helpful because there has been such a lack of communication from the Academy. When there’s a lack of information and a lack of communication, it’s confusing. The Sternberg situation helps provide clarity that it doesn’t have to be this way.”

The William Penn Foundation offered to pay for one year of operating costs to allow the museum to devise a sustainable path forward, but Drexel hasn’t publicly accepted. “Our efforts remain focused on securing a permanent, financially sustainable future for the Academy,” a university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed in an email last week.

Public outcry over closing the museum to the public isn’t letting up, with critics lambasting what they say is a lack of transparency from the university about the extent of their efforts to try to keep the museum open to the public and what it would take to save it.

“We just need them to tell us what needs to happen to keep this going,” Betancourt said. “That’s one of the first steps to finding a solution.”

On Monday evening, the Philadelphia City Council grilled university administrators about the decision at a public hearing. It also announced plans to subpoena university and museum leaders, including Drexel President Antonio Merlo, who did not attend Monday’s hearing, to testify at another hearing next month.

“We have really good momentum and support from the City Council, and the support is building,” Betancourt said. “We are optimistic. The academy must and will be saved.”