As UW’s Biodiversity Institute reaches the end of its funding rope, members of the UW community saw a presentation of the current transition plan and gave feedback at a townhall-style meeting in the Biodiversity Center itself last week.
The meeting began with the unveiling of a portrait of the BI’s founding director, Professor of Zoology and Physiology Carlos Martinez del Rio. The portrait was painted by Carol Berry, who finished it off with a flight of papercraft hummingbirds—del Rio’s “favorite organism,” said Professor Emeritus of Botany Dennis Knight as he presented the portrait.
“This will hang somewhere in the Berry Center and will be a long-lasting tribute to what Carlos has done,” Knight said.
Following the presentation of the plan, which includes ways to continue the role of the BI and recognition of the need to find diverse funding, audience members had the chance to give feedback and ask questions, which were answered by UW President Laurie Nichols and UW Vice President for Research and Economic Development Ed Synakowski.
Among the most pressing questions asked following the plan’s presentation was: why wasn’t new funding found for the BI during the seven years since it opened?
“I’d prefer not to speculate on the past efforts, honestly,” Synakowski said.
Despite the focus on the BI’s identity moving forward, Synakowski said there have been earnest efforts to secure funding that came up dry, and that the BI’s funding situation is not a result of inaction.
He also noted that the BI’s funding situation has been a known trajectory since he interviewed for his position a year ago.
“I was surprised at the level of surprise about this,” Synakowski said. “There was no secret with respect to this situation.”
Other audience members expressed concern that the BI’s closing would discourage other potential donors like the Berrys, if they saw that UW would not sustain the projects created by their donations.
“We’re confronting a reality, trying to manage a difficult financial circumstance,” Synakowski said. “We’ve had a vision developed for a path moving forward, what you’re hearing here is an attempt to manage this and direct it toward a future that’s more sustainable.”
Nichols expressed optimism in the future of biodiversity work at UW and its funding prospects, and recognized the passion for it in the packed auditorium.
“When we look at what the University of Wyoming is great at, biodiversity rises to the top,” Nichols said. “There is so much potential here, so have confidence that with more investment, more focus, we can raise this to even higher levels.”
Professor of Veterinary Science and Faculty Senate Chair Donal O’Toole expressed skepticism that the BI’s funding problem didn’t have a readily available solution to maintain the institute in its current form for the time being, calling back into attention the issue of funds swept from University accounts last year that have yet to be dispersed again by the UW Board of Trustees, as well as substantial spending on the new Science Initiative building.
“If you want to buy time, time is cheap, it’s less than half a million dollars. The trustees recently did a sweep—that sweep lifted from departments and units, and crippled many units, by removing $140 million,” O’Toole said. “It’s half a million bucks. They have half a million bucks. The question is, do they care enough about biodiversity in the same way.”
Nichols responded that the Science Initiative building is funded by grants from the Wyoming legislature specifically for the purpose of investing in the building as part of the new Science Initiative, along with a necessary contribution from UW reserves. To use that money for other purposes is “not possible,” Nichols said.
O’Toole also commented on the name of the proposed replacement for the BI, the Berry Biodiversity Center of Excellence.
“Most of us in this room are working in centers just trying to get the damn job done, and the term ‘Center of Excellence’ is something that should be earned and not conferred,” O’Toole said.
Other feedback included requests that the plan be made more transparent, and include more specific information about grants and funding in the future, before it goes to the Board of Trustees at its November 14-16 meeting.
The BI is housed in the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center, which opened in 2011 following a $10 million donation from Bob and Carol Berry’s Wolf Creek Charitable Foundation. The Center itself will remain open, and the plan states that the Center “will continue to house many of the BI’s present activities and will retain its purpose as a public focal point,” while its research and education pursuits will continue in a partnership with the UW Science Initiative.
A full recording of the meeting, as well as the full text of the transition plan itself, is available online and in a release from UW Communications on its website.
Link to transition plan: uwyo.edu/uw/news/_files/documents/2018/10/transition-plan2.pdf
Link to meeting recording: wyocast.uwyo.edu/WyoCast/Play/e2e7042d1c364d118b315820107903531d
