Brent,
I'm speaking from some experience. I am an adjunct Asst. Prof of Biology at the local university. In one instance I provided most of the tools and facilities for a research project on Hansen's disease in Armadillos. Both graduate students earned Masters degrees and since have earned their doctorates. One is now an assistant dean at her school. I have also seen what budget cuts do to collections as well as the corrosive effects of campus political correctness (mostly at other schools, we're kinda redneck here). It has taken a lot of involvement by former students to maintain Dr Thomas' wonderful herbarium and Dr Douglas' fish and herp collection against lack of funds and criticism from other faculty about their "relevance". There are plenty of professors perfectly willing to jettison another man's life's work just because it doesn't meet their approval. Get a couple of them on the wrong committees and they can do a lot of damage. So it comes down to I love my old school and I am involved but I have little faith in the motives of much of the faculty (especially from the humanities). I just have to be worried about the reception such a collection as Petrov's would get at a lot of schools. However I suspect, as suggested, any Alaskan college or university would be pleased to get the collection.
Jerry Liles
