The Justice

Unlike many of my peers, I'm not particularly ruffled about the decision to close the Rose Art Museum. I'm not going to pretend that I frequented the facility or that it was an essential part of my positive academic experience at Brandeis. What has me ruffled, however, is the manner in which the University has gone about implementing this unpopular decision and turned an understandable and potentially necessary financial measure into a public relations disaster.

It's true that the University faces an impossible dilemma, torn between the school's history and its financial reality. From the economic perspective, cutting the Rose and profiting from its assets makes sound, if unfortunate, sense. The facility doesn't generate any profit for the University and only serves a small portion of the student body academically, making the museum a beacon for cost-cutting vultures.

The administration could have capitalized on these facts in their presentation. They could have been honest about the depth of our financial deficit, raising concerns about the museum's viability and gathering sympathy. They could have emphasized that the Rose will remain open as an educational institute and exhibition gallery and that there is more than one way to profit from its assets. Instead they chose to present the cut in such a way as to make us appear panicked, illogical and desperate. In the midst of our country's growing recession, national news outlets looking to capitalize on any story that illustrates the effects of the economic downturn have leapt on the Rose's closing with shocking ferocity. Within a day of the announcement, prominent stories appeared in The New York Times and the Boston Globe, both vigorously decrying the decision and painting our administrators as financial opportunists. Even if that's not how things really are, that's how they look-terrible.

Continued...

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