A Framework for Our Future

Transcript

[Ron Liebowitz stands behind a podium with a blue backdrop with the words "Brandeis University" and the university seal repeated in white:] Good afternoon, and thank you for coming. Before I begin my remarks about Brandeis' future, I'd like to ask those who can to please stand so that we can join together in a moment of silence in blessed memory of the victims of Saturday's shocking and senseless violence in Pittsburgh.

[Audience stands.]

We offer our prayers and condolences to all of their families.

[Screen transitions to the blue Brandeis University seal against a white backdrop.]

We also honor the brave public safety officers and first responders who responded heroically and selflessly to the Tree of Life Synagogue, and who are now recovering from their wounds. We wish them a speedy recovery.

So let us take a moment to silently reflect on the horrors of anti-Semitism, and to think about how we can help advance the cause of reason, and inclusion, and justice for all, which is the essence of what Brandeis stands for.

Thank you, and please be seated.

[The audience sits, the camera refocuses on Liebowitz against the backdrop.]

I want to note that there will be a vigil here on campus tomorrow, that's Tuesday, at 5 p.m., in the International Lounge in Usdan Student Center.

We'll now view a brief video that celebrates Brandeis' 70-year commitment to excellence, diversity, and trying to make the world a better place.

[Liebowitz steps away from the podium, the video begins to play.]

[Various shots of the Brandeis campus. Students are graduating, dancing, cheerleading, typing on computers, sitting outside, holding models of molecules, taking notes on lectures, studying in the library, 3D printing, working in science labs, playing music and sports. Various shots of Abram Sachar speaking. The word "Brandeis" appears in blue.]

We turn our eyes to the future.

Abram Sachar led the startup institution masterfully, successfully holding together the multidimensional identity he laid out for Brandeis: a nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored institution, passionate in its openness, explicitly focused on undergraduate studies, while also unwavering in its commitment to graduate study and supporting world-class knowledge-creation from its outstanding faculty.

Dr. Sachar said, “The great universities of America are candles that continue to defy the surrounding darkness.”

It takes daring to project what is to be in the future, but with the growth that is already a matter of record, there is surely no risk in being extremely optimistic.

It is our charge, our opportunity now, to reignite the flame of our mission for a new generation.

[Camera pans back to Liebowitz behind the podium, drinking. He puts the glass down.]

What an amazing 70 years. (Pardon me, I have a little bit of a cold today.) Well, welcome again. Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining me here today.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the side.]

Since arriving at Brandeis two years ago, I have been deeply immersed in learning about this institution.

It's been a wonderful journey. I want to thank the many faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of Brandeis for helping both me and Jessica deepen our understanding, appreciation, and fondness for this remarkable university.

I've learned much about the genuine commitment that virtually every member of this community feels towards the university.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the front.]

I've learned much about the university's incredible founding 70 years ago, including from our pioneer alumni — those who were in the first graduating classes. And what a thrill it was to be able to meet those who graduated in the first class of 1952 and to ask them what it was like for that first hundred or so students to be here. The most interesting, and probably comical, thing about those conversations one-on-one with those individuals was, they told me that the most common question about that whole time was, "What were our parents thinking?"

This was an institution without reaccreditation, no accreditation, brand new. It was really just a wild card. Today, I remain inspired by the audacity and idealism that characterized our early years.

I've now met with more than 1,000 staff, students, and faculty in small-group lunches alone, and at least that many alumni and friends while on the road.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the side.]

I listened attentively to the voices and stories of Brandeisians who care deeply about who we are, where we came from, and where we're headed. There is much at Brandeis that should generate great pride among our current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the front.]

This is an extraordinary institution in so many ways, and I need to remind those who have been here much longer than I have of this objective reality. As I transition from being an “outsider” and unbiased observer to insider-in-chief and major cheerleader to the outside world, I can see both remarkable strengths of this institution and its significant challenges.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the side.]

It's easy to be overly critical, as I believe many here are when some of the institution's problems appear to be self-inflicted and others seem never to be addressed. But I can say that with whatever challenges that we face as an institution, our strengths, values, and talents should give all Brandeisians great optimism as we chart the university's future.

As all of you can attest, Brandeis is too complex, and our community far too spirited, for me to make sweeping generalizations about what everyone thinks or wishes for this university.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the front.]

Nevertheless, several observations have emerged over the past two years, and I want to share them with you. I believe they represent aspects of the university that should sow among you seeds of enthusiasm for our future as they have done for me.

I want to start with the observation that we have a spectacular faculty and staff. Brandeis professors are unusual in that while they recognize and pursue the scholarly and mentoring expectations of a major Research-1 university, they are also fully committed to teaching undergraduates. That is, they are deeply committed to their research and their work with graduate students, as well as with first-year undergraduates.

["Our Spectacular Faculty and Staff" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

They are the foundational strength of this university. Likewise, the excellence of our academic program would not be possible without our loyal and talented staff, many of whom themselves are educators to our students, and are trusted advisers and colleagues to our faculty. I believe the talents of our staff are not always tapped, and we'd be wise to find ways to offer those interested a way to work more closely with our students.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the side.]

My next observation is about our students. In short, I believe they are exceptional.

["Our Exceptional Students" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

They are smart, and they care. They are intellectually curious and act on a deep commitment to justice — a great and powerful combination.

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They have diverse interests and personalities. But the common denominator, as I have observed, is that they love to learn and they care about making the world a better place. Faculty at our small weekly luncheons have corroborated this dual characterization of our students, with one senior colleague, now famously, emphatically exhorting — or really warning me while waving her finger — not to change those aspects of our student body. And I wouldn't dare to!

My next observation relates to our institutional values. Brandeis was founded as a gift from the American Jewish community, and was established for reasons unlike any other university.

["Open To All" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

It was created in order to counter bigotry and anti-Semitism, to open doors to Jews, blacks, women, and other groups who previously had been denied access to higher education simply on account of who they were.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the side.]

These values of openness and inclusion were exceptional back in 1948, and should be underscored and recommitted to for the Brandeis of today and tomorrow.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

And the final observation I will note is how our size and location are great assets rather than problems about which to wring our hands.

["Establishing the Brandeis Value Proposition" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

The university's relatively small size allows us to combine the best elements of a traditional liberal arts college with those of a major research university. In our case, this claim is more than the cliché it seems to be at peer institutions I have studied.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

As for location, in addition to Waltham being named by Money magazine as the No. 1 community in which to live in Massachusetts this past year, our campus literally looks out on a dynamic international city a mere nine miles away. (And now home to the new World Series champions. And I say that as a Dodger fan, so woohoo! I can say it now.)

["Establishing the Brandeis Value Proposition" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

In fact, one of my key observations has been that, due to the intimacy in the learning environment made possible by our smaller size, Brandeis is a place with permeable boundaries, where students can have a direct and meaningful relationship with even our most esteemed faculty.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

It is a place where scholars often collaborate with colleagues across disciplinary, departmental, and school boundaries.

I call the first of these two characteristics “vertical connectivity” — where undergraduate students work closely with faculty, postdoctoral students, and doctoral students. And the second characteristic, “horizontal connectivity” — where faculty transcend departmental affiliations to collaborate with colleagues from different disciplines. These faculty don't abandon their expertise and disciplinary rigor when they enter into these collaborations. They approach related questions and problems from different perspectives, sometimes discovering groundbreaking ideas, as happened in the case of last year's Nobel prize winners, Brandeis faculty members Jeffrey Hall and Michael Rosbash.

This kind of learning environment, with its horizontal and vertical connectivity, reflects our exciting dual mission of offering both student-centered baccalaureate and intimate doctoral programs. The atmosphere for learning is quite extraordinary, and it differentiates Brandeis from the very best liberal arts colleges and Research-1 universities. Liberal arts colleges can offer a student-centered education, but it cannot introduce its undergraduates to consequential scholarly and creative work. Research-1 universities tend to provide neither: Their classes are too large to offer a student-centered undergraduate education, and virtually all collaborative scholarly work with faculty is available only to graduate students.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the side.]

So, Brandeis is indeed unique. It occupies a special space in higher education, and it offers what I call Brandeis' value proposition for the future. I believe we must take advantage of this unique space with greater focus and intentionality in the future.

["Working Together to Build the Brandeis of the Future" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

Exceptional faculty … Talented students … A unique set of founding values … A commitment to a dual mission of world-class inquiry and first-rate undergraduate education … An enviable location … And a collective passion and depth of loyalty that motivates faculty and staff to go beyond the call to the benefit of the institution. Those are among our incredible strengths and assets, and collectively provides a foundation upon which to build our future.

["Working Together to Build the Brandeis of the Future" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

But as those here today know, Brandeis also faces some major challenges. There is much work to do. And because we carry the venerable name of Louis Brandeis, there will always be much to do to live up to our name. Just before the university opened its doors, and when the Brandeis name was finalized, Albert Einstein, who was a major figure in the push to create any, and then this particular, Jewish-sponsored university, cautioned that “Brandeis is a name that cannot merely be adopted. It is one that must be achieved.”

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the side.]

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

Now, seven decades later, as stewards of a great and important legacy, I ask that you join me in helping to create an institution that will live up to the expectation of the Brandeis name.

So now let me share with you my vision for Brandeis' future — a framework that I hope will motivate and organize our collective efforts over the next decade.

[Liebowitz drinks and puts the glass away. The camera transitions to a shot of him from the side.]

This is an abbreviated version of that framework. If you'd like to read the longer, more detailed description, it will be available on a new website later this week, and you can find it on the president's webpage. I invite you to read the fuller version and offer your comments and suggestions. They are welcome.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

I want to begin in 1948.

["Our Incredible History" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

That's when a small but bold group came together to establish the only secular university in the United States to be founded by the American Jewish community.

The group saw Brandeis as a new kind of university, emerging from the ashes of the Holocaust, at a time when bigotry, anti-Semitism, and quotas kept Jews, blacks, and others from attending America's elite private institutions.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

Admission to Brandeis was to be open to all who were academically qualified, a distinct innovation in American higher education. From the beginning, Brandeis was open, exciting, and rooted in a number of traditional values: a reverence for learning, a commitment to critical thinking and vigorous debate, and tikkun olam — the millennia-old tradition of performing kind acts to help repair the world.

My vision for Brandeis is firmly rooted in the institution's early commitment to openness and inclusivity, and to the three aforementioned traditional Jewish values. These collectively are not outdated or charming relics from our past, but rather the foundation for what I believe will propel us forward. They are unique to Brandeis, and we should celebrate them and embrace them for the future.

My vision for Brandeis is also rooted in the reality that Brandeis today faces some strong headwinds. Having started 70 years ago with no endowment, alumni body, or institutional reputation, and with little more than promise, the university evolved by making do with what was available, typically over-committing its resources with bold ambitions.

["Making Choices with Strategy and Discipline" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

The institution operated without a clearly articulated strategy and apparently without a great desire for discipline to establish priorities. An entrepreneurial spirit led to the creation of exciting though disparate initiatives, each seemingly with its independent mandate and its own constituency.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

Over time, Brandeis evolved into a widely dispersed and somewhat disconnected institution, much like an archipelago.

The result, while breathtaking in overall achievement, has led to a number of challenges. Many of our programs lack the necessary resources to sustain their youthful energy, while others operate in relative isolation. Too many staff and faculty are stretched thin; our institutional focus has turned inward; and, despite our most enviable location in greater Boston, we seem less connected to and engaged with the outside world than where we were 70 years ago. The net effect is that Brandeis the institution has become less than the sum of its many outstanding parts.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the side.]

As I noted in my inaugural address two years ago, Brandeis needs to move beyond its startup phase in how it approaches its planning, how it prioritizes what is most important, and how it allocates its resources.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

The university needs to begin to create out of its many excellent parts a unified and centralized institutional vision to support its dual mission.

The vision for Brandeis begins with the value proposition and then articulates three broad strategic initiatives. The value proposition, again, is defined by a student-centered education — as one might find at Amherst, Middlebury, or Swarthmore — combined with the opportunity to participate in high-level scholarly pursuit with acclaimed scholars and researchers. Some parts of our academic program already offer this kind of education, and our faculty culture is general well-aligned with this pedagogy. We now need to focus our efforts to support those faculty and staff across the curriculum who are willing to make the high-touch, high-level scholarly opportunities with students a defining characteristic of a Brandeis education.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the side.]

The three strategic initiatives that emerge from the Brandeis value proposition will build upon some of the university's recognized strengths, and will together transform our intellectual and physical assets in significant ways.

["Making Choices with Strategy and Discipline" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

At the same time, each of these initiatives seeks to retain the essence of the university so that we remain familiar to alumni from all generations — from the pioneer classes of the ’50s to our most recent graduates.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

The first of these three initiatives is to attain excellence in our students’ overall educational experience. We need to focus our efforts so that the curricular and social aspects of a Brandeis education match the excellence of our academic program.

["Redefining the Student Experience" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

This will require a rethinking of our residential living environments, most likely creating smaller learning communities within the larger campus. These residential communities should be places that encourage students to engage one another as well as graduate students, postdoctoral students, staff, and faculty in discussion of any and all issues in a more relaxed environment. They could serve as the organizing principle for intramural competition, for debate teams, for theater and comedy troupes, and more.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the side.]

We need to ensure that our students’ personal and emotion development are considered alongside their intellectual growth.

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This will require us to reassess how we advise, mentor, and provide support to students, as well as create some opportunity for them to learn some life skills they will need following graduation. It will also require us to review the range of social life options on campus, including the role of the non-university-affiliated off-campus Greek system, and it will involve finding ways to expand on-campus social options that reflect and celebrate the diversity of our student body.

The second strategic initiative will be to secure a place as a leading Research-1 university.

["Committing to the Highest Standards for Research and the Creation of New Knowledge" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

Though our faculty already conducts and produce world-class scholarship, Brandeis is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, we as an institution must do more to strengthen our institution's scholarly endeavor. We need to offer a more ambitious sabbatical leave program, improve our academic facilities and technological infrastructure, and provide greater staff support.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

Increased funding for research is crucial, not only for the sake of our faculty's productivity and professional standing, but also for the meaningful opportunities such high-level scholarly inquiry presents for our graduate and undergraduate students.

We need to extend the cutting-edge, cross-disciplinarian, connected inquiry that we see most visibly in the STEM fields into every intellectual domain of the university.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the side.]

This kind of collaborative scholarly work is common in the sciences, and occurs to a limited extend between our professional schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. As an example, as you all know, the Heller School and Arts and Sciences offer the timely and popular Health: Science, Society, and Policy major that cuts across disciplines, departments and schools.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

And the International Business School collaborates with our economics department in offering an undergraduate business major and a joint PhD program. Though there are successful collaborations across departments in the social sciences and in the creative arts, they face bureaucratic challenges and receive limited institutional support. This should change.

We need to look out on a horizon where every Brandeis student interested in doing scholarly or creative work alongside faculty, either individually or in small groups, is given that opportunity.

["Committing to the Highest Standards for Research and the Creation of New Knowledge" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

It is a vision in which every faculty member who wishes to include students in their scholarly and creative pursuits is given the support they need to do so.

["Honoring Our Founding Values" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

The third strategic initiatives brings us back to the university's remarkable beginnings 70 years ago. We will honor Brandeis' Jewish roots and its founding values with intentionality and new energy. Brandeis should be the university to which American Jews turn for answers to their most pressing questions and issues of concern.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

Our founding values are also as relevant today as they were in 1948, and are even more important now. The openness and inclusivity that served as an antidote to bigotry and anti-Semitism seven decades ago must today provide opportunities to new groups who have faced persistent barriers to higher education. While we are fortunate to have outstanding programs to ensure access to historically under-served student populations, we have so much work to do to create the inclusive, welcoming, and respectful environment for all of our students as was envisioned 70 years ago.

Our students' reverence for learning and our faculty's commitment to academic rigor has not waned over time, and we must be sure it never does. And the commitment to justice still runs deep among alumni and current students.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the side.]

My vision places our historic passion for justice and inclusion at the center of our community, helping, along with the excellence of our classrooms, to shape brilliant young minds into responsible citizens and future leaders with the skills, values, idealism, and tenacity to help repair the world.

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And the fourth and final strategic initiative will be to reimagine and revitalize our campus to support the value proposition and the three strategic initiatives.

["Revitalizing and Reimagining Our Campus" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

It will require us to anticipate new research in teaching frontiers on the horizon, envision how disciplines will evolve in the coming decades, identify which among these will be a focus for Brandeis, and then design and allocate space on our campus accordingly.

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Departments and disciplines and subdisciplines we never thought to co-locate or be situated near one another might become so in the future due to the similar questions they will ask, and they will seek to answer and the common problems they will attempt to solve.

To make this vision a reality, to move beyond a framework and towards a concrete integrated plan, I will later this week assign three task forces — on student life, on inquiry and research, and our institution's founding values.

["Moving Beyond a Framework" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

The charges to these task forces will reflect the considerable work done during a previous planning process in 2013; it will include perspectives gleaned from the more than 30 self-reflection documents completed last year by faculty, staff, and administrators; as well as the many suggestions offered by students, faculty, and staff to my office and to other senior administrators over the past two years.

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The groups will work during the next five or six months, soliciting input from students, faculty, and staff through open meetings, and from alumni, parents, and friends through short surveys. There will also be a dedicated website to which one can provide feedback, ask questions, and provide recommendation to the task forces.

These task forces will submit a set of recommendations to our newly formed Committee on Strategy and Planning, which I will chair. Other members of the committee will include the provost, the deans of each of our schools, and six faculty, who have already been elected by their peers from the professional schools and the four divisions of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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The committee will review the recommendations from the task forces and produce an integrated plan of prioritized action items, a financial model that estimates the necessary resources to achieve those action items, a proposed timeline that aligns our available resources — both financial and human — with our initiatives, and a narrative on how we plan to acquire the additional resources to make the vision possible.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

Now, what I have shared today with you, what I am asking each of us to pursue, is not a simple or easy task. It will be challenging, it will call for a great patience, and include making some difficult decisions. And it will require additional resources. Significant resources. Let me add some commentary to these observations.

On the challenges: A number of recommendations will likely involve redefining job descriptions, reorganizing departments and reporting lines, and adopting new processes and procedures that align more consistently with those across the university. These anticipated changes are difficult to introduce at any time, but will be even more so following the past ten years of staff reductions and budgetary freezes across many departments.

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On seeking patience: And I understand, people have been patient. It is clear that many in the community are anxious to kick-start the university to generate momentum and address many long-term issues that remain unresolved. But as we move forward and make the necessary visible or more obvious changes to get us moving faster, we also need to address the less visible ones.

["Moving Beyond a Framework" is centered on the screen in blue letters. At the top of the screen, "Brandeis University" appears over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE".]

The good news is that we have been working on some of the more significant items during the past two years, and are now in the process of sharing or discussing the resulting changes within the campus community.

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These include introducing a new financial model to replace the current one, which was unable to calculate the full costs of developing or running our existing programs. One significant consequence of the old financial model was an annual budgeting process based on inertia rather than a more rational approach, which would include consideration of both the full cost of our programs as well as the contributions they provide to the university's mission.

A second area requiring some patience is our university governance. How do students, faculty, and staff provide meaningful input into the governing of the university? What are the avenues for input into administrative decisions at the department, school, and university level? Where is this examined? Thanks to the good and hard work of the Task Force on Faculty Governance, we have begun the process of reworking our decision-making structures when it comes to the longer-term strategic direction of the university and the shorter-term annual budgeting process.

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Both of these processes should reflect the priorities of the university first and foremost, and the allocation of resources to all units should align with and not contradict those priorities.

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The new Committee on Strategy and Planning is good first step to a more unified approach to decision-making and resource allocation, but there is much to do on the governance front. And as we develop these processes and structures, we want to be sure not to dampen the creativity of faculty, staff, and students that has been a hallmark of this university from its beginning.

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For example, if the humanities faculty wish to offer programs like the one we have now in Sienna — so with their students, they get together, live the subject matter as they teach and learn it — what's the path? If math, computer science, and natural science faculty wish to introduce an innovative program in engineering at the university, what is their path?

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If members of the visual arts faculty wish to establish gallery space to show works of their students or their own works, or faculty in the performing arts seek pianos for their students and more campus location, what's the path? And if students wish to establish a startup on campus, how do they avoid what they have called Brandeis' bureaucratic black box?

A third area requiring patience is in the rebuilding of key administrative functions that provide services to all parts of the university. The impact of the 2008 recession is not only still with us, but ten years later, many of the activities no longer done centrally have left gaps in service and placed increased burdens on local offices that try to cover what had been done centrally.

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Human Resources, Institutional Advancement, Finance, Student Services, Academic Affairs, and even our libraries all require infusions of human and financial resources to allow us to provide the level of quality and support needed to fill our academic and educational mission.

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On the issue of difficult choices: We learned from the extensive financial analysis done in the fall of 2016 that the university has an ongoing structural deficit. This deficit reflects the enormous creative energy of the university over its seven decades, but it also presents great challenges, especially for the long term. We cover the deficit each year by taking more from our endowment than is prudent, and we defer investments in our buildings, equipment, technological infrastructure, and people. The result has been the development of a rich array of programs and activities, but has come at the expense of our financial strength, adds significantly to our faculty and staff workload, and leaves us with a significant amount of deferred maintenance. We are, as a 2016 financial study concluded, far too complex an institution for our size and wealth, which means we do way too much with too few staff and too few financial resources.

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We will therefore need to assess the breadth of all we do and find ways to do them more efficiently, or do less. This is not a new problem, nor one that is particular to Brandeis. Yet it is crucial that we begin to cover the costs of operations with available resources and invest properly in the future. If we don't, it'll be more difficult, and probably in short term in the coming years, to matriculate our excellent students, to match our current financial aid program, and attract and retain superb faculty and staff.

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I should stress that finances alone will never dictate what we do and don't do. Most activities at a university require subsidies, and so the process we follow to make future decisions will not be based solely on the bottom line. More important will be an assessment of an activities or program's “contribution to mission.” The newly created Committee on Planning and Strategy, with input from the relevant university committees and governing bodies, will oversee the eventual assessment of activities supported by the university budget and make recommendations to the president and provost.

And finally, on the need to generate new resources: Increased support from alumni will be the most important source of incremental revenue that we will need in order to sustain Brandeis.

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Luckily, the vast majority of our alumni look back at their time at Brandeis and have extremely positive things to say about their academic experiences. They note in past surveys and with all my encounters with them the great respect and admiration for the faculty and their true affection for their classmates. But their collective love for the institution is not as positive for a host of reasons. Winning their attention and gaining their support is challenging, as there are many competing causes to which they lend their time and their resources.

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We must therefore intensify our efforts in alumni engagement and create more opportunities for increasing the ways that alumni can interact with faculty, students, and the university. Our mission and vision for the future must be compelling to draw alumni interest and support, and we need to do more to communicate all the great and positive things our faculty, staff, and students do inside and outside the classroom.

[Liebowitz drinks again, the camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

Now, what I have presented as a framework for our future cannot be achieved in a few years or even during my presidency.

["Brandeis University" is centered over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE" on the screen.]

But this is the framework, these are the guideposts, and this is the vision that I deeply believe represents the best path forward for Brandeis. I am prepared, and, in fact, eager to lead the effort and to raise the funds necessary to make the new vision for Brandeis a reality.

[Camera transitions to a shot of Liebowitz from the from the front.]

But I need to enlist all of you if we are to succeed. You are Brandeis, and Brandeis needs you at this juncture in its history.

One of the most often-quoted nuggets of wisdom spoken by our namesake, Louis Brandeis, is quite apt for us at this moment. He said that "most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." Again, "most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." Brandeis University was an impossible dream before it was founded 70 years ago. It was a long shot to succeed. Yet, from its humble beginnings, the university quickly emerged as a serious, significant, and respected institution.

I'm calling upon our community — this community — to summon the energy, idealism, and audacity of our founders to do in our time what they did in theirs, and to set Brandeis on a strong, secure, and sustainable future.

We need now to forge ahead with confidence and discipline to build the Brandeis of the future. It is a worthy task. Indeed, it is a noble undertaking. And so I'll ask once again, please join with me and one another in making this a reality. Brandeis is so very much worth the effort, no matter how great it will be.

Thank you.

[The audience applauds. The camera zooms out to focus more on the audience.]

[Ira Jackson:] Ron will be happy to take questions, and there are four microphones that'll circulate through the hall, and Julie Jette in the back of the hall will be monitoring our livestream, and I'll ask her to share the questions that come in from the audience distributed around the country. So, first question or comment, and I would ask that you identify yourself, and at the end of your comment, there should be a question mark, please.

[The audience laughs.]

[The camera pans to Gordy Fellman.]

[Audience member:] Hi, I'm Gordy Fellman in the sociology department. I want to ask the question of where the pressing matters of sustainability and climate change fit into this framework?

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] That's a good question. I think it is incorporated into the longer document, but it comes in the area of reimagining and reconceiving our campus. And in that way, as we look at all of our facilities, as we look at the way in which we build out our campus, the way we renovate — if we renovate — we want to look at sustainability. And I think, to an extent, we began to do that with Skyline. That was the first building that we actually stepped back and asked ourselves how we could improve in the area of sustainability and really push the limit. We plan to do that, or at least I plan to do that, with all the buildings and projects that we have on our campus. And as you probably know, we have a lot of projects to do in the future.

[Ira Jackson:] Thank you, Gordy. Julie, from the back.

[Julie Jette, reading an online question:] Role for students in the task forces that you've mentioned?

[Ron Liebowitz:] There will. We just met with the leaders of the task force. The task force leaders have been identified, but the composition of the task forces have not been fully filled out. But as we were talking about the structures and how to get input, in addition to having open meetings and a website, one of the things that we've talked about was having a group of students that we would have working groups for various components of the task force work.

And the student-life task force is going to look at a whole host of issues. And I suspect that that task force is going to gather together groups of students, to serve as advisers, and get provide input into that task force. So yes, there'll be all explained in our memo that comes out about the composition of the task forces.

[Ira Jackson:] And look for that website later this week. It'll be brandeis.edu/framework. I see a hand raised over to my right. If we can get a microphone over. Thank you.

[Camera pans to audience member.]

[Audience member:] Currently, with the student body of about 3,600 students, and with framework or regulations implied by DCL, where you're sort of limited to gatherings of 25 students, that means that less than one percent of the campus can actually interact at once together. Now, you talk about this community that you want to create, and you talk about this other community that you want to sort of habilitate, but how do you actually plan on getting around the framework or recreating and restructuring the framework in a way that's conducive to growing a community and growing a cohesive community towards that, that sort of helps further Brandeis as a unified front to the rest of the world?

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] Could you repeat that last part again about the unified front? What?

[Camera pans back to the audience member.]

[Audience member:] How are you going to sort of restructure Brandeis to unify it to just build like a seamless front that you can present to the rest of the world?

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] It's interesting. I'll say this as a relative newcomer of two years. It's interesting how folks here on this campus see Brandeis as encompassable and small, with 3,600 students, and there really are artificial communities that develop just by the basis of geography and where one lives. But it's not intentional in any way. And I think when I talk to students, they liked the idea of this open campus. They feel part of one. But at the same time, many of us, especially who've had experience in multiple institutions and working closely as faculty members and staff, see what's missing in this vision or this view of a one campus, one big campus.

We're not looking to divide. If we do go into these smaller residential communities, we're not looking to divide the campus, but rather to provide a home. And it wouldn't be on the variety of multiple years of more than one or two years. But the idea, really, is to create a community. So that coming back to the residence hall, so something that students both look forward to and don't have to face the question of, “Do we have more than 20, so we can't get together?” Whatever the case might be.

We have to separate two of the issues that you've talked about. One are regulations and why they exist, and the other one of facilities, and what we can do to facilitate greater community. And I think we have to work on both. And I think space planning and planning facilities … I mean, we would not be able to do this unless we had in mind building out the campus in some way. Many of our residence halls, as you students here know all too well, are past their prime. Some of them are worthy of renovation. Some of them are not. And in that context, we need to think about this. And that's where student input is going to be great. You know, what is the ideal living situation? What is the grade configuration of rooms? What about social spaces? What kinds of social spaces would we need, large enough and diverse enough, to have that type of social engagement in the community? So, I don't see these ideas of these residential communities breaking down the campus and creating a non-unified campus, but I see it as creating much more of meaningful communities when students are in the residence halls.

[Ira Jackson:] Yes, please.

[Camera pans to audience member.]

[Audience member:] Hello, my name is Cavita. I'm a junior here at Brandeis. I'm just looking around the room at who is here and who is not here. And I'm curious if you could talk a little about why this event was scheduled at a time that's fairly inaccessible to students and faculty — both because of work and class?

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] Oh, boy. I don't even know that one. I didn't set up the time and place because … Does anyone know here how we chose this time? I just came where I was supposed to come. You know what? I will say this. I apologize for that, number one. That's why this is going to be taped, and that's why this was livestreamed, also.

That's another challenge that we haven't tackled, and I'm afraid to tackle. It's like the third rail … is that there is no common time when the community can get together and have a conversation or have a meeting like this. The calendar is completely full. Courses are across the day, so almost anytime you have an event like this, you're going to sort of lose people. And I guess the calculation was, what rooms are available and how do we minimize that conflict?

[Ron drinks, the camera zooms out to include Ira Jackson in the shot.]

[Ira Jackson:] I'll accept responsibility for that one, but I would note that Ron is willing and able and eager, as is Lisa, to engage in smaller group conversations about this vision and framework for the future. So let him know through the website or by emailing him directly, and we’ll attempt to set up a conversation. Questions here, please. Yes, I see. Coming. Thank you.

[Camera pans to audience member.]

[Audience member:] Hi, my name is Emily Dana. I am a senior here at Brandeis. Many of our facilities, both classroom buildings and living accommodations, are not ADA-compliant or physically accessible or mentally accessible for those of us with chronic illnesses or disabilities. Could you speak a little bit to how you plan to incorporate those things into new building projects or improving the frameworks that exist as it is?

[Camera cuts back to Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] Thank you. That's a big issue. It's one that I confronted as soon as I got here. We have a Student Affairs office. The head of Student Affairs is in an office that is not accessible. We have HR offices in places that aren't accessible. It's very, very apparent that this is — should be — a top priority, and it is. It will be. I mean, it's hard to sort of invest in some old buildings in order to make them compliant if, in fact, we're going to be building anew. So we do as much as we can to assess which buildings are next up for renovation.

And in this fourth task force, as we reconceived the campus, I can guarantee that we will not be building any new buildings that aren't fully accessible. The question for us is, which ones are the buildings can we actually retrofit to become ADA-compliant? And that's very expensive. It's one of the decisions that the Strategy and Planning Committee, the administration, and the board of trustees will talk about in terms of allocating funds. But you've, you've hit the nail on the head. We have more or less, I wouldn't say ignored our facilities, but we haven't certainly kept up in modernizing our facilities to meet the needs of a modern university. And we have to focus on that.

[Camera refocuses on audience.]

[Ira Jackson:] Do I see any other hands? Yes, please.

[Camera zooms in on audience member.]

[Audience member:] Hi, my name is Sophia. I'm a sophomore. I came to Brandeis because of its commitment to social justice, and I have a few concerns about our investments. Currently, we have up to $90 million invested in fossil fuels, and I'm concerned that profiting off of, and financially supporting the leading contributor to climate change is not living up to the name of Louis D. Brandeis or supporting your students’ future. So how is investing in fossil fuels … Will you divest in fossil fuels? And are you still planning on changing the investment policy that opposes investments that are socially unjust?

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] Well, the second one first. We're not changing … We're not going to change any policy. You don't have policies now. We have 1973 principles that are very broad, and as I think our investment manager said, if we followed every one of those, we might have to divest from everything and not find much to invest in. So, we're going to change those in order to bring those up to date. But not to avoid the question.

I think as we've communicated, the board of trustees have taken their time, and I know it's an irritant to those, of course, who are very passionate about this issue. But to me, it's a good sign when the board of trustees has to take its time, and has to think through this, and has to sort of understand why there was such interest, why there was such concern, especially with this generation, about climate change and about how that relates to fossil fuels.

So to answer your second question, we will have new principles, but it won't come until after the board completes its conversations about its endowment. Now, divesting, as many of you know, is difficult in the current structure of our endowment portfolio, the system we're under. What we're looking at is how we can minimize what our holdings are, what the options are, and that's where the discussions and debates, to be frank, are taking place right now. So, stay tuned. I don't want to sort of say what's happening in the negotiations and discussions, because that's what's happening in the board.

The board will meet later this month in November, and on my hope is that we come out with a statement that addresses your very concerns. I think we're all aware of what climate change is doing, and we're all aware of the link of the fossil fuels. The question is, what is the best way to address that? And if the board comes out with any statement, I think it should also come out with a statement about what we can do here locally on our campus to affect our own footprint rather than just talk about investment and who profits from those. But we're going to come up with a statement. Stay tuned — the end of November.

[Camera focuses on audience.]

[Ira Jackson:] Julie, do you have a question?

[Julie Jette, reading an online question:] To address the need for additional financing and resources, would Brandeis reconsider bringing on professional schools, such as law or medical school?

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] Well, I haven't seen many law and medical schools that earned money. There are some professional schools, business schools do. Law schools, I don't know. In the end, it's very expensive. But I get this proposal every single year. I have alums who are very passionate about the fact that we are Brandeis, and we don't have a law school. But I think that would really divert our attention.

I mean, what I've learned in two years here … I mean, my first year here, I could have come in and sort of really pushed everybody to think of this incredible vision for this university, but I think we have so many good things that are not necessarily well-known and they are, as I said before, unique. We have, I'm telling you, we have an educational atmosphere here and the potential, because of our size, and our commitment, and our culture to be something very special and be something different. It's something that we should really be focusing on. Not on new schools. Not on new professional schools.

I think we can improve our undergraduate education, we can also improve our graduate education significantly, and we can do it in a way that is very unique. So I would prefer not to get distracted with law schools and medical schools and take on all those headaches as well.

[Camera cuts back to the audience.]

[Ira Jackson:] I think we have time for two more questions. So, one from this side, if there is a hand?

[Ron Liebowitz:] Right here.

[Ira Jackson:] I'm sorry. Please.

[Camera pans to audience member.]

[Audience member:] Hi. Lauren Dropkin, alum from class of ’95 and work at the Hiatt Career Center. A smaller issue affecting a smaller population. I'm sure you'll find that there are people who are equally passionate against and for something you mentioned regarding the Greeks of the off-campus Greek system. I'm sure in your report you'll go into it further, but I was curious if you had any additional information now.

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] Well, I have opinions only, based on things I've heard anecdotally. For example, in the largest alumni gathering, which was in New York my first year, where there were over 500 people or more, the first people to rush the podium after I spoke were people were passionate about their fraternity experience at Brandeis, as if that was like the first thing on my mind. In fact, it just like sort of blew me over, because I didn't know what they were talking about. They were so passionate about the fraternity. I had to say, “What are you talking about?”

But then there are others, of course, who point to the challenges that, that fraternities, is a single-sex organizations create, especially on this campus, especially with our values and where we, and our founding values. I think there are a lot of issues at play here. Something has to explain why more and more students want to join off-campus social organizations. And I think we have to look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether or not we are providing enough options and whether or not we are too bureaucratic, or maybe not.

In terms of cracking down on student activities and student parties — I think it's a big question. It's a bigger question. I, myself, don't support single-sex organizations. I think they are anathema to, they are antithetical to a place like Brandeis. But I'm open-minded. I heard the incredible passion from the alums that first time in New York, and I've heard it since. But I think we have to sit down and talk about this and find out why these are so important in a place like Brandeis.

[Camera focuses on audience.]

[Ira Jackson:] Yes, please. Final question. Thanks.

[Camera zooms in on audience member.]

[Audience member:] It's great to hear, it is a beautiful strategy for a long-term plan. And you mentioned about finances, just in [inaudible] new financial model and maybe reaching out to alumni. I think you could also reach out to the community, because people in the community do have Brandeis affiliations — my wife and I for 47 years. But my question to you, really, given that background, is I didn't hear the word “capital campaign.” I didn't hear a goal, so I'm clueless in order of magnitude, even. Is this $100 million proposition or a billion dollars?

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] Well, first of all, there are two ways of looking at this. Some institutions have waved the white flag and said that we are always in a campaign, that there's no specific time that a campaign begins or ends. But we will have to plan for campaign. Brandeis has not had one for a good number of years. So it's time. But there's a lot of work to do before we get to that campaign — first, starting out with getting the results of what our priorities are, and that will come, hopefully, by the end of this year. One-hundred million dollars, I don't think so.

I think we're really looking more at your other number with a B rather than with an M. And really, that's what it's going to take. It's going to take us to really excite, motivate, not only alums, but alums are really big there. I mean, we have 19 percent participation in our annual fund, which is just unfathomable when you consider, A, the incredible education that alums get here at Brandeis, B, how much they appreciate that education, and C, we're a small institution.

And the discrepancy between how satisfied alums are with what they're doing in terms of contributions really raises some flags. So we got to get that number up, and we have goals to get that up. I mean, I would love to get that number up to 30, 35 percent in the next year or two. But we really have to do our work there. So we're going to probably have a campaign closer to a billion then closer to $100 million.

[Camera focuses on Jackson.]

[Ira Jackson:] I'll turn the microphone back to Ron in just a moment to wrap up, but a reminder that he and Lisa will be in the Stein. I don't know that the beer will be flowing, but they'd love to receive you and continue the conversation just across the hall. There will be a website up later this week, and it will be populated with news about who's chairing task forces and how your voices can be heard. So, thanks again for coming and Ron, wrap it up.

[Camera refocuses on Liebowitz.]

[Ron Liebowitz:] I just want to thank everyone again for taking the time to be here. I apologize for the time it wasn't convenient for those not here. And really looking to you to really join forces and really help Brandeis be the institution that it was, and it is, and it can be that much greater. So thank you all for coming.

[Audience applauds.]

["Brandeis University" is centered over the line "A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE" on the screen.]