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THE SENATE                           S.C.R. NO.            S.D. 1
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
________________________________________________________________
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                    SENATE  CONCURRENT
                        RESOLUTION
  REQUESTING THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII TO PARTNER WITH BISHOP
    MUSEUM FOR RESEARCH ASSISTANCE.
 


 1        WHEREAS, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum is designated as the
 2   State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History under
 3   section 6E-40, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and
 4   
 5        WHEREAS, Bishop Museum is respected worldwide for its
 6   collections, including its Hawaiiana, and engages in extensive
 7   research in botany, entomology, geology, ichthyology,
 8   invertebrate and vertebrate zoology, and malacology; and
 9   
10        WHEREAS, Bishop Museum is also the home of the Hawaii
11   Biological Survey, an ongoing natural history inventory of the
12   Hawaiian archipelago, established by the State Legislature in
13   1992; and
14   
15        WHEREAS, virtually all definitive published treatments and
16   manuals of Hawaiian organisms have been produced by the Museum
17   or in close collaboration with it; and
18   
19        WHEREAS, although Bishop Museum has a serious, ongoing
20   fundraising effort and has improved the quality of its exhibits
21   over the years to bring in additional revenues, Bishop Museum
22   is short of the funding it needs to keep up with its research;
23   and
24   
25        WHEREAS, without research, a museum is merely a warehouse
26   of artifacts; and
27   
28        WHEREAS, the State needs to keep the research at the
29   Museum going, as it provides a long-term benefit to state
30   residents; and
31   
32        WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii system may be able to
33   provide Bishop Museum with the technical expertise and staff
34   that it would take to continue to allow Bishop Museum to be a
35   world-class research institute; and
36   

 
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                                  S.C.R. NO.            S.D. 1
                                                        
                                                        


 1        WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii and Bishop Museum
 2   maintain a high level of research collaboration, and the Museum
 3   provides many essential services to the University and to state
 4   agencies; and
 5   
 6        WHEREAS, the Museum cannot continue to provide these
 7   services and remain a world-class research institute unless it
 8   receives a reasonable level of state support; now therefore,
 9   
10        BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twentieth Legislature
11   of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 1999, the House of
12   Representatives concurring, that the University of Hawaii and
13   the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum are urged to formalize and
14   strengthen their collaboration to enable both institutions to
15   maintain a high standard of excellence in research; and
16   
17        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the University of Hawaii and
18   the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum are requested to produce a
19   report reviewing current areas of collaboration, proposing
20   areas of future collaboration, and recommending how this may be
21   supported and to report their findings to the Legislature not
22   later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular
23   Session of 2000; and
24   
25        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
26   Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the
27   Board of Regents, the President of the University of Hawaii,
28   and the President, Director, and the Chief Executive Officer of
29   the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.