The Illinois General Assembly passed a bill on Tuesday to reopen the Illinois State Museum, but it’s too late to prevent some of the damage caused by its closing. The museum system, with its main campus and its Research and Collection Center located in Springfi eld, closed to the public on Oct. 1 on the order of Gov. Bruce Rauner. On Tuesday, the Illinois House passed Senate Bill 317, which mandates, among other provisions, that the museum shall be open to the public. The Illinois Senate passed the bill back in August; both chambers approved it with a vetoproof majority. The governor planned to save the state money by closing the museum, but a legal battle over the planned staff layoff meant many of the staff were expected to keep working. While the museum continued operating with its doors closed to visitors, many of the knowledgeable non-union administrators either retired or were fi red, and many of the esteemed researchers fl ed to other institutions. So while the new legislation appears poised to reopen the museum to the public, it has already lost decades of institutional knowledge and experience. Additionally, the debacle put the museum’s accreditation at risk when the American Alliance of Museums’ Accreditation Commission voted unanimously on Oct. 19 to put the museum on probation due to the closure. In its statement on the probation vote, the commission said “We have grave concerns about the impact of this closure on the long-term viability of the museum, including affecting its ability to retain a professional staff and operate at the highest professional level; impairing the museum’s ability to care for the 13.5 million specimens in its collection; impacting donor support; risking its role as a major educational resource in the state of Illinois; and harming its reputation as a premier international museum and research institution.”