Layoffs at the Center of Science and Industry after years of losses may hurt museum’s educational mission, including hands-on shows and demonstrations, current and former staff members told The Dispatch.
Chad Thompson, COSI’s chief operating officer, previously said the reduction of 15% of its 150-person staff were across a variety of departments.
But about 40% of the layoffs were from the so-called “front-facing” staff and education team that visitors directly interact with, those who perform on stage with live rats or wildlife or answer questions about earth’s origins, dinosaurs and paleontology, according to current and former employees.
When COSI CEO Frederic Bertley took on a dual leadership role a year before, officially helming both COSI and the National Veterans and Memorial Museum, both museums were at a tipping point, those familiar with COSI operations told The Dispatch.
It happened as COSI’s leaders were facing large losses – including $1.3 million in 2024.
Those let go include Andy Aichele, COSI’s vice president of education, and eight education team staffers.
Six members of the executive leadership team, including Bertley, remain. Only Thompson has returned calls or emails for comment. Neither Aichele nor Bertley returned The Dispatch’s repeated requests to discuss the issues facing COSI.
Laying off the front-line workers “definitely alters the guest experience and safety,” one of the laid off workers told The Dispatch. “You need people around to watch the kids. And the vast majority of people want to interact with human beings not just go in and push buttons.”
The worker asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution.
Some exhibits and shows have been scaled back “because they had to retrain all of these workers,” said a worker familiar with most COSI operations, declining to be named, fearing inability to get work elsewhere. “When you cut the education team, other educators become fearful and the quality goes down. These people are traumatized to go on the stage and put on a show.”
Flury of text messages follow Jan. 13 layoffs
In a Jan. 14 email, Thompson told The Dispatch that “Like many cultural institutions across the country, COSI is adjusting to changes in attendance and funding,” and that “After careful review, we made the difficult decision to reduce staffing to align resources with current needs and the projected environment.”
In private text messages shared by a current employee and social media posts, employee venting began.
“[Communicating] is literally one of our core values and yet they [executive staff] do their own thing and don’t tell the pawns working below them,” said one employee.
As for Bertley’s dual CEO role with the veterans museum, the staffer said, “We are too busy to do our own work, but sure, let’s make our people go to vets and work.”
Bertley told The Dispatch in October that COSI’s Catalyst Group, comprising at least some COSI staff, acts as a private marketing/strategy agency, conducts strategic planning for COSI and other local organizations. The goal was to help refine Bertley’s vision of honoring veterans, elevating their stories, and amplifying the power of service, Bertley said. COSI is paid an undisclosed amount by the other organizations for this work.
“We are a science museum. Not a government/military entity … All this government/military comingling (expletive) needs to stop,” said the COSI employee.
More than 400 responses followed a COSI layoffs subreddit that discussed concerns over COSI’s leadership being aligned with the Republican Party.
In recent months, several sources described cuts to diversity efforts, including special COSI shirts and pronoun buttons.
“I’m heartbroken for a lot of my friends for which this was a passion job,” one person with a college degree who left COSI voluntarily last year, making $17 per hour, told The Dispatch. That person described COSI’s actions as making “those in these marginalized communities feel unsupported by the organization.”
A GoFundMe page has raised more than $1,000 for those laid off.
“Many of these workers could have made more money in a for-profit, but chose to be at COSI because they cared about the mission: to engage, inspire, and transform lives and communities through science and technology. They are now entering a very tumultuous labor market and economy,” the GoFundMe page read.
Support from city, county continues to help COSI
Columbus continues to provide funding, with about $1 million for heating and cooling upgrades and special programs in the past year. And Franklin County on Jan. 20 approved $670,000 for 15,000 “learning lunch boxes,” science kits sent to schools and organizations.
But culture change, not funding, is needed to help morale, a current employee told The Dispatch.
“They don’t feel valued,” he said of colleagues. “They don’t feel listened to.”
“So many people just feel gutted, and that there’s no trust now, no empathy from leadership. I think the staff wants success, but we also want transparency.”
Another laid off employee, who didn’t want to violate a nondisclosure agreement by being named, described their affection for a dream job.
“I wanted to stay at COSI, and my boss said my job was safe, and he knew I was extremely concerned about losing it. And now it feels like a death sentence, like I lost my family.
“I loved COSI as a child … my parents always told me I loved science as a child. I felt like COSI made a difference in my life and I wanted to provide that to others. The place works and now I’m concerned that it doesn’t work anymore.”
Growth and development reporter Dean Narciso can be reached at dnarciso@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: COSI cuts and layoffs hit education team hardest, say staffers
Reporting by Dean Narciso, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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