At 2:00 pm on Oct. 18, the Brandeis faculty met in Rapaporte Treasure Hall for their monthly meeting. The meeting opened with Chair of the Faculty Senate Prof. Jeffrey Lenowitz (POL) giving a welcoming address, informing the staff of a change in timing of the next meeting in order to be able to accommodate an address from Interim President Aurthur Levine, Ph.D. ’70. Additionally Lenowitz stated “Though leadership is changing at the University, the structural problems are not. So to this end, I want to assure you all that the senate remains dedicated to working with the administration to ensure that these are addressed in a manner that safeguards faculty interests.” He also discussed future plans to hear and address faculty concerns such as a survey and small group meetings.
The floor was then ceded to the Dean of Admissions, Jennifer Walker. Walker presented data on the new freshman class, as well as future recruitment plans. She began by providing context for the past 10 fiscal years, starting with FY’16. Following COVID-19, enrollment dropped, with 750 students joining the Brandeis community in the fall of 2021. In the past 10 years shown, the only year that had lower enrollment than that was the fall of 2024 with 738 students, a stark contrast to two years ago with a matriculating class of 980. Walker explained that following the dip in enrollment during Covid, Admissions was tasked with working on gaining larger classes for the next two years in order to round out the size of the total undergraduate population.
Walker then expressed changes in the market, meaning that trends supported the idea that public institutions were becoming more favorable than private for many students, bringing some public schools into Brandeis’ “competitor set,” which has generally been private schools in the past…