Brandeis budget crunch

B77
Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:09:25 +0000

tumblebunny, Brandeis is a great school and exciting place to be–truly a special combination of small liberal arts school and world-class research university. The reports of its budget issues lack context and have been overblown due to the administration’s initial inartful handling of its proposal potentially to sell a few paintings from its world-renowned Rose Art Museum–which has caused international attention to be focused on this issue.

Brandeis is hardly alone in this economy. According to news reports, many universities, even the wealthiest, like Harvard, are making serious budget cuts in response to severely diminished endowments and donations. Contrary to some rumors, Brandeis did not have any of its endowment invested with Madoff, unlike Tufts that lost $20 million and Yeshiva that lost over $100 million with him–although a major Brandeis supporter did lose funds. Brandeis has pledged to maintain financial aid and maintain, or improve, its world-class education by resisting the type of budget cuts that could undermine its core mission. The art-sale proposal is just one way it is considering to fund that pledge. The key here is that Brandeis is prioritizing students over things.

The student body currently is very small for an institution of its caliber (less than 800 per class) so I believe that 50 additional students if handled properly won’t be a problem. And the school is being very thoughtful about this issue and addressing it in part by introducing an optional experiential/intensive study semester called The Justice Brandeis Semester that will serve both to offer an exciting alternative to classroom learning amd to reduce campus overcrowding–similar to the Dartmouth D-Plan. They’re also launching an innovative Business major, and, I believe, a Communications/Media major to increase educational options. I would not let the economy deter your daughter from experiencing Brandeis or any of the other top-tier schools that are faced with budget issues. These issues are cyclical and excellent schools have found ways of dealing with them in the past. I’m confident Brandeis and its peers will deal with them successfully once again.