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promotions. Revised projections anticipate not going into the black before 1991, rather than 1989 as originally foreseen. Mr. Adams suggested that matters of finances and content need to be explored, which he proposed to do at the September meeting of the Board, and he indicated that over the summer he and his staff would like to work with several interested members of the Board of Regents. 

Mr. Adams announced that the dedication of the Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. Laboratory of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center will take place after the next meeting of the Regents' Audit and Review Committee on June 1. He expressed the hope that a number of Regents would be able to attend.

The secretary noted that the Smithsonian has gratefully received a $700,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a three-year program of fellowships in terrestrial biology. The emphasis and structure of the program will encourage work among teams of scientists, senior and junior, and will foster closer ties between various Smithsonian research operations and those of other institutions.

Mr. Adams reported that the political and economic difficulties in Panama had not yet had any significant impact on the activities of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Acutely aware of the potential disruptions and dangers to which civil disorders might lead, Smithsonian staff have worked with the Director of STRI in developing a contingency plan and have maintained close liaison with the U.S. Department of State. The Secretary added that, in part as a result of the political and economic turmoil over the last several years, the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine has been facing increasing financial difficulties and the Institute's Board of Directors recently authorized its director to close its facilities if conditions warranted. Since many of the activities of the Gorgas Memorial Institute are of interest to STRI, as well as certain of its assets -- including, but not limited to, its library holdings and equipment -- the Smithsonian and STRI staff have entered into a dialogue with the Institute to explore any arrangement which would strengthen the research program at STRI and which can be properly financed.

Finally, Mr. Adams reported on a set of hearings before Congresswoman Cardiss Collins' Subcommittee on Government Activities and Transportation, which had examined a variety of matters pertaining to the Institution. Of primary concern were the Smithsonian's affirmative action policies and practices and questions on ethnic representation in a variety of contexts. In addition, the subcommittee expressed approval of the Smithsonian's revised plans for offering life estates to the individuals occupying buildings without ownership or leases on the properties of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. The subcommittee also registered strong concern about the Institution's sale of Frederick Douglass House on Capitol Hill, a portion of the property formerly occupied by the National Museum of African Art. 

[[underlined]] FINANCIAL REPORT [[/underlined]]

Actual figures for fiscal year 1988 have remained essentially unchanged from previous presentations and are given in detail, as audited by Coopers & Lybrand, in the annual report. While the figures for 1990 are similarly