University officials say they cannot afford to maintain one of the largest herbariums in the United States. Researchers are urging Duke to reconsider.

University officials say they cannot afford to maintain one of the largest herbariums in the United States. Researchers are urging Duke to reconsider.

Duke University has decided to close its herbarium, a collection of 825,000 specimens of plants, fungi and algae that was established more than a century ago. The collection, one of the largest and most diverse in the country, has helped scientists map the diversity of plant life and chronicle the impact of humans on the environment.

The university’s decision has left researchers reeling. “This is such a devastating blow for biodiversity science,” said Erika Edwards, the curator of the Yale Herbarium. “The entire community is simultaneously shocked and outraged.”

Scientific societies have also protested the move. “Duke’s decision to forgo responsibility of their herbarium specimens sets a terrible precedent,” the Natural Science Collections Alliance wrote in a letter to the university last Friday.

The alliance, along with six other scientific societies, endorsed a petition asking Duke to reconsider closing the herbarium. As of Wednesday, it had gained over 11,000 signatures.

Non-paywall link

    • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
      78·
      9 months ago

      To be fair, Duke is a Catholic university and everyone knows Jesus loves money. Only rich men can enter the kingdom of heaven, right? You can’t expect them not to charge students $70k/year while paying overworked adjunct professors $60k/year to teach 5 classes per semester. How else will the hyper-religious underworked administrators go to heaven?

      EDIT: in all seriousness, Duke pays poverty wages to their adjunct professors. I know an MD PhD who gets paid $15/hr to work 70 hour weeks at Duke. Her CV is a mile long. She says that all of the University hospitals are like that. They exploit and destroy new talent, young doctors, and aspiring researchers. And then everyone whines about how there aren’t enough doctors. It’s easy to fix. Cap the salaries of all administrators 1:1 with the average adjunct professor’s salary.

      Now I know, “economists” will say that this will create an artificial shortage of administrators, but I think they’re forgetting that administration takes only slightly more skill than watching paint dry, so we might be alright.

      • meat_popsicle@sh.itjust.works
        82·
        9 months ago

        MD PhD who gets paid $15/hr to work 70 hour weeks at Duke. Her CV is a mile long

        She should quit. Industry pays an actual livable salary compared to that. She could work as a shipping clerk and make more money and have a higher standard of living.

        They abuse people endlessly because smart and talented people like your friend volunteer to get abused. It’s tragic, but their own choice.

        • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
          6·
          9 months ago

          Boston Children’s Hospital in collaboration with Harvard Medical school pays residents about the same. It’s pitiful and we desperately need regulation on salaries at educational institutions.