Wow, I really picked the wrong time to leave the campus. Protests, sit-ins, listservs, national controversy, student forums (fora?) — what fun you must all be having!
I’m definitely keeping an eye on everything though, and consider this my long-awaited (yeah, right) return to active posting. Echoing InfoGirl’s post from Monday, I really want to encourage everyone to check out BrandeisPlans, not just as passive observers but as active participants in the discussion that will, if all goes well, not only lead the University to new heights but also ultimately save the world.
First and foremost, I send my sincere thanks to Jason Gray for encouraging President Reinharz to hold the forum for undergraduate students. Jason has proven himself to be a very valuable resource by advocating for the needs of the students. Simply put, he continues to impress me. In addition, I must extend a warm thank you to President Reinharz, as well as Peter French and Marty Krauss, for agreeing to hold this forum. Continue reading “Reflections on Today’s Forum”
For those who didn’t get the memo, today President Jehuda Reinharz, Chief Financial Officer Peter French, and Provost Marty Krauss held an open forum with students in Sherman Function Hall. It wasn’t an ideal situation, the forum was only announced the evening before and it was held during a time when most students have classes. Furthermore, it was held in middle of an ugly storm (at least from the perspective of this California native). Yet despite the challenges in organizing the event, over two hundred students (according to the Student Union) turned out to ask the President some questions. I can say with confidence that this forum was the direct result of student activism, both on the part of the Student Union as well as the Brandeis Budget Cut Committee.
Right away President Reinharz opened the meeting by announcing that this will not be the last forum, that more forums will be held for those unable to attend. He then passed the podium off to Peter French who presented a detailed slideshow (the same one presented to the Faculty and Board of Trustees in December) outlining Brandeis’s budget problems for the next five fiscal years.
The first problem he addressed was the problem of a structural deficit. That is to say,
the needs and aspirations [of the university] exceed assets and annual revenues.
As a result, for the last few decades Brandeis has been relying on large gifts to pay for its operations and it has been dipping into its endowment to pay its bills. This is only a serious problem if the University is pulling more than 5% out of its endowment annually – which for many years they were – because after this point, the endowment would cease to grow. President Reinharz built a reserve fund ( a sort of ‘savings account’ which could be dipped into and potentially fully exhausted in times of financial trouble) worth about $100 million during his tenure at Brandeis, and without it we’d be in even more trouble than we are right now. Despite this, French estimates the reserve fund will be depleted by FY 2010-2011, in order to pay for the deficits of the next two years.
In short, Brandeis has been in a fragile financial situation for quite some time, and the combination of the economy crash and the Madoff scandal put Brandeis into a state of financial crisis. (though Brandeis was not invested in Madoff’s funds directly, as was Tufts, many of our wealthy Jewish donors like Carl Shapiro were scammed out of hundreds of millions).
Students I have talked to seem to agree that today’s presentation by Pres. Jehuda Reinharz, COO Peter French, and Provost Marty Krauss was productive. There was a massive student turnout (the room was packed), and a lot of important questions were answered. I feel relieved that I’ve finally been given substantial information, but also some resentment that this presentation, which was prepared in December, could not have been shown to the student body earlier. It seems crazy to hold back explanatory and even comforting information while the student body frets.
Here is a paraphrased summary of what we were told regarding the closing of the Rose. More summary to come regarding details on endowment return and other areas of the presentation.
Brandeis lost 25% of its endowment between June 30 and December 31, falling from $712 million to $549 million in market value. Peter French’s projections predict the endowment’s value will reach an all-time low of $468 million in Fiscal Year 2009. After that, the endowment will begin to recover, but until it surpasses its original principal, no withdrawals can be made due to Massachussets law. Proposed changes in academic structuring and student/faculty ratio will help to close gaps, but not by a lot. Selling the Rose, as sad as it makes the Board of Trustees, is the only feasible large-scale cutback.
So, what exactly will happen? There are 7180 works of art in the Rose collection, with an estimated worth at about $350 million before the crash. It will take months or years to sell the paintings, as we must wait for the art market to recover, as well as examine the terms of donation or purchase for each and every work to see if its sale would be legal. A full sale of the Rose collection is thus nearly impossible and undesirable. If, by some miracle, the economy recovers and philanthropy picks up, Pres. Reinharz said that there may be no sale at all. Continue reading “Report on today’s administrative presentation: The Rose”
According to today’s New York Times article (See Nathan’s post below), world-renowned contemporary painter and printmaker Jasper Johns has spoken out about the Rose’s closing.
Johns said on Tuesday, “I find it astonishing. I’ve never heard anything like it.”
Johns is only one of the revolutionary artists cherished at the Rose, including Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Joan Miro, and Roy Lichtenstein.
The flurry of attention Brandeis has recieved in the last few days has allowed major newspapers to report on the main issue, the lack of student input in the decision making process here at the University.
The Boston Globe today has an article today entitled “Crisis Raises Questions on Brandeis Campus.”
The article quotes Professor Andreas Teuber, who says, “There was a ripple throughout the entire faculty of feeling hoodwinked.”
The article also quotes Carrie Mills and Alex Melman, editor & writer for innermostparts.org and both leaders in the Brandeis Budget Cuts Coalition. Carrie says, “We were left in the dark. We certainly feel marginalized as a whole. It feels like there’s a brick wall between us and the administration, and nothing is getting through.”
Alex says, “To close the Rose is a terrible loss to the university, and to auction off its collection as a cost-saving measure is tragic.”
Now that major media is covering the issue, now is the time for students to make a stand and demand input on all major financial decisions. We are clearly making progress, but we must continue to fight for our voice.
From the beginning of Brandeis students’ activism in the face of the budget crisis, many of us involved have questioned the legitimacy of “making a fuss” during tough times.The administration will inevitably cut integral pieces of academics and campus life, and there are more important problems in which to invest our energy.Can we really have an effect?
4,000 students, faculty, and staff from Southern Nevada schools rallied on Thursday
In the words of Hillel Buechler’s unsubstantiated op-ed in the Justice, greater student inclusion in decision-making “isn’t feasible for now; the University has already established a pattern of disregard for our say in making changes, and that pattern has yet to be broken.”These feelings of hesitancy, undoubtedly spreading among campus activists, are contrary to the principles of the very University we are trying to preserve.
How about the Rose Art Museum.Even as we struggle with our own emotional cost-benefit analyses, it is still integral that we express passion for what we value on campus.A college education teaches us to explore our interests, and then to immerse ourselves in what we find fulfilling, preparing us to fight for our ideals after graduation.We are supposed to utilize the confidence we develop in the classroom for positive change.In that vein, I will be attending Thursday’s sit-in (1:00 at the museum!) not because I definitively oppose the closing, but because I want to make sure that the Board of Trustees and administration deeply understands the adverse affects of this decision not only on PR and financial asset holdings, but on student morale.The Board of Trustees is removed from campus values and attitudes, which can turn the student body into a means, rather than an end, to an educational institution.We must do whatever we can to break through financial analysis and make our complaints felt.
Even if we, the students, are viewed as a means to a financial end, we need to remember that we are the most important means.We too often forget that the university depends on our money, our success, and our support.It is irresponsible for us to neglect input.The administration has not only expressed a desire to hear from students but implemented avenues of dialogue (i.e. Jehuda’s 11:00 meeting today in Sherman); it would be a humiliating demonstration of apathy for us not to partake.
Our administration is just as desperate as we are, and a mutually beneficial solution depends on discourse involving both sides! Few administrators/faculty are viewing student organizing as antagonistic, in fact they are relying on it.At a time when we are selling the Rose, our second largest asset after the school’s land itself, no idea is too radical.
So, in a clichéd attempt at a rallying cry, let’s put aside our pessimism and save our own school!
