A letter on Arecibo's future

I no longer have access to insider information on how Arecibo is being run because pretty much everyone I knew there has left. Still get the regular user emails though. Here's one that just came through from Ramon Lugo, director of the Florida Space Institute University of Central Florida.



Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the new Arecibo Observatory management team, I would like to extend an overdue hello to our facility users and external partners. I want to personally thank you for your patience as we complete our transition process to manage and operate this facility.

As you probably know, the new team is a collaboration among the University of Central Florida (UCF), Universidad Metropolitana (UMET) and Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI). The team is led by UCF, one of America’s largest metropolitan research universities. It will oversee the science operations of the facility. UMET will focus on educational outreach and YEI will oversee the physical plant, including technology infrastructure, security and IT support.

We are humbled by the responsibility to ensure that AO will continue to facilitate cutting-edge science in radio astronomy, aeronomy and space sciences, and planetary science, but you may well wonder why UCF has chosen to get into this game. Our vision is simple. AO is a user-focused facility and we want to help you conduct your science research here. We also saw an opportunity to enhance UCF’s already strong ties with Puerto Rico (e.g. we educate hundreds of students from the island each year). We want to build an intellectual exchange between Orlando and Puerto Rico, having students and researchers from each location working closely together to benefit both places. Furthermore, one of UCF’s strategic goals is to achieve international prominence in key programs of graduate study and research. We believe getting it right at AO will help us meet this goal.

Admittedly, the transition period has been less than straightforward, and that has created more bumps than we would have liked, but we are working through it. We know that AO has an amazing on-site staff, and that they are the experts at running AO. They are teaching UCF and YEI a great deal. Our goal has been to have a smooth transition that would retain the expertise on the ground and that over time would allow us to grow. As many of you know, even after negotiations, several AO staff members decided to take positions elsewhere. We wish them well and we hope to be able to collaborate with them in the future. Rest assured we are already actively seeking to fill those vacancies with qualified personnel who are as passionate about the future of AO as we are.

Another aspect of the transition is procedural. UCF is a public university and must operate in a manner that meets Florida and federal laws. So, the way some things are done at AO will be changing, and we are working closely with our partners to make sure everyone learns the policies and procedures. This will take some time, so please be a bit patient as we move forward. But it is in everyone’s interest that we get it right.

The proposal calls from NSF clearly put the challenge of managing AO: NSF funding for AO is declining and will continue to decline every year for the next few years. NSF funding was $8.3M in ’17-’18 but will be $7.15M, $5.0M, $3.5M, $2.5M, and $2.0M in forthcoming years. This would be true no matter who was selected for the management contract. The goal is thus to make AO self-sufficient. We proposed several options to NSF for making up the difference in funding, which is one of the reasons the UCF-led team was selected. Some of these options include:

- Investing overhead return back into AO.

- Finding partners willing to buy into the telescope, as is being done at many other national observatories that face funding shortfalls.

- Philanthropic/sponsorship efforts that would result in a large enough endowment so that interest income would be a significant help to support AO operations.

- Charging users fees.

We also do need to be clear that UCF will not itself bail out AO. Our management proposal did not propose that UCF itself would make up that difference from its own internal budget. But that said, UCF went after this project because we recognize the scientific value of AO and we believe that with our partners and some creative thinking we can keep this facility around for years to come. We want AO to succeed and will work diligently with all partners and willing stakeholders to make it a success. We will explore all options.

We’ve heard some concern that UCF is not prepared to take on the operations of AO because we are not experts in all the kinds of science being done at AO. We readily acknowledge that UCF is not a leader in space and atmospheric sciences or in radio astronomy. UCF has a large and growing group of over a dozen planetary scientists that is involved in NASA and commercial missions, engineering, telescopic observing, and laboratory work. But at the moment, we have no Orlando faculty working on atmospheric science or radio astronomy. But, as we wrote in our NSF proposal, we don’t have to. Our efforts will focus on creating the kind of environment at AO that will allow you, the expert, to conduct your research in the best way.

UCF goes after big goals, even when told we can’t do it. And so far, we have a 100 percent batting average. We built an on-campus athletic stadium, a medical school, and soon a teaching hospital in the face of many influential naysayers. We turn the impossible into reality. We do it by studying our target and coming up with a viable plan. We do it by partnering with those who can help us succeed. We also do it by learning from those who have led before us and then thinking of pioneering ways to do more. This philosophy of excellence, partnership and innovation has served us well and we will use it to help us achieve our goal of making AO the best facility for scientists to do their work.

In closing, let me share that we will soon be seeking your input about what we could be doing to enhance your ability to do science at AO. We want to work with you to set short-term and long-term strategies and priorities that make sense and won’t get in the way of science discovery. This will of course continue as part of the Decadal process but we are eager to get the conversation started right away with user groups, with ASAP, and with all interested stakeholders.

We all have our own areas of expertise. Working together we will succeed.

Attentively,

Ray