When they were subsequently laid off, the eight staffers said they were dismayed that, despite their written reponse to Knowles--and his own characterization of the process as open--the dean made the cuts without listening to any of their objections.
"The conclusions to the report were made long before our response to the report was made," said Nitza Rosovksy, former curator of exhibits, the day Knowles announced the layoffs.
In March, the museum began its search for new staff members. Instead , In late April, a museum searchcommittee announced laid-off Curator ofPublications Joseph Greene as assistant directorand University of Pennsylvania Mellon Fellow JamesA. Armstong as assistant curator. All former staff members were allowed to applyfor the new positions and, all other things beingequal, were supposed to be given strong preferenceif they applied. Some staff members were not at all surprised atthe rehiring of Greene, who did no sign the letterof protest. "I have no question about his qualifications,"said Elizabeth C. Carella, former curator forarchaeological collections. "I predicted and manyof us predicted that [Administrative Dean of theFaculty] Nancy Maull and her search committeewould search high and low in the basement of theSemitic Museum and find Joseph Greene." Greenebegan working at the museum in April; Armstrongwill start September 1. This spring, the museum sponsored a lectureseries and is currently preparing "the Pyramidsand the Sphinx 100 Years of American Archaelogy atGiza," an exhibit that will open in November innewly renovated first-floor space.