University of Michigan regents to consider $18M Museum of Zoology project

William Fink, professor and curator director of the Museum of Zoology, opens one of the jars containing a rattlesnake preserved in ethyl alcohol in the herpetology wet collection of the zoology department at the Alexander G. Ruthvens Museums Building in this 2008 photo.

File photo

What does it take to move millions of glass containers containing records of life on earth?

Design plans on the table at Thursday's University of Michigan Board of Regents meeting will shed some light on that question.

Plans for a $17.6 million project to relocate the Museum of Zoology wet collections and renovate portions of the Alexander B. Ruthven Museums building are up for approval at the regents' monthly board meeting at 3 p.m. tomorrow. The regents first approved the project in December 2008.

As for what makes up a wet collection: The U-M Museum of Zoology holds a priceless collection of 3.3 million specimens of fish, reptiles, amphibians and other animals in ethyl-alcohol-filled containers.

An internal audit, a report on a cost-saving initiative and a number of other major renovation projects are also up for approval tomorrow.

Among the agenda items are:

An internal audit that shows Michigan football coaches did not submit monthly practice logs to compliance authors. Coach Rich Rodriguez said that's been corrected.
A report will be given on U-M's space utilization efforts, one of the cost-cutting efforts the university is stepping up this year. The cuts and revenue areas being explored are connected to the general fund budget for U-M's Ann Arbor campus, which stands at $1.45 billion for the 2009-2010 school year. The general fund pays for teaching, administrative support and services, and is funded via tuition, state appropriation, grant awards and interest accrued on general fund balances. U-M has organized task forces this year to further explore savings, but a report on findings won't be available until April, officials said. A falling state appropriation hurts the general fund and is the main culprit for cuts, officials have said.

Other renovation projects on the agenda include:

A $6.4 million makeover for 61,000 square feet of Wolverine Tower. The renovation will relocate MHealthy to Wolverine Tower and create more shared space and shared staff opportunities for the various U-M units in the building.Â
A $1.5 million chiller replacement in the Chemistry Building.
A $2.2 million renovation of biology laboratories in the Edward Henry Kraus Building.

Juliana Keeping covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter