<p>I am in the fact the parent of an undergraduate at another fine university, one that competes directly with Brandeis for students. Brandeis was in fact a better fit for Daughter #1 because of the art program. The second school was a better fit for daughter #2 because of her interests and talents. They have also lost $ in their endowment because of the financial meltdown and their president was the first to announce a salary reduction for himself and all key administrators as opposed to Brandeis where the initiative came from the faculty and JR would participate in a 1% cut if/when 30% of the faculty did so. While I have not been overally impressed with the leadership of JR since his snub to President Carter 3-4 years ago, he did request my daughter’s painting to be on loan to the current admissions suite and pay for it to be framed. By the way I thought tearing down that handsome building a mistake, and thought the University could have found a better use for it perhaps.
See todays NY TIMES Opinion piece on Brandeis and the Rose- <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/opinion/02mon4.html[/url]”>www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/opinion/02mon4.html</a>. I was very proud of the education and opportunity my daughter received, including the opportunity that her merit scholarship made possible for her study abroad experience (same with my younger d who has just returned from semester abroad).While I do not have all the answers, I know this is not the best solution that can be found. I do hope to be a bigger donor in the future, but with one in grad school and one in college at the same time, not an option. My graduation gift was a donation to the art dept expressly along with that of my daughter’s gift. I will make similar donation to the appropriate dept for my younger daughter upon her graduation.</p>