This document was given to Innermost Parts by President Reinhartz shortly following the faculty meeting and the student demonstration outside. They were given to the faculty to show Brandeis’ commitment to preserve the elements that make this a great institution.
I have my own thoughts about these which I will post tomorrow. What do you guys think?
Part of the reason the new admissions building is being built is that Admissions didn’t have enough space to work. The bathroom in their downstairs work area was literally blocked by boxes of STUFF, and this was even though they had space somewhere else. I’m not saying that I think the admissions building really had to go (if you want to talk about bathrooms, the ones in the admissions building were pretty new and impressive compared to others on campus), but I can understand the people working in admissions wanting more space.
I feel certain Brandeis could cut other things rather than focus on academic cuts. Was the Admissions face lift really necessary when the other one was perfectly adequate for instance? We can use our resources better and minimize the harm.
I think the graduate school is unfortunately where the most cuts will be made. It is sad, because Brandeis is finally climbing in regard in terms of our grad school. It is also likely that our overall undergraduate rankings and our reputation will drop dramatically if the meta-major plan goes into effect. Brandeis may no longer be considered an elite institution which will be very unfortunate.
Fluff.
Nice try Jehuda but you can’t make us shut up by putting out a statement listing 11 things you should already be doing especially when only two of them (1 and 11) are measurable statements about the future of the university, and it would be completely impossible to hold you accountable for the other 9.
Since we’re talking about an economic crisis here, why don’t you try giving us some real hard numbers rather than just throwing fluffy words on a page. Specifically, I would like to hear about the numbers being thrown around in the secret faculty meetings. I doubt this kind of list would satisfy Brandeis professors who are worried about the future of the University and as students we won’t stand for it either.