KENOSHA — Parents and students are raising concerns after recent changes to Carthage College’s paleontology program — a program many say played a major role in their decision to attend the school.
Watch: Concerns grow over changes to Carthage Paleontology Program
Andrea Zander, a Carthage parent, says her child is a senior and chose the college specifically for its hands-on undergraduate paleontology experience.
“It was really disappointing because we chose Carthage specifically because it had an undergraduate program that offered all of this, and there isn’t another place,” Zander said.
For more than two decades, the program offered students hands-on lab training and fossil research connected to the Dinosaur Discovery Museum in downtown Kenosha.
Professor Thomas Carr, who led the program for more than 20 years, says students have now lost key opportunities that help prepare them for graduate school and careers in the field.
“The students have lost the opportunity to do lab work and fieldwork,” Carr said. “In addition to that, the community of Kenosha has lost the prestige of a growing and thriving paleontology program.”
Fossil preparator Andrew Goebel says the program provided rare, one-on-one mentorship that is difficult to replicate elsewhere.
“I see firsthand the amount of mentorship students receive and the opportunities made available to them,” Goebel said. “Something really special and constructive is being lost in this process.”
In a statement, Kenosha Public Museums said the agreement allowing Carthage to use lab space inside the Dinosaur Discovery Museum expired on January 4. The museum says the transition included returning Carthage-owned equipment to campus.
Carthage College says the two-decade-old agreement with the museum was under review when Professor Carr stepped down as director. The college says funding for the program has not changed and that students and Carr can still access museum labs.
Carthage also says summer fieldwork was not authorized because the museum is currently at full capacity with fossil collections.
Parents and students say they are hoping the college and museum will reconsider the changes and provide more clarity about what the program will look like moving forward.
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