Proceedings of the Board of Regents Meeting held on September 15, 1986

Should the Smithsonian Institution begin charging admission to its museums? After a century of free admission, the Regents and the Secretary found themselves looking at budget cuts and exploring possible options for making ends meet. However, this was only one of many items the Secretary put before the Regents in the fall of 1986. The tragedy of the space shuttle Challenger’s explosion was fresh in people’s minds, including former astronaut Jake Garn’s. He requested that the Smithsonian consider establishing a center for space science education in memoriam to the Challenger astronauts. Please help us to make these proceedings fully searchable in a joint effort with your fellow Transcription Center #volunpeers and learn more about how the Regents approached these and other issues. To learn more about this collection, check out the finding aid.