Month: July 2009

Well, Brandeis made the New York Times again, which is never good news. This time, it’s a short blurb about a lawsuit which has been filed against us by several Rose Art Museum overseers:

Lawsuit Seeks to Save Art Museum at Brandeis

Continue reading “Brandeis Getting Sued”

I’m hearing rumors that Brandeis had a success in fundraising this year, and that something like 12M dollars will be put into place to plugging our endowment-created deficit. Does anyone have any specifics on this? Will Faculty get their 401(k)’s back now?

P.S. – Kudos to Ariel Wittenberg at the Hoot for updating during the summer, if only just a bit. Big news still happens over the summer months, and our publications should recognize that fact by at least trying to inform when it happens. edit:The Justice would like to point out that they broke the story before their summer publication. Good, but the point I was trying to address here was “updating news sites over the summer,” not “who got to break the story first”.

update: We’ve got a copy of the message. First, the numbers: We raised 78.3 million dollars total this year, which is 12.1 million less than the $90.4 million we raised last year. Still, this is spun as a success because of the rough economy, and Jehuda points out that 78.3 million is still the 4th largest gift in Brandeis’ history. I’ve sent him an email asking if this accounts for inflation. We’ve also raised 11.6 million dollars to help with the current budget, but only $600,000 of that exceeds projections, so don’t expect any big news there.

It’s a bit frustrating that Jehuda didn’t see fit to inform students of all this. I realize that maybe he didn’t want to spam our inboxes, but come on. How were we supposed to find out about this? I love Brandeis and want it to succeed, and I’m not the only one. We are eager to hear more of this sort of news. It’s not even on his website.

Here’s the text of Jehuda’s message, dated July 13. I advise you to take it with a grain of salt; he has a vested interested in making these numbers look good. Still, hooray?:

I am pleased to report that Brandeis University has raised $11.6 million for current use budget relief. This exceeds our target of $11.0 million by $600,000.

In this difficult year, the development staff, with the help of members of the Board of Trustees and others, exceeded expectations and secured $78.3 million in cash gifts to the University. Last year $90.4 million was raised. The result for Fiscal 2009 is an incredible amount, given the economic uncertainties this year, and represents the 4th largest total cash gifts ever to Brandeis.

New cash and pledges in recent weeks have brought the Campaign for Brandeis to a total of $875 million. This is 71.7% of the $1.2 billion goal. The highest priority for the Campaign continues to be securing scholarships and fellowships, although this is challenging in this environment.

These fundraising efforts have been successful due to the hard work of many people, especially Nancy Winship and her staff. During her 15 years with Brandeis, Nancy has assembled a group of dedicated people, who orchestrated more than 200 events; created and sent internet appeals; coordinated a seven-figure scholarship challenge grant; designed viral marketing and email blasts; planned direct mail letters and phonathons; and visited hundreds of people throughout the U.S. on behalf of Brandeis.

My congratulations to the development staff, to the entire campus community, to the Board of Trustees, and to all those donors who stepped forward in this difficult economic environment to make particularly generous gifts.

146 years ago, the United States experienced the bloodiest riot in its history.

African Americans became scapegoats and the target of the rioters’ anger. Many immigrants and poor viewed freed slaves as competition for scarce jobs and African Americans as the reason why the civil war was being fought. African Americans who fell into the mob’s hands were often beaten, tortured, and/or killed, including one man that was attacked by a crowd of 400 with clubs and paving stones, then hung from a tree and set alight.[13] The Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, which provided shelter for hundreds of children, was attacked by a mob. The police were able to secure the orphanage for enough time to allow orphans to escape.[8]

The worst riot in American history was also its bloodiest race riot, where white working class whites in New York City tortured, beat, and killed any African-American they could lay their hands on.

Worth remembering.

So, in case you didn’t know, there’s going to be a conference on social media and its connection to Social Justice at Brandeis pretty soon. Super cool, right? This combines my passions for computers with my drive for Social Justice. I’m totally excited.

Here’s the agenda: TMI. Social Justice in a Facebook Age v2

Anyways, one way to get involved in the conference (beyond, you know, showing up and listening) is by joining the “Student Challenge”.

It’s still in the planning stages right now, but here’s how the latest draft describes it:

Assignment: Two groups of up to 15 undergraduate students each will gather material at the conference, do research outside the conference, and compile reports on the questions: Are New Media Transformative? How for Better, How for Worse? using both traditional and non-traditional reporting tools and methods.

More info here: student_challenge_draft_4

Check it out.

So a while ago I pointed out that Mariel Gruzsko, a friend of mine, was writing a blog about her experiences doing Anthropological work in Guatemala. Well, it’s taken off splendidly, and I seriously recommend you take a look. She updates often, thoroughly, and thoughtfully.