U of Iowa and the botanical museum

[Ken Kinman]

Dear All,
     I think Robin has hit the nail right on the head.  The University of Iowa is "burning bridges" that it may well regret in the long run.  But the blame must be shared by those in Washington D.C. whose funding practices encourage this kind of thing.
               ----- Ken Kinman

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Date:  Tue, 6 Apr 2004 22:35:53 -0600
Robin Leech wrote:
Good evening one and all,
I have analyzed all the material sent out to us on TAXACOM
regarding the U of Iowa administration's attempt to move all the botanical museum specimens from the U of Iowa to Iowa State University.
I have also looked at the legal documents prepared on behalf of the defense that were created in order to stop the move.  If you read these, then I think you will all come to the same conclusion I have: that the main thrust behind all this action is to convert the U of Iowa's biology department into a molecular biology department.  This is where the big money and big names are at present and for the near future.  If the move is successful, it will convert the U of Iowa's biology department from a biology department of excellence to a molecular biology department of excellence.
But, molecular biology cannot survive for long without
supportive holistic biology, but I do not think that this is realized yet.  And the students certainly will lose without a good background in biology.  I will bet that most, if not all, of the molecular biologists at the U of Iowa either came through a real biology department, and took courses emphasizing physiology and/or biochemistry.  Thus, they themselves took a lot of general biology courses, but, their students sure will not.
Robin Leech