Framework for the Future approved by Board of Trustees

Brandeis’ strategic vision sets stage for the university’s next chapter

Photo/Liz Linder

The Light of Reason

The Board of Trustees recently approved the Framework for the Future, a strategic vision for Brandeis. The Framework is the result of more than three years of broad consultations with focus groups, including prospective students, current students, alumni, faculty, staff, trustees, friends, and parents. It is also based on responses from multiple alumni surveys; information gleaned from 30 “self-reflection” documents written by faculty and administrators; and the work of four task forces, composed of 11 working groups, which forwarded for consideration more than 250 recommendations.

President Ron Liebowitz communicated the Framework’s approval in a letter to the community. A summary provides an outline of the exciting initiatives and the entire Framework can be found at Brandeis.edu/framework.

It is based on two strategic initiatives:

Fulfilling the Brandeis academic value proposition: Through strategic investments in the university’s faculty and researchers, student research opportunities, and physical infrastructure, Brandeis will broaden and deepen support for faculty scholarly activities.  This, in turn, will increase collaborative learning opportunities for students and increase the university’s commitment to cutting edge research.

Reengaging Brandeis’ founding ethos: Brandeis will achieve the second strategic objective of the Framework through initiatives that will highlight and preserve the university’s founding ethos, which is based on millennia-old Jewish traditions of reverence for learning, engaging in critical analysis, a commitment to justice, and a dedication to using one’s gifts to help repair the world. 

“For more than 70 years, our institution has been guided and inspired by the words of our namesake, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: ‘If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold.’ The Framework for the Future is a bold plan for Brandeis University – one that challenges all of us to build upon our history, strengths, and institutional ethos for the coming decades,” Liebowitz said.