Faculty & Staff Updates from A&S
News from the Dean
Dear Colleagues,
As many of you know far better than I, Brandeis has confronted difficult times before. We have faced financial crises of varying degrees and, nevertheless, we have persisted. Or perhaps more accurately, we have met those challenges and figured out ways not only to survive but thrive.
The challenges we face now may be different than in the past, but as some of you long-timers have been reminding me in recent months, scrappiness and improvisation have been part of our DNA since our founding in 1948. I am repeatedly amazed by the many creative programs that have emerged over the years despite—or in response to—those challenges. And I find it helpful to think about these innovations in times like these, not only for the fortitude and faith they can provide, but to learn from them some of the productive strategies that can serve us well going forward.
The last financial crisis gave rise to our wonderfully successful business major, despite many reservations. Indeed, in its early implementation the number of majors was capped for fear that it would be in such high demand that it would draw students away from more traditional liberal arts fields of study. What we have found, instead, is that while it has become one of our most popular majors, nearly all the students who choose it combine it with another area of concentration that enriches and broadens their academic experience in ways that undergraduates who study business in a business school never can.
Following that same economic turndown, several departments created new MA programs that enjoyed considerable success and generated additional revenues that could be reinvested to strengthen the institution. Though we have seen enrollments drop in some of those programs in recent years (as part of broader national trends), there are early signs that some of these programs are already rebounding. With further adjustments, especially to the fee structures of these programs, I believe there is further room for growth and expansion, both in person and online.
Despite numerous challenges, and with little additional internal funding, Brandeis converted its program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS) into a new department with a robust and dedicated national advisory board that has enriched not only our undergraduate academic program but also offers a stand-alone master's degree in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and ten joint MA programs in which graduate students focus on WGS and another discipline. What’s more, interdepartmental programs in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies and in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies were created that have demonstrated how, despite being resource constrained, we remain committed to staying engaged and keeping current with new interdisciplinary developments.
In response to significant shifts in job opportunities for new PhDs in English and with the support of a grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Brandeis English Department has been forging a new, creative way forward with its Connected PhD program, which supports an array of professional development experiences for students in areas that have historically been absent from humanities graduate education. These experiences allow students to cultivate distinctive professional identities and explore diverse career paths. Many other institutions are following Brandeis’s lead in this new approach to graduate education.
Other innovations that we have been able to develop thanks to generous support from donors and foundations include our Kay Fellow program, which has been truly unparalleled in bringing new scholars to campus, diversifying our faculty, and broadening our offerings at the undergraduate and graduate levels. And the program has been instrumental in helping us keep some of these talented new colleagues at Brandeis beyond the period of their post-doctoral appointments.
And the Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (aka COMPACT) has reshaped the way Brandeis students engage with their communities through volunteer work, internships, and activism. It now serves as a national model for making ethical and respectful community engagement a central pillar of the undergraduate experience, establishing engaged scholarship and pedagogy as signature strengths of the university, and creating transformative social change through collective action.
And finally, I want to mention the Brandeis Justice League, an informal community of practice for Brandeis faculty who are committed to supporting one another in the cultivation of equitable, inclusive, and accessible courses that inspire deep and meaningful learning for all Brandeis students. Members of the Justice League are real change agents within their departments and programs and have been instrumental in shifting our instructional efforts from a deficit-based approach to an asset-based approach that is far more generative and successful.
These examples are certainly not intended to be exhaustive, and I am sure there are instances of which I am not even aware. I would love to hear from you if you have others you’d like to share.
The months ahead will be unsettling for many of us. But I am excited by the prospect of working with all of you to reimagine a Brandeis for the next 75 years that is just as innovative and forward thinking as it was in its first 75 years.
Wishing you all a relaxing and restorative winter break, along with a joyous holiday season however you choose to celebrate it.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey
For previous messages from the Dean, please see the archive.
Upcoming Deadlines & Events
| December 6 | |
| December 10 |
Dean's Lunch with Faculty, 12-1:00 in Faculty Club (open invitation) |
| December 13 |
Faculty Learning Community on Community Engaged Pedagogy applications due (Application Form) DEIS Impact: Call for Proposals Deadline (Proposal Form) |
| January 9 |
Deadline to cancel all courses |
| January 10 |
Preliminary deadline for hiring forms for Course Assistants and Graders to be submitted to GSAS. Please submit paperwork by this date if possible. |
| January 27 | School of Arts and Sciences Cocurricular Fund deadline |
| January 28 |
Deadline to submit forms for CA and Grader support Fall 2025 New Course Proposal submission deadline Undergraduate spring course enrollment ends |
| January 31 |
Fall 2025 Per course hire request deadline Fall 2025 Instructional modality request deadline |
| February 1 |
Deadline for Faculty Teaching Award nominations Final deadline for Course Assistant and Grader requests to be submitted to GSAS Deadline for funding for Mandel Center Manuscript Review Workshops |
| February 7 |
Deadline for Divisions to approve new courses |
| February 15 | Provost to approve faculty leaves |
| February 18 |
Fall 2025 schedules due to Registrar Deadline for Dean's Office to approve new courses Deadline for Dean's Office to share instructional modality requests with Registrar |
| April 8 |
Registrar's Office to release Fall 2025 schedule to students |
| April 22 |
Priority registration opens |
| April 23 - May 1 |
Fall 2025 Early Registration |
| April 24-29 | |
| May 1 | URCC Spring Symposium |
| July 10 - 16 | New undergraduate registration |
| July 17 | Registration opens to all students |
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