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You can tell some power broker what they did for Iacocca will be perfectly acceptable to me
The latest on Brandeis and the Rose Art Museum as I know it. Peter French, interviewed by The Daily Beast:
Brandeis has already cut expenses and staff this year and last, and raised tuition and fees. French said the alternative now was either a drastic shrinking of the university or selling the art. Faced with the prospect of closing 40 percent of the university's buildings, reducing staff by an additional 30 percent, or firing 200 of its 360 faculty members—any of which, French said, would drastically change the university's mission and essentially cripple it—"We'd rather use Rose."
. . . Making matters worse, French added, the university is in the middle of a huge capital campaign that has raised $820 million of its $1.2 billion goal. Most of that went to operating programs or is earmarked to construct new buildings, which are "fully funded" and will continue going up, despite the downturn. Only about $240 million of the campaign funds went to the endowment, which is down to $530 million, from more than $712 million last June, and is projected to drop a bit more this year.
But by Massachusetts law, French said, Brandeis can only spend gains, not capital, from the endowment—and it will be some time before there are any of those. Brandeis's reserve fund, which is included in the endowment for management purposes, is projected to run out in about 18 months.
Borrowing money was out of the question, French explained; Brandeis already has $256 million in debt, and as he put it, "If we take out more debt, what would service it?"
Also three articles in today's Boston Globe.
Are universities eligible for bailout? I do not want to have been part of a grand experiment that crashed before its fiftieth birthday. And selling off the Rose Art Museum is not the solution.
Brandeis has already cut expenses and staff this year and last, and raised tuition and fees. French said the alternative now was either a drastic shrinking of the university or selling the art. Faced with the prospect of closing 40 percent of the university's buildings, reducing staff by an additional 30 percent, or firing 200 of its 360 faculty members—any of which, French said, would drastically change the university's mission and essentially cripple it—"We'd rather use Rose."
. . . Making matters worse, French added, the university is in the middle of a huge capital campaign that has raised $820 million of its $1.2 billion goal. Most of that went to operating programs or is earmarked to construct new buildings, which are "fully funded" and will continue going up, despite the downturn. Only about $240 million of the campaign funds went to the endowment, which is down to $530 million, from more than $712 million last June, and is projected to drop a bit more this year.
But by Massachusetts law, French said, Brandeis can only spend gains, not capital, from the endowment—and it will be some time before there are any of those. Brandeis's reserve fund, which is included in the endowment for management purposes, is projected to run out in about 18 months.
Borrowing money was out of the question, French explained; Brandeis already has $256 million in debt, and as he put it, "If we take out more debt, what would service it?"
Also three articles in today's Boston Globe.
Are universities eligible for bailout? I do not want to have been part of a grand experiment that crashed before its fiftieth birthday. And selling off the Rose Art Museum is not the solution.
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Nine
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I am not endeared by the latest announcement, either. Keep the art but lose the museum? Right, so no one will notice when the art disappears—of course, if we'd had a museum, we might have noticed it was no longer hanging on the walls, but . . . If anyone is going to donate funds to Brandeis, I think they need to come with the museum's security attached. This is all such a plan where you lose your hat.
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I'm not thrilled! You know, I was not enamored of Jehuda Reinharz when he was my college president, and he hasn't done much to make up the difference since.
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If I organize a letter-writing campaign, you had better back me up on that.
(I don't even know who to organize a letter-writing campaign at. The university president? The board of trustees? The state of Massachusetts? I feel as though I should check the fine print on the stimulus package.)
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An you'll tell me whom to write to, and you think my writing them, and I not being a Massachusetts resident or having any connection there, will do any good, I'll gladly do it.
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I asked that question the other day at work, and a colleague said "you work at a public institution, so we're already funded by the public." The sad thing is, I think the public would more or less agree, even in the face of manifest evidence that Wall Street hijinks continued up to and after the arrival of their bailout(s). We've proven we can make it with gas at $4/gallon, and it's currently sitting under half that, so... gas tax anyone? I'd rather drive less for more education, art, and culture in general.
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Amen. I walk everywhere anyway.
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Wasn't the university founded in 1948?
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Either way, the setup for the fall clearly had to come before 2008.
$250M debt, like Rome, isn't built in a day.
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According to Wikipedia, yes. I still thought it was older than that.
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It was. I was thinking of graduating classes.
Of course, I don't want to have been part of a grand experiment that crashed shortly after turning fifty, either . . .
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Oh, God, I want my brain back.
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Some institutions--Hampshire College, for example--have been on notoriously shaky ground for a while. I guess Brandeis just seemed very *solid* to me.
This also worries me, as a general situation for numerous universities and not just Brandeis, because I worry about how the current generation of college-age kids can possibly *go* to these schools if the schools' finances are so dire. In such dire straits, can any scholarship students be admitted at all? How will ordinary kids afford college, if colleges can't afford to give scholarships?
But those concerns are tangential to the distress you must be feeling--and for that, I'm really, really sorry.
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I very much suspect they were shaky from before—Brandeis had a lot of building projects when I was an undergraduate and immediately afterward; and while I always assumed they did it with money in hand, I am now thinking not—but they were also uniquely vulnerable to Madoff, because so many of their major donors were clients of his and their fundraising base was the Florida Jewish community. I'm honestly not sure where they'll go for help now, unless directly to Washington. I'd be all for that. Just make sure the museum stays as part of the deal.
In such dire straits, can any scholarship students be admitted at all? How will ordinary kids afford college, if colleges can't afford to give scholarships?
I don't know. It had better be an issue our new president will address.
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Fucking sad (pardon my Anglo-Saxon).
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Anglo-Saxon away. Maybe I should learn to swear in Hebrew.
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All energies on stopping it now. We need to keep the good things we have.
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V'imru amein!
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I am so annoyed right now I'm not a billionaire who can blackmail Brandeis into keeping the Rose Art Museum. Or at least politely suggest to them that they might want to hang onto the museum if they wish bailout.
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It's terrible that they're in a position where they have to make choices like this!
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And I'm sure it didn't happen with a snap of the fingers, but it feels like it! I wonder if students on campus had a better sense this was coming? Either way, it's not good.