Spring Break
In these troubling times, don't lose sight of those who helped keep Brandeis great
by Zachary Matusheski
Forum | 5/19/09
Posted online at 6:09 PM EST on 5/18/09
What has been most amazing about this year is the way that the community has come together. Prof. William Flesch (ENG) caught the Boston Globe's attention after he convinced one-third of the faculty to donate one percent of their salaries to save colleagues' jobs. He and his compatriots raised $120,000, enough to keep two or three jobs. That might not sound like much, but it's significant for those two or three employees.
The faculty worked with the administration to bridge the budget gap. These educators were never silent observers of the drastic CARS proposal or the struggles over the Rose. For example, on April 23 the faculty passed a resolution against recommendations to reorganize the African and Afro-American Studies department, the American Studies department and the Classical Studies department as interdepartmental programs. Although we as students do not know who voted in which direction, the Justice reported the following week that members of departments not directly affected by the proposal became involved. Members of the History and Sociology departments alike went on record critiquing the CARS proposal. Our professors are not parochial in their view of their responsibilities; their activity with the CARS proposal reflects commitment to the University as a whole beyond their respective departments.
Faculty members have been involved in the Rose controversy as well. On April 7, the Justice reported that 64 faculty gathered to protest the decision to close the Rose. Before that campaign, 22 faculty members co-signed a letter urging Provost Marty Krauss and the Committee on the Future of the Rose Art Museum to "recommend to the administration that, at a minimum, the Rose Art Museum should stay open as a public art museum, at its current level of professional staffing and continuing to mount high-quality exhibitions, until at least June 30, 2010." Brandeis professors believe in not just their careers but also Brandeis' commitment to the humanities and fine arts.
There has been a lot of bad news this year. The CARS committee report been has been met with wails from the departments it originally proposed to liquefy. Students have voiced concerns about how increasing the number of acceptances will affect the value of their degrees. Uncertainty can be found just by reading the "Op-Boxes" in most issues of the Justice this semester. It would be easy to write off this semester as a bad one for Brandeis. But it's clear that Brandeis loyalists are legion. We cannot close this semester without noticing the acts of Brandeis' friends. They make the story of this semester, with all its troubling stories, truly complete.
The faculty worked with the administration to bridge the budget gap. These educators were never silent observers of the drastic CARS proposal or the struggles over the Rose. For example, on April 23 the faculty passed a resolution against recommendations to reorganize the African and Afro-American Studies department, the American Studies department and the Classical Studies department as interdepartmental programs. Although we as students do not know who voted in which direction, the Justice reported the following week that members of departments not directly affected by the proposal became involved. Members of the History and Sociology departments alike went on record critiquing the CARS proposal. Our professors are not parochial in their view of their responsibilities; their activity with the CARS proposal reflects commitment to the University as a whole beyond their respective departments.
Faculty members have been involved in the Rose controversy as well. On April 7, the Justice reported that 64 faculty gathered to protest the decision to close the Rose. Before that campaign, 22 faculty members co-signed a letter urging Provost Marty Krauss and the Committee on the Future of the Rose Art Museum to "recommend to the administration that, at a minimum, the Rose Art Museum should stay open as a public art museum, at its current level of professional staffing and continuing to mount high-quality exhibitions, until at least June 30, 2010." Brandeis professors believe in not just their careers but also Brandeis' commitment to the humanities and fine arts.
There has been a lot of bad news this year. The CARS committee report been has been met with wails from the departments it originally proposed to liquefy. Students have voiced concerns about how increasing the number of acceptances will affect the value of their degrees. Uncertainty can be found just by reading the "Op-Boxes" in most issues of the Justice this semester. It would be easy to write off this semester as a bad one for Brandeis. But it's clear that Brandeis loyalists are legion. We cannot close this semester without noticing the acts of Brandeis' friends. They make the story of this semester, with all its troubling stories, truly complete.
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