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EDITORIAL: Rose committee extraneous
Too late for faculty advice
Editorial | 4/28/09
Posted online at 2:00 AM EST on 4/28/09
Three months ago, the Board of Trustees made a surprise unilateral decision to close the Rose Art Museum. Last week, the administration said it would reopen the museum July 22 to give the Committee on the Future of the Rose Art Museum time to finish its discussions, according to an e-mail from Provost Marty Krauss. We're concerned that the administration's dedication to CFRAM's input may be insufficient.
Indeed, the administration's attitude toward these committees seems patronizing. Asked in March about faculty input on the Rose decision, University President Jehuda Reinharz said that the Faculty Committee to Review the Closing of the Rose "can come back with any recommendations they want to make. … [The faculty] may give us a number of options." It hardly seems sincere for the administration to announce now that the conclusions of CFRAM will hold weight with those in charge.
Many were put off by the closed-door, one-sided way in which the Rose decision was reached, and Brandeis caught a lot of poor publicity for it-with good reason. In the face of all this negative press, the gesture to keep the Rose open after July 22 strikes us as more conciliatory than demonstrative of an actual desire to hear out CFRAM.
Besides, now is not the time to start adding measures to this ignoble business. Nothing CFRAM says will change that the museum is in trouble with the American Association of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors, which handle the codes of ethics that apply to museums. We ought to be finalizing this project by now, not getting bogged down in committee research. Now is the time for President Reinharz to consult with the AAM and the AAMD, as then-President Samuel Thier did in 1991.
In the same spirit, to keep the museum open over summer makes faculty and students feel like they had a say and ends the school year on a heartening note. But we question the value of keeping the Rose open all summer just so a committee can reach a decision that may not affect major policy anyway. Even worse, the Rose will be a museum in name only this summer, as it will be without a director, a curator and any exhibitions. And as of Jan. 26, the Board of Trustees' vote has so egregiously violated national museum ethics codes that the Rose cannot receive loans or cooperation from other museums to develop exhibitions.
It's nice that the administration is trying to give the faculty some say, but it's too little, too late. If the University were really interested in faculty input, it should have consulted before Jan. 26. Also, since the decision has already been made, it's not as if CFRAM will be involved in any serious capacity.
Indeed, the administration's attitude toward these committees seems patronizing. Asked in March about faculty input on the Rose decision, University President Jehuda Reinharz said that the Faculty Committee to Review the Closing of the Rose "can come back with any recommendations they want to make. … [The faculty] may give us a number of options." It hardly seems sincere for the administration to announce now that the conclusions of CFRAM will hold weight with those in charge.
Many were put off by the closed-door, one-sided way in which the Rose decision was reached, and Brandeis caught a lot of poor publicity for it-with good reason. In the face of all this negative press, the gesture to keep the Rose open after July 22 strikes us as more conciliatory than demonstrative of an actual desire to hear out CFRAM.
Besides, now is not the time to start adding measures to this ignoble business. Nothing CFRAM says will change that the museum is in trouble with the American Association of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors, which handle the codes of ethics that apply to museums. We ought to be finalizing this project by now, not getting bogged down in committee research. Now is the time for President Reinharz to consult with the AAM and the AAMD, as then-President Samuel Thier did in 1991.
In the same spirit, to keep the museum open over summer makes faculty and students feel like they had a say and ends the school year on a heartening note. But we question the value of keeping the Rose open all summer just so a committee can reach a decision that may not affect major policy anyway. Even worse, the Rose will be a museum in name only this summer, as it will be without a director, a curator and any exhibitions. And as of Jan. 26, the Board of Trustees' vote has so egregiously violated national museum ethics codes that the Rose cannot receive loans or cooperation from other museums to develop exhibitions.
It's nice that the administration is trying to give the faculty some say, but it's too little, too late. If the University were really interested in faculty input, it should have consulted before Jan. 26. Also, since the decision has already been made, it's not as if CFRAM will be involved in any serious capacity.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Todd Melnick
posted 4/28/09 @ 9:39 AM EST
I am beginning to be quite amazed at how poorly Brandeis and President Reinharz functions in a crisis. The Brandeis of Leonard Bernstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Herbert Marcuse, et al. (Continued…)
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