Smithsonian's Lawrence Small Resigns

Just received from Roger Sant, Chair, Executive Committee, Smithsonian Board of Regents

At 12:30 this afternoon, Regent Patti Stonsifer and I will participate in a news conference to announce that we have accepted the resignation of Secretary Lawrence Small, effective immediately. At the same time, we will announce that Cristian Samper, currently director of the National Museum of Natural History, has been named by the Regents to serve as Acting Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, also effective immediately. We also have asked Sheila Burke to continue as Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer. We appreciate her strong leadership, particularly during these past months.

Although the past few weeks have been difficult for us all, we believe that the important work of the Institution will continue and we hope you share our optimism for the future.

A search committee for a new Secretary will begin immediately under the chairmanship of Alan Spoon, a member of our executive committee.

We thank you for your hard work and dedication.

Below is the text of the news release distributed today and available shortly on PRISM and newsdesk.si.edu. Also, the news conference will be available through Windows Media Player at mms://live01.si.edu/sicastle.

Roger Sant

Chair, Executive Committee
Smithsonian Board of Regents

Update: The press release is here.

Update: WaPo picks up the story (revised once since the intial 1PM posting, which cited a Congressional leak instead of the press conference) here. According to some of the comments, this too appears to be Pres. Bush's fault.