A 2001 decision to relocate the University of Iowa’s herbarium collection to Iowa State University is still unresolved, and still a source of controversy between members of the two university communities.

Diana Horton, director and curator of the University of Iowa herbarium, said faculty, staff, students and the general public of Iowa City are opposed to the herbarium moving to Ames.

“U of I is still actively fighting [the herbarium move] as we speak and our intent is that it will not move,” she said.

Horton said she doesn’t know why the decision was made to move the University of Iowa’s herbarium, a large collection of dried and pressed plants.

“I was just told the beginning of December of 2001 — nobody consulted us,” she said.

Lynn Clark, director of the Ada Hayden Herbarium at Iowa State and ISU professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology, said Iowa State’s herbarium currently consists of 400,040 plant specimens. The addition of the University of Iowa’s herbarium collection would add 250,000 specimens to the collection.

Bill Decker, vice president for research at the University of Iowa, said the herbarium will be moved to Iowa State no matter what, although the way the herbarium is managed may change. He said one of the reasons the herbarium needs to be moved is that the University of Iowa plans to renovate its chemistry building, where the herbarium is currently housed, in the next few years.

Data collected by the department of biological sciences shows the utilization of the herbarium by students, faculty and staff is not high, therefore the University of Iowa cannot afford to relocate the herbarium on campus because it is not in high use, Decker said.

Clark said people will only have to come to one place to study plants. “[Moving the herbarium] provides a way to centralize between both universities.”

Horton disagreed.

“Ames is certainly not central if you live in eastern Iowa,” she said

Tom Madsen, junior in environmental sciences at the University of Iowa, said a two and a half hour drive to visit the herbarium would not be feasible for many students. “Losing the herbarium would diminish the quality of education,” he said. “You can’t learn without the herbarium.”

Horton agreed, “[The herbarium] is an absolutely critical resource to learn about the environment.”

Clark said she can understand why people in Iowa City are protesting the move.

“Iowa City people won’t have the luxury of having [the herbarium] right there,” Clark said.

Decker said the decision to move the herbarium was made by University of Iowa President David Skorton and there will be no more forums to discuss other possibilities.

“Every issue that anyone has raised was looked into,” he said. “The issues raised have been taken care of.” The University of Iowa has an agreement with Iowa State to allow students and faculty at University of Iowa to receive specimen loans from the Iowa State herbarium, Decker said.

“We are prepared to support expenses for individuals to travel to use the collection [at Iowa State],” Decker said.

Clark said Iowa State will look after the herbarium once it moves.

“Our responsibility is to make sure [the University of Iowa herbarium] has a good home,” she said.