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FROM THE DIRECTOR Margaret Conkey |
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| These are difficult times for
universities, for research, and for education in general. Here at Berkeley, we have almost
grown accustomed to the idea there will be a "budget cut"; especially in small
units, like the Archaeological Research Facility, such things as 5% cuts can hurt. The ARF
is one of some dozen or more Organized Research Units on the Berkeley campus, and we were
all subject to intense review this past Fall by an external review committee. After
preparing an unusually detailed Annual Report that covered 1993-94 and 1994-95, I -as
current Director- and Pat Kirch -as former Director
and our current Chair of Publications, learned that we drew the 8:30 AM time slot to
present to the review committee a summary of the ARF- our history, our growth, our new
programs and projects, our budget, our incomes, and so forth. We had a mere 20 minutes,
and we knew that in addition to providing us with what would be genuine feedback, there
was also the need for some $750,000 to be cut from the overall ORU budgets. In retrospect,
the coffee at that meeting must have been good, for we were spared any cuts. The big fat
"zero" in the column marked "Reductions in Thousands of Dollars" is
still a delight to see! Of course it was more than the coffee, for the ARF has indeed
accomplished much, especially in the last eight years, when we began our expansion and
rejuvenation as a campus-wide archaeological unit. Our report card reads: "An
excellent record of performance, and resources are effectively deployed". For this we
have worked hard, but there is the raw reality: our budget is so small that to cut even a
dollar would have made a difference. So, we were spared a cut, but how do we then continue
to support the work of the Archaeological Research Facility, especially as many of our
more reliable agencies, such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation are on tenuous budgets, at
best. I have thus been pleased with the response to some of our recent, albeit tentative, calls for gifts and donations. The Undergraduate Research Fund has received well over $1000.00 in support since the last Newsletter; more is definitely welcomed. Several of our extant gift accounts that support individual research projects have been increased. And several Newsletter recipients have contacted me about ways in which they might contribute, albeit in a modest way. While the last thing I thought I would be doing as Director of ARF would be to raise funds, it seems as if this is increasingly a crucial component to our future health. I think you will find inside this Newsletter yet another testimony to that health-in the richness and diversity of archaeological activities of all sorts, from individual faculty research projects, to various forms of public outreach ranging from local school excavation projects to the ceremonial international Games at Nemea (Greece). Our last Newsletter seems to have touched a number of chords of interest and enthusiasm about our activities, research, and varied directions, and I am sure this will be a continuing trend. Thus, as you continue to read in these pages of the publications program, the multitude of lectures to attend, and of the research at all levels, I hope you enjoy and hope also, that if you are inspired to do so, we could benefit more than you would know from even the smallest of donations, so that indeed there can be a future for the past! |
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Archaeological Research Facility
2251 College Building
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1076
Last Modified 14 July 1999.
