November 2000
As reported in my last letter, the museum's accomplishments should be visible to anyone who has driven by the new building site. We have received a number of generous gifts from museum friends this year that will help support our galleries and facility. The museum's plans for moving the offices and collections proceeded on schedule and we are working from within the new facility. Unfortunately, along with our many positive strides forward, we have encountered a few problems. Several construction related problems have delayed our next important phase of work, exhibit fabrication. Our floors remain the main issue of concern, and Dean Delia, as well as other University representatives are working with us to resolve this situation so that future delays are kept to a minimum. Because we want a museum facility that all our constituency can be proud of, we intend to continue testing our floors and working toward the best solution possible for the long-term health of the museum. This being the case, our scheduled opening date, by necessity, must be pushed back to accommodate further testing and any repairs that might be recommended. To accommodate the uncertainly of our schedule, we now envision a 2002 date for our opening.
Naturally, this comes as a big disappointment to us, as we have been looking forward to beginning our gallery installations, but the staff and I are sure our museum friends understand the importance of sticking to the goal of "quality" for our building as well as our exhibitions. If a silver lining can be found in our current situation it is that we feel fortunate that our problems were discovered now, rather than after we had begun or even finished our exhibits. Should such a scenario have occurred we certainly would be worse off than we are today. As director, I feel these delays are frustrating, but not deleterious to our ultimate goal. I trust you will continue offering the museum your support through these difficult times. We will over come these impediments and have a finer museum to show for it, in the end.