<p>It was actually fairly amusing to read the moral outrage of the New York Times editorial staff, given that the company is itself teetering on the brink and only wishes it had an art collection to sell! </p>
<p>“While it’s not the university’s ‘mission’ to operate a museum, it can be suggested it’s mission is to provide the best resources to it’s students.” So every reputable college must have an art museum? Of course not–most don’t have anything remotely like the Rose. Brandeis without the Rose Art Museum is still an outstanding school.</p>
<p>“In my letter to the Board of Trustees I suggested that brainstorming and sharing creative thinking as well as looking to what fellow universities are doing to alleviate their own financial shortfalls might be the way to go.” How can anyone really believe that the Brandeis Board of Trustees, highly educated and successful individuals, more than half alumni, entrusted with the college’s preservation, with its best interests paramount in their minds, and no doubt cognizant of the storm of opprobrium that would come their way, would have voted unanimously to take this action without exhaustive brainstorming, creative thinking, and consideration of alternatives? They aren’t fools.</p>