Thanks for your Toast to the hundreds of volunteers and donors who are working to keep the North Coast's Natural History Museum alive, and thanks, too, for your Roast of the HSU administrators who decided, against all evidence, that it would be better to permanently shut down the museum than turn it over to its own advisory board to keep the collection open to the public.

You were quite right in ending your Roast of the administration by giving HSU an out, saying, “these are difficult times, and difficult decisions have to be made.” No argument there, but this particular case was a no-brainer, and HSU administrators didn't pass the exam.

HSU has little to lose but much to gain by giving the advisory board a year to make the museum sustainable. At little additional cost to the university (which is keeping the museum open by appointment in order to satisfy grants it accepted last year), the newly formed Friends of the North Coast's NHM might at least be allowed to fail on its own. Instead, the university seems happy to accept the blame for eliminating one of its only examples of outreach to the community. As far as public relations goes, HSU gets an F.

Janet and Arthur Zich

Arcata