By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Uncertainty about the future of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History has cost the museum.
What scientists believe is a fossil representing a new fish species was set to be donated to Sternberg’s permanent collection.
Triebold Paleontology discovered the specimen in western Kansas.
However, because of uncertainty surrounding the museum's future, Triebold decided to place the fossil at another museum.
Reese Barrick, Sternberg director, said the Triebold fish fossil is significant.
The latest Triebold fossil might be a holotype, a single physical specimen that serves as the permanent, name-bearing standard for a species.
Barrick said the Sternberg collection has 37 of these holotype fossils.
Barrick said the museum has accepted donations from Triebold in the past, with the aim of keeping fossils important to the history of western Kansas in this region of the state.
“It's a part of the paleontological significance of the Sternberg and of western Kansas, and so if we're to leave western Kansas, then that's just taking a good chunk of our paleontological history and moving it someplace else,” Barrick said.
Sternberg’s future
After initially announcing the museum would close on Dec. 18, Fort Hays State University President Tisa Mason rescinded that closing date.
Since the original announcement, more than $625,000 has been raised to support the museum. The Robert E. and Patricia Schmidt Foundation offered up to a $1 million matching donation, bringing the total raised to $1.25 million as of Friday afternoon. $374,646 in matching funds are still available.
Eric Grospitch, FHSU Senior Advisor for Executive Operations, said this week that no new closing date has been set for the museum, and FHSU issued a press release Friday about the museum's future.
Although the press release said a group has formed to work “toward creating a model that allows Sternberg to thrive well into the future,” it offered no specifics.
Barrick said Thursday he has not been given any assurances that the museum’s collections will remain intact under the museum’s new sustainability plan, which the university is calling Sternberg 2.0.
“They have said that there are no plans now to move them. That they're wanting to work with the staff to figure out what's best for them.
“To try to figure out how to keep some or all of the collections here at Fort Hays, but there hasn't been any guarantee,” Barrick said.
The university’s press release Friday said a volunteer advisory group made up of leaders from business, nonprofit and government sectors is providing guidance on potential partnerships and opportunities that could support the museum's future.
Barrick said he is not a member of that group, nor are any other Sternberg staff members. He said not being a member of that group and process has been frustrating.
The release said multiple working groups are conducting reviews and developing recommendations intended to support the museum's long-term sustainability. This includes Provost Jill Arensdorf and Werth College Dean Mark Arant. However, FHSU's latest press release did not say who else at the university level is involved.
Worst case scenario
Mason said in the FHSU press release Friday, “Together, we are building something that will serve students and visitors for generations."
However, since the initial closure announcement, some community members and paleontologists have expressed concern that the university would try to sell specimens from the Sternberg’s permanent collection.
Barrick described some of the legal and ethical obligations of managing a museum collection.
The Sternberg has specimens collected on federal land. If the worst-case scenario were to happen and the museum were to close, those specimens would legally have to be returned to the federal government to be rehomed at another institution.
Ethically, museum collection management varies by museum and by the type of material in the collections, Barrick said.
“And the idea for the museum is that if you have accepted a donation, the intent is here to keep it in perpetuity,” Barrick said.
He said that if the museum had to close, ideally it could send entire collections to another institution. This could mean sending the museum’s mosasaurs to one museum, all the mammal skins to another, and all the fish to another, etc.
“The ethical thing that museums are supposed to do is deaccession the collection and find homes in other institutions that have a similar mission as the Sternberg has, and then basically donate the collections to that other institution so that they will still remain in the public trust, that it will still be open for people to go do research and to see them,” he said.
Barrick added, “So for natural history museums, ideally, I mean, if you go to the National Society Vertebrate Paleontology, the Paleontological Society, fossils, vertebrate fossils are not to be sold.”
The staff has been working to catalog the Sternberg’s collections and determine the cost and resources needed to maintain those collections, Barrick said.
They are evaluating the space needed for the collections and the potential cost of moving them if necessary, he said.
Changes to hours possible
Barrick has already recommended a small reduction in hours, with the museum opening at 9:30 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.
He said students staff the museum between 5 and 6 p.m., so the cost to maintain those hours is minimal, and cutting that time would likely cost the museum more in lost admissions than it would save in staffing costs.
“We're spending 20 bucks a day to stay open an extra hour. So it's like 120 bucks a week, and it's basically two adults coming to the museum to pay for it,” he said.
Friends of the Sternberg?
Barrick said one idea being floated is creating an advisory or Friends of the Sternberg group to gather volunteers to help the museum.
The Sternberg has only 8.5 full-time staff, so everyone is stretched thin, he said.
The museum used to offer educational outreach programs across the state, but cut back because it lacked staff.
The Hays Post asked Barrick about increasing admission or camp fees.
He said the museum increased its fees last year by $30, raising a family membership to $100 and daily admission from $10 to $12.
More fundraising
Barrick said he wasn't surprised by the community outcry over the announcement of a possible closure. He was surprised by how quickly Hays and the broader community rallied around the museum.
“That's a lot of dollars in a short time for an area this size, and it's not all just Hays people. We've had donations from people from Kansas City and Denver and New York and all over,” Barrick said.
“The amount of support that people have shown to the staff, and have said how much the museum means to them, really hits me pretty hard,” he said.
“That helps keep me getting up in the morning, knowing that the staff we have here has impacted the community enough that there's been that kind of support and reaction by the community.”
He said museum staff members are getting stopped in Dillons or at restaurants with people saying, "You're at the Sternberg! You know, we're praying for you. You're important to us. We're going to make sure that you guys survive.’”
Dreams for the future
Barrick said if he had a dream for Sternberg 2.0, it would be for the museum to expand and better fulfill its mission.
“... a chance for either a really big renovation, an addition of things to the museum, so that it can be the tourist draw that the city wants. [I] would like to see us get more people from around the country,” he said.
He also said he would like to see an expansion of the museum’s summer camps, with youth coming from all over the world.
Barrick said he would like more outreach and more opportunities for researchers worldwide to study Sternberg’s collections.
Barrick said he would like to see more interaction with departments at FHSU to provide opportunities for students in departments including biology, geosciences, art and history.
“Really, I think it could be something that could help Fort Hays out, bringing more students to Fort Hays because of the museum,” he said.
He said he would love for the city to use a STAR bond to expand the museum, add a new attraction and repair the dome exhibit.
Sternberg is more than a museum; it’s a cultural hub, Barrick said.
“There's the tourism, and then there's just the outreach, the things that we do for the public, and so, and each one of those is important, and we do it really with a skeletal staff,” he said.
He added, “We love being a part of Fort Hays, and we just want to be able to do that going into the future and be able to expand our importance and influence.”