The longtime chair of Tel Aviv University’s Steinhardt Museum of Natural History has resigned, along with seven board members, in protest of a reorganization plan she argues will strip the institution of its academic standing.

Prof. Tamar Dayan spent nearly 30 years leading the moves to establish a museum to unite the university’s scientific collections, which hold more than 5.5 million items.

She has served as the founding chairperson since the museum’s 2018 opening, in addition to her roles as curator of terrestrial vertebrates, a professor at the School of Zoology, and chair for Environmental Conservation Research.

Dayan’s vision, shared by several national and international committees of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities over the years, was for a national museum anchored at Tel Aviv University.

A national museum serves the general public and plays a significant educational role. It holds national archives on biodiversity and natural heritage, conducts research, and supports state-level environmental management and policy-making.

A university museum is usually focused more on a faculty’s research and classroom teaching, providing laboratories for faculty and graduate students. It operates within the university’s hierarchy and strategic goals.

Dayan’s vision advanced five years ago when the university recognized the museum as an independent academic institution authorized to recruit its own senior academic staff.

But a review the university commissioned earlier this year from Shaldor, a consultancy, has prompted what Dayan views as an........

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