There’s a lot to take away from this news article by Hannah Kirsch, Donation goes to Rose.
Most importantly, we see that Jehuda is still hiding information from Students and Faculty.
A donor has provided funds to help pay the Rose Art Museum’s operating budget for the remainder of this fiscal year, according to a Feb. 26 “frequently asked questions” briefing e-mail to Brandeis alumni sent by University President Jehuda Reinharz and forwarded to the Justice by several alumni.
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Scott said that she heard of the donation news from an alumnus approached her at a conference, [sic] but she dismissed it as a rumor after she did not receive any official notification. “To my knowledge, no other faculty had been told about this,” she said.
This mad obsession with secrecy accomplishes nothing but make Jehuda look bad. And, like it or not, right now he’s the face of the University. Why does all big news come in the form of leaks to the Justice? Why are different people being told different things, and why the hell are people still confused over the Rose? What else don’t we know? Did Sheldon Adelson just buy the Heller School? At this point, anything is possible.
Secondly, we see that an anonymous donor gave a fair chunk of change to the Rose’s endowment. Great, but no amount money given to the Rose’s endowment will save it. Why? Because the Rose is financially healthy – by selling it, Jehuda is trying to cannabilize it, not cut off a loss.
Last, we see that we’re still locked in the paradigm of the benevolent mega-donor. This model is outmoded for the modern age. Brandeis should be much more friendly to targeted micro-donations from small donors than it is now. That was the secret to success of campaigning in recent times(Barack Obama, yes, but yes as well to hundreds of congressional Candidates, Hillary’s bounce back after NH, etc), as well as the foundation of support for Jewish Federations throughout history (up until the 20-year anomaly of the Jewish Mega-donor from the 1980’s-2000).