The Justice

Media Credit: Rachel Corke Murat Kemahlioglu '10 was one of many students who asked senior administrators about the budget.

Senior administrators, including University President Jehuda Reinharz, Provost Marty Krauss and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French discussed University finances and answered student questions regarding the Rose Art Museum's closure and other possible emergency measures to narrow the school's budget gap at an open forum for students last Wednesday.

The forum was organized by Student Union President Jason Gray '10.

Reinharz said that students would "have [a] voice in the deliberations" about measures to solve the University's budget crisis but that they will "need to think ... what it is you could live without" and "be as creative as the faculty" in their involvement with resolving the University's budget issues.

In his opening slideshow presentation on Brandeis' financial history and current issues, French said the "structural deficit" of the University has resulted from its small base and endowment as compared to similar institutions of its quality. According to French, the University has also "historically relied on gifts ... more than other institutions, and when you get a recession like this, you tend to get fewer gifts, so it makes us vulnerable." French said that Brandeis has taken too much out of its endowment historically and that dipping into the endowment for funds is "not something that you want to do on a sustained basis because you're going to end up with no endowment."

Reinharz and Krauss also addressed student concerns regarding the lack of prior notification by the administration surrounding the decision to close the museum. Both Krauss and Reinharz defended the University's decision not to inform students or Rose staff that the University was considering closing the museum.

"The board decided to keep this under wraps because they did not ... want the discussion of the closing of the Rose to take place in the newspapers," Reinharz explained to students. The choice not to tell Rose director Michael Rush was "to protect [him]," Reinharz added. Krauss later said, "If you try to have this discussion in public, it would completely destabilize the Rose."

French said of the final decision to close the museum that "the conclusion that we have come to and that the trustees have come to after looking at all those options we're doing the right thing."

Continued...

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