The Justice

I don't often think in terms of mathematics, but Brandeis is currently experiencing a financial crisis whose ramifications have put together an equation that has been troubling my thoughts:

Bad public relations plus efforts to attract prospective students equals … what? Grabbing the attention of impressionable high school seniors is not as simple as throwing around tidbits of our latest brilliant economic maneuvers.

Fortunately, the authorities seem to be working steadily at solving this deceptively simple-looking puzzle of equating two very contrary concepts, according to a Feb. 5 article from the Boston Globe: "To help quell public outcry and internal dissent over the decision to shutter the museum, University President Jehuda Reinharz and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French said yesterday that they would reduce their annual salaries by 10 percent-two days after retaining the services of Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, a public relations firm known for strong crisis management. Reinharz will give up $50,000, French $40,000."

Our administrators clearly took these pay cuts out of a clear desire to pacify the outrage of the followers of the Rose Art Museum soap opera. In a most respectable motion, Reinharz and French showed the extent of their generosity and alleviated their image as the purported villains of this episode of museum melodrama. That's definitely an improvement if the administration wants to give the impression that those responsible for choosing which aspects of our education to eliminate are sympathetic characters.

If only the next line of the Globe's article didn't give away the ulterior motive for these pay cuts.

Now, Reinharz did not admit outright that he and French actually planned to use their pay cuts to hire a very professional and very pricey PR firm. But nonetheless, he did impress me with his sincerity at last Thursday's open forum with administrators. When presented with the aggravating problem of figuring out how Brandeis would remain attractive to rising college first-years while sporting lots of negative press, Reinharz said, "Now everybody knows about Brandeis. This is why we're taking the opportunity to make it better."

Continued...

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