Unless it can raise $1 million awfully quick, Fort Hays State University’s Sternberg Museum of Natural History will close Dec. 18.
It’s tragic news for such a distinguished institution.
But the real ignominy lies with our state legislators, who in their latest budget are now cutting, as FHSU President Tina Mason said Monday, “into the muscle” of our public universities.
Earlier this spring, Kansas lawmakers slashed funding for higher education, going so far as to eliminate all student success funding, which was designed to improve universities’ retention and graduation rates.
The upshot at Fort Hays? A $2.4 million reduction in state support. “On top of that,” wrote Mason in a note to the university community, “legislators are asking us to identify an additional 10% administrative reduction and are considering deeper cuts” next legislative session.
Something had to give. Mason explained her logic to the Hays City Commission last week: “The key question we are asking is, ‘If we stopped this activity tomorrow, would students be less likely to enroll, persist, graduate, or secure successful employment, and can we back that up with data?’”
Sternberg didn’t make the grade. And more sacrifices are needed, noted Mason. Even as Kansas universities raise tuition rates to offset the reductions in state and federal funding, that won’t be enough. In the case of Fort Hays, closing the museum will save the university roughly $850,000. Combined with about $1 million in other cuts, the university still must find $550,000 worth of savings.
In her public remarks and statement released Monday, Mason makes the case that Fort Hays is being unfairly punished. It’s already a lean university, well-managed and efficient. There’s no fat left to trim.
She has a strong argument. But the bigger picture is that Kansas lawmakers have lost sight of what government is for: to do together what we can’t do alone. In their myopic obsession with shrinking budgets, lawmakers are destroying the very things that make our state exceptional.
Such narrow vision leaves Kansans poorer. Students and their families pay more in tuition to receive less from universities, and communities have fewer cultural and economic assets. Strong community colleges and universities are talent incubators. The future creators of new businesses, patents, ideas and products— Kansas’s best and brightest—will simply head elsewhere.
REACHED by phone Tuesday afternoon, Sternberg Director Dr. Reese Barrick lamented the potential impacts of the museum’s closure.
“We bring in 40,000-45,000 visitors a year,” Barrick said. “Most of them are from outside Ellis County, many from outside Kansas. There’s an economic impact; these people will stop to eat a meal, buy gas, maybe stay overnight.
“There’s also the cultural and social impact. There aren’t many natural history museums in western Kansas,” he observed. “We get school tours all the way from Wichita, Dodge City, Garden City—even Iola.”
Barrick noted the museum’s collection, which comprises over 3 million specimens and world-famous fossils, attracts international researchers.
“We have over 100 live animals and every species of rattlesnake that lives in the U.S.,” he pointed out. “We draw in students who are interested in biology, geology, and museum studies.”
Barrick is passionate about his career. He’s been all over the country but has been at Sternberg for 17 years now and calls Hays home. It’s easy to see he’s passionate about his job and cares about the future of his team, which includes a dozen full-time employees, six part-timers, students and volunteers. But he seemed to understand the financial reality.
“Without consistent state funding, the university is caught in a difficult position,” he said. “And the tough part is when it becomes a political issue.”
THE WORTH of museums, like libraries, swimming pools, and parks, isn’t measured by how much money they bring in. That’s not the point. Their value is deeper.
“Museums are for the public good, for the public trust,” Barrick said. “They provide safe spaces for people to enjoy and learn about the world around them. That’s a valuable thing. But the reality is that museums—anywhere in the world—don’t make money. They’re not self-sustaining.”
The implication was clear. The museum’s future now depends on us.
Barrick isn’t wasting any time. He’s busy doing all he can to raise $1 million so that the museum can keep the lights on for another year. As of Wednesday morning, over $32,000 has already been donated online to the Fort Hays State University Foundation, which accepts gifts made to the museum.
The support has energized Barrick.
“There is a lot of passion in the community about the closure,” he said. “It makes you feel really good that there’s that much support and passion for the museum. It’s heartwarming to see. Now, we just need to take that passion and raise the funds.”
He’s right. But so is FHSU President Mason.
“If you care about the Sternberg Museum, and if you care about keeping a quality, affordable public university in western Kansas, I ask you to make your voice heard where it can change the outcome,” she wrote Monday.
“Contact legislators. Tell them what FHSU means to you, what Sternberg means to you, and ask them to stop cutting the funding that keeps both alive.”
Indeed.
Legislators, please take note: Kansans deserve a whole lot better than this.
–Tim Stauffer
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