<p>It’s been widely reported that numerous Brandeis donors–in the words of Brandeis’s own chief operating officer, “quite a number” of big donors—have been badly hurt by Madoff, impairing the university’s ability to raise money:</p>
<p>“A few paintings” ??? Bloomberg News quotes a Brandeis spokesperson who says the
school plans to sell “about 6,000 pieces” from the museum’s 7,000-odd piece collection, into the teeth of the declining art market. Sounds like desperation time to me.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>According to published reports, all this new construction coming on line is part of the problem, not an indicator of sound financial health. Brandeis spent most of the money from its current capital campaign on new construction, just as the economy (and donations) tanked and the endowment lost value. Now the school is stuck with debt service and additional operating costs for new buildings that, in retrospect, it probably couldn’t afford.</p>
<p>True, Brandeis is not the only college or university being forced to make radical adjustments to its new fiscal realities. But I’m sorry, lopping off faculty pensions is a “meat-axe” type of cut. You can’t maintain a quality faculty if you can’t pay competitive salaries and benefits. Pension benefits are a crucial and often decisive part of the equation. If desperate, you might gamble that you might get away with it for a year without losing too many faculty, because in the present market there may not be as much lateral movement as in a more robust economy. But Brandeis is playing with fire here, and is dangerously close to blowing up the whole institution. They know it. They wouldn’t be doing it unless they were in desperate straits. My advice is, steer clear.</p>
<p>Wake Forest has an excellent reputation, don’t worry about national prestige, Wake Forest might be more noticable on the west coast though due to its athletic program though, just a hypothesis</p>
<p>well let me ask this: Since I plan on going to law school, preferably a top ranked law school in the northeast (Boston or NYC) do you think it matters between Brandeis or Wake? Brandeis IS in Boston, so do you think it would be a dumb move not to go there if I eventually want to go to law school in that area?</p>
<p>it doesn’t matter as long as you get high grades and good recommendations wherever you go, actually law schools might actually prefer geographical diversity instead of picking students from the area (not quite sure about that, correct me if I’m wrong)</p>
<p>The information being cited here about Brandeis’ budget situation is selective, outdated, speculative and simply distorts the true picture. The OP should contact faculty at Brandeis in his area of interest and find out for himself. </p>
<p>Of course any budget cuts are undesirable steps, and as has been pointed out, even the wealthiest universities in this economy are faced with them. But Brandeis’ approach is a reasonable one. Once again, museum is not selling all of its paintings, at most a few and possibly none. Pensions are not being “lopped off” contributions for the highest paid faculty are being suspended for one year–possibly to be reimbursed at a later point. Also, adjustments in the size of the faculty are phased in over a period of years and do not affect core areas. The student-faculty ratio will remain superb. Not only will there be no significant reduction in course offerings but new, exciting majors and programs are being created. And the faculty is closely participating in all of these decisions because it is dedicated to preserving and improving the special community that is Brandeis. For what it’s worth, I know of many students entering the Brandeis class of 2013 who chose Brandeis over many other fine schools, including, Tufts, Chicago, WashU, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Brown and even Harvard. These are intelligent students with intelligent parents who did their own due diligence and were not deterred by budget stories and especially by exaggeration and speculation.</p>
<p>Brandeis should be applauded for its transparency and candor in dealing with these issues while other univerisities are imposing cuts on faculty and students in this international economic crisis, and, perhaps wisely, avoiding the publicity that accompanies transparency.</p>
<p>Honestly i would opt with WF. Brandeis lacks diversity (atleast this what I hear) WF has sports, great academics, good location, and diversity. I think this is a no brainer. I think Brandeis is kind of overrated. YIKES! Brandeis is not in Boston it is in Waltham a 20-30 minute drive.</p>
<p>I think i read somewhere that Brandeis has a jewish population that was close to 50%. Thats majority and they have a small student body. So the impact of Brandeis diversity numbers is miniscule.</p>
<p>Brandeis isn’t diverse and Wake Forest is? that’s totally backwards. Brandeis has a 7% international population (compared to 1% for Wake Forest), and has more Asian and Hispanic students than Wake Forest.</p>
<p>edit: ok pierre0913 go to it before I did. but it’s totally wrong that just because there are a lot of jews that means isn’t diverse. first of all, there’s a huge range within judaism, and plenty of the jews at Brandeis aren’t religious at all. also I think the higher proportion (but still small numbers) of observant jews would contribute to the diversity, not detract from it.</p>
<p>Brandeis’ diversity was what struck me most about it. I don’t know much about Wake Forest, but from what I’ve heard it sounds pretty homogeneous. I mean, the majority of people there are in frats/sororities…</p>
<p>Brandeis’ 25% of minorities and international is significant diversity and obviously greater percentage-wise than Wake Forest’s. Brandeis has a distinct international flavor–and in fact international students make up the majority of its International Business School. Brandeis was founded on the principals of non-discrimination and diversity. There are three chapels of equal stature representing the three major faiths of Jewish, Catholic and Protestant plus Muslim prayer facilities as well. Frats are officially banned because of they foster exclusivity rather than the inclusiveness for which the university stands.</p>
<p>Jewish students I believe count as part of the Caucasian population…so the diversity percentages for Brandeis still apply, the fact that there are many Jews doesn’t affect the diversity statistics at all</p>
<p>No pierre you are wrong to assume that jewish people are caucasion. When the majority percentage is so skewed such as that 52% number you cannot say the school is diverse atleast by how i view it.</p>