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<p>i’m sorry but this is too symptomatic of how people react in these types of circumstances – “i don’t know what you should do, i just don’t want you to do this!” quite honestly there is simply no way that you can in fact know this isn’t the best solution that can be found. you can have the opinion that it isn’t the best because of the value you place on the museum, but you can’t know that it isn’t what will best enable brandeis to continue as a quality academic institution.</p>
<p>many schools have been hit with large declines in their endowments. on top of that brandeis has the added factor that many of its large donors were hit by the madoff mess. you can’t simply point to what another school has done and say that the same solution will solve brandeis’ problem.</p>
<p>several years ago i was involved as a volunteer with a small community not-for-profit that was having financial problems (nothing on the scale of what is going on with brandeis of course) – everyone found it very easy to shout about what cuts shouldn’t be made – and of course whatever aspect of the organization they were involved in was obviously too valuable to be cut. financial problems don’t just disappear on their own. an organization has to make difficult decisions as to what will best enable it to continue its core functions.</p>
<p>the ny times has found it very easy to jump on the “isn’t it a shame” band wagon without offering any alternative either. it refers to this damaging brandeis’ mission – i’m sorry, but where does anyone get the idea that it is brandeis’ mission to operate a museum? </p>
<p>it seems to me that its mission is to be a top university open to a diverse student population while making its education available with need blind aid. it was recently ranked #16 by kipplinger for best value in a private university – a key factor considered in that ranking was the aid given its students.</p>
<p>a museum is an easy emotional issue to focus on. actually offering potential solutions that will maintain the academic integrity of a university that has been hit with double financial whammy (endowment market decline plus donors’ madoff fallout) is a lot harder.</p>
<p>how much can brandeis further raise tuition? how much do you realistically expect faculty members to agree to in salary cuts? how much support staff can be slashed? how many courses should be eliminated? how much larger should courses be? where should the financial burdens fall? quite honestly, when i look at the potential list of who might suffer in the name of alleviating the financial problems, the museum doesn’t strike me as that horrible a choice.</p>