"One of the things we're trying to do is encourage graduate [students] and undergraduates to make more use of museums than they have," she says.
But some museum officials say that while they would like to add outreach to their other tasks, they simply don't have the resources.
The report that recommended reducing the Semitic Museum out-reach commitment was written to attack the museum's more than $1 million deficit. The outreach programs, and the staff that operated them, were cut to reduce costs.
Susan M. Rossi-Wilcox, top administrator at the Botanical Museum, says she would like to link exhibits to courses in the same way that art museums do.
"We could be doing the same but we don't because we don't have the staff and we certainly don't have the time to pull it together," she says.
Some students do come to the Botanical Museum's most famous exhibit, the Glass Flowers, she says.
"There were a number of us who thought we served the public, that is, tourists," Rossi-Wilcox says. "But when we actually started to look at the numbers we were somewhat shocked by the number of in-house folks who made it over here."
But the decentralized administration of the museums of cultural and natural history helps prevent outreach efforts from drawing a bigger audience, she says.
All four museums have their own limited administrations, and they are now trying to obtain an executive director to unify aspects of all four. But that change is still in the future, Rossi-Wilcox says.
"I don't see that we're going to change anytime soon," she says.
And the majority of students will probably continue ignoring much of the Harvard museum system.
"They're probably underused, like most things at Harvard. People are really busy," Lichtenstein says. "Your really have to take time out of your day" to go there.
Soong, the Friends student steering committee member, says the museums' lack of patronage by students is unfortunate.
"I think it's a shame that students don't use the museums more because they are great resources," he says. "But on the other hand, Harvard is full of great resources."
Of 82,379 visits to Harvard's art museums last year, just 6200 were by Harvard students.
The museums do not use many traditional publicity forums to inform students about exhibits.