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Brandeis University
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Brandeis University is a private research university with a liberal arts focus, located in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, nine miles (14 km) west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2008, it was ranked by the U.S. News and World Report as the number 31 national university in the United States.
Brandeis was founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian coeducational institution on the site of the former Middlesex University.
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Encyclopedia
Brandeis University is a private research university with a liberal arts focus, located in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, nine miles (14 km) west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2008, it was ranked by the U.S. News and World Report as the number 31 national university in the United States.
Brandeis was founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian coeducational institution on the site of the former Middlesex University. The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, founded in 1959, is noteworthy for its graduate programs in social policy, social work, and international development.
The university is named for the first Jewish Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856–1941).
Brandeis sponsors the Wien International Scholarship for international undergraduate students.
About Brandeis
The schools of the University include:
The College of Arts and Sciences comprises 24 departments and 22 interdepartmental programs, which offer 41 majors and 46 minors.
The Brandeis University Press, a member of the University Press of New England, publishes books in a variety of scholarly and general interest fields.
The Goldfarb Library at Brandeis has more than 1.2 million books and 60,000 e-journals.
Presidents
The presidents of Brandeis University have been:
Student life
The university has an active student government, the Brandeis Student Union, as well as more than 270 student organizations . Fraternities and sororities are officially prohibited by Brandeis University, as they are contrary to a central tenet of the university, namely, that student organizations be open to all students, with membership determined by competency or interest. "Exclusive or secret societies are inconsistent with the principles of openness to which the University is committed."
Brandeis has two administratively independent student newspapers, The Justice and The Hoot, and one satirical paper, The Blowfish. WBRS at 100.1 FM is the school's radio station.
Brandeis has eleven a cappella groups, six undergraduate-run theater companies, one sketch comedy troupe, and four improv-comedy groups, as well as many other cultural and arts clubs. Of particular note is the Brandeis Academic Speech and Debate Society which consistently ranks as one of the top 10 debate teams in the United States, and participates across the globe in the World Universities Debating Championships each year.
Cholmondeley's coffeehouse, commonly referred to as "Chums," is located in Brandeis' Usen Castle. Chums is a popular site for student performances and concerts, including Tracy Chapman, Joan Baez, Matt Pond PA, and Genesis (notable as their first American performance). Chums is also considered to be the inspiration for "Central Perk," the coffeehouse featured on the popular television show Friends.
Emergency medical services are provided by the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps, a Massachusetts-certified EMT-Basic volunteer student organization which does not charge a fee for any of its emergency services.
Escort services are provided around the campus and into Waltham by the student-run "Branvan." They run on a daily schedule from 4:00 pm to 2:30 am on weekdays and from 12:00 pm to 2:30 am on weekends.
The university is west of Boston and is accessible through Brandeis/Roberts station on the Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line, a free shuttle that services Boston and Cambridge (Harvard Square) Thursday through Sunday, the nearby Riverside subway station (above ground) on the Green Line, and the 553 MBTA Bus.
Athletics
The Brandeis University athletic teams The Judges compete in the University Athletic Association (UAA) conference of the NCAA Division III.
Brandeis has 10 varsity teams for both men and women, and 1 coed varsity team. The varsity teams are in:
Brandeis also has more than 18 club sports, including rugby union, cycling, ultimate, crew, lacrosse and martial arts.
Brandeis has had an impressive list of coaches for its athletic teams. Bud Collins coached the men's tennis team from 1959 to 1963. Chris Ford (2001-03) was the third former Boston Celtics player to become head coach at Brandeis, following Bob Brannum (1970-86) and K.C. Jones (1967-70). Benny Friedman, who was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005, served as athletic director from 1949 to 1961 and head football coach from 1951 to 1959, when the football team was disbanded due to high costs. Pete Varney, a former Major League Baseball player for the Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves is the current head coach of the baseball team.
Nelson Figueroa, who pitched for the New York Mets in 2008, is the only Brandeis alum to play in Major League Baseball.
Tim Morehouse ('00) is the school's first and only Olympian so far. He won a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in Men's team Saber in Beijing, China. Tim is a five-time US national team member and has been ranked as high as 11th in the world and 1st in the US. The Brandeis Judges consistently send many fencers to the New England Regional NCAA championships, often with several continuing on to the NCAA National Championships.
The Brandeis Men's Soccer team won the ECAC Championship in the 2006/2007 season. The Women's Soccer team followed up in the 2007/2008 season with their first ECAC Championship since the program started.
Due to budget cuts both the varsity golf and sailing teams will be cut at the end of the Spring 2009 semester.
History of Brandeis
Founders
Names associated with the conception of Brandeis include Israel Goldstein, George Alpert, C. Ruggles Smith, Albert Einstein, and Abram L. Sachar.
C. Ruggles Smith was the son of Dr. John Hall Smith, founder of Middlesex University, who had died in 1944. In 1946, the university was on the brink of financial collapse. At the time, it was one of the few medical schools in the U. S. that did not impose a Jewish quota; but it had never been able to secure AMA accreditation—in part, its founder believed, due to institutional antisemitism in the AMA—and, as a result, Massachusetts had all but shut it down.
Israel Goldstein was a prominent rabbi in New York from 1918 until 1960 (when he immigrated to Israel), and an influential Zionist. Before 1946, he had headed the New York Board of Rabbis, the Jewish National Fund, and the Zionist Organization of America, and helped found the National Conference of Christians and Jews. On his eightieth birthday, in Israel, Yitzhak Rabin and other leaders of the government, the parliament, and the Zionist movement assembled at his house to pay him tribute. But among all his accomplishments, the one chosen by the New York Times to headline his obituary was: "Rabbi Israel Goldstein, A Founder of Brandeis."
C. Ruggles Smith, desperate for a way to save something of Middlesex University, learned of a New York committee headed by Goldstein that was seeking a campus to establish a Jewish-sponsored secular university, and approached Goldstein with a proposal to give the Middlesex campus and charter to Goldstein's committee, in the hope that his committee might "possess the apparent ability to reestablish the School of Medicine on an approved basis." Goldstein was concerned about being saddled with a failing medical school, but excited about the opportunity to secure a "campus not far from New York, the premier Jewish community in the world, and only from Boston, one of the important Jewish population centers." Goldstein agreed to accept Smith's offer.
Goldstein then proceeded to recruit George Alpert, a Boston lawyer with fund-raising experience as national vice president of the United Jewish Appeal.
George Alpert (1898-September 11, 1988) was a Boston lawyer who had worked his way through Boston University School of Law and cofounded the firm of Alpert and Alpert. His firm had a long association with the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad, of which he was to become president from 1956 to 1961 (He is best known today as the father of Richard Alpert (Baba Ram Dass)). He was influential in Boston's Jewish community. His Judaism "tended to be social rather than spiritual." He was involved in assisting children displaced from Germany.
Alpert was to be chairman of Brandeis from 1946 to 1954, and a director from 1946 until his death.
Goldstein also recruited Albert Einstein, whose involvement, while stormy and short-lived, was extremely important, as it drew national attention to the nascent university. The founding organization was named "The Albert Einstein Foundation for Higher Learning, Inc." and early press accounts emphasized his involvement.
The Einstein incident
The origin of what was to become Brandeis was closely associated with the name of Albert Einstein from February 5, 1946, when he agreed to the establishment of the Albert Einstein Foundation for Higher Learning, Inc., until June 22, 1947, when he withdrew his support.
The trustees offered to name the university after Einstein in the summer of 1946, but Einstein declined, and on July 16, 1946 the board decided the university would be named after Louis Brandeis.
On August 19, the plans for the new university were announced by prominent rabbi and Zionist Israel Goldstein, president of the Albert Einstein Foundation. Goldstein said that the planned university was to be supported by contributions from Jewish organizations and individuals, and stressed the point that the institution was to be without quotas and open to all "regardless of race, color, or creed." The institution was to be "deeply conscious both of the Hebraic tradition of Torah looking upon culture as a birthright, and of the American ideal of an educated democracy." In later stories the New York Times' capsule characterization of Brandeis was "a Jewish-supported non-quota university."
Einstein and Goldstein clashed almost immediately. Einstein objected to what he thought was excessively expansive promotion, and to Goldstein's sounding out Abram L. Sachar as a possible president without consulting Einstein. Einstein took great offense at Goldstein's having invited Francis Cardinal Spellman to participate in a fundraising event. Einstein resigned on September 2, 1946. Believing the venture could not succeed without Einstein, Goldstein quickly agreed to resign himself, and Einstein returned; his brief departure was publicly denied.
The Foundation acquired the campus of the Middlesex University in Waltham, which was almost defunct except for the Middlesex Veterinary and Medical College. The charter of this small and marginal operation was transferred to the Foundation along with the campus. The Foundation had pledged to continue operating it, but began to feel that it would never be more than third-rate, while its operating costs were burdensome at a time when the Foundation was trying to raise funds. Disputes arose whether to try to improve it—as Einstein wished—or to terminate it. Einstein also became alarmed by press announcements that exaggerated the school's success at fundraising, and on June 22, 1947 he made a final break with the enterprise. The veterinary school was closed, despite "indignant and well-publicized protests and demonstrations by the disappointed students and their parents". George Alpert, a lawyer responsible for much of the organizational effort, gave another reason for the break: Einstein's desire to offer the presidency of the school to left-wing scholar Harold Laski. Alpert characterized Laski as "a man utterly alien to American principles of democracy, tarred with the Communist brush." He said, "I can compromise on any subject but one: that one is Americanism.".
Six years later, Einstein would decline the offer of an honorary degree from Brandeis, writing to Brandeis president Abram L. Sachar that "what happened in the stage of preparation of Brandeis University was not at all caused by a misunderstanding and cannot be made good any more."
Historians Slater and Slater commented that "plagued by infighting, Brandeis in early 1948 seemed a project in serious trouble. Nonetheless, the school opened in the fall with 107 students." They list the opening of Brandeis as one of their "Great Moments in Jewish History."
In 1954 Brandeis inaugurated a graduate program and became fully accredited. In 1985, Brandeis was elected to membership in the Association of American Universities, which represents the sixty two leading research universities in the United States and Canada.
Other incidents
The student takeover of Ford Hall
From January 8-18, 1969 about 70 students captured and held then-student-center, Ford Hall. The student protesters renamed the school "Malcolm X University" for the duration of the siege (distributing buttons with the new name and logo) and issued a list of ten demands for better minority representation on campus. Most of these demands were subsequently met.
Ford Hall was demolished in August 2000 to make way for the Shapiro Campus Center, which was opened and dedicated October 3, 2002.
Rose Art Museum
The Rose Art Museum opened in 1961, the result of a decade-long struggle to house the art donations Brandeis had been receiving. Abram Sachar had written of the importance of fine arts to Brandeis and his "determination to expose our students and faculty to every kind of art orientation." Of the museum itself he had written:
But in response to a university budget shortfall of $10 million, a formerly $700 million endowment now reduced, and the loss of longtime donors who lost money through investments with Bernard Madoff, on January 26, 2009 the university announced it would close the Rose Art Museum in September of 2009 and sell off a prized collection of contemporary American art, stating the "The bottom line is that the students, the faculty and core academic mission come first. (Trustees) had to look at the college's assets and came to a decision to maintain that fundamental commitment to teaching." Amidst protests and criticism, the Massachusetts Attorney General plans to review the planned sale and wills and agreements between the museum and donors.
Notable alumni, faculty and staff
Publications
- The Justice, which was founded in 1949 (one year after the university's inception) is an administratively independent weekly newspaper distributed every Tuesday during term.
- The Brandeis Hoot, founded in 2005, is an independent weekly newspaper published on Fridays.
- The Blowfish, a satirical newspaper founded in January 2006 is usually published every other Thursday during the school year. The first issue appeared inside The Hoot and every issue since then has been published independently.
- The Louis Lunatic, founded in the winter of 2005, is a student-run sports magazine released each semester, discussing Brandeis and national sports.
- Archon, the yearbook
- Gravity, a humor magazine founded in 1990.
- Laurel Moon, a literary magazine launched in 1991.
- Where the Children Play, a literature and arts magazine
- Louis Magazine, a defunct journal of intellectual discourse, 1999–2002.
- The Barrister News Ltd, a politically neutral broadside weekly newspaper with nationally syndicated features. 1985–1991.
- Under the Robe, an arts and entertainment social tabloid published by The Barrister 1985-1988
- The Brandeis Scope , reports on research that is occurring on the Brandeis University campus and affiliated laboratories in the sciences
- The Pulse, reports on advances in medicine; published by the Pre-Health Society
In popular culture
Where did April come up with that stuff about Adolf Loos and terms like "organic form"?
Well, naturally. She went to Brandeis.
- In the 1977 Woody Allen movie Annie Hall, Allen accuses Carol Kane's character, Allison Portchnik, of being "like New York, Jewish, left-wing, liberal, intellectual, Central Park West, Brandeis University, the socialist summer camps and the, the father with the Ben Shahn drawings, right, and the really, y'know, strike-oriented kind of, red diaper, stop me before I make a complete imbecile of myself."
- In Angel, Wesley gets excited when he thinks he is meeting an archaeologist from Brandeis.
- In Gilmore Girls, Paris suggests to Rory that she should go to Brandeis instead of Harvard.
- In the 1998 movie Free Enterprise, one of the characters (who is based on writer Mark A. Altman) wears a Brandeis sweatshirt. Altman also attended Brandeis.
- In the 1980s series Twin Peaks, deputy Hawks' girlfriend was a Ph.D. from Brandeis.
- In the 90's sitcom Friends, the Central Perk coffeehouse is reputedly based on Cholmondeley's, a coffee shop and lounge in Usen Castle.
- In an episode of American Dad, Roger the alien hatches a scheme to marry a Jewish woman in order to receive expensive wedding presents, most notably a blender. In order to woo this woman, he claims to have attended Brandeis.
See also
External links
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