One obvious word comes to mind when thinking of the $95K apparently spent on President Jimmy Carter's enormously successful Brandeis visit-in a $300M annual budget. It's peanuts.That's three-hundredths of one percent. We have reserve funds. We could fundraise for this specific event. Or run a .03 percent deficit. Last year the faculty was informed that when a pipe bursts in the ground, it costs $25,000 to excavate and fix it. For four busted pipes, we got a former President of the United States.

The real issue isn't this money. It's the public, intellectual mission of our University, viewed through the lens of the Carter visit.

President Carter brought unprecedented positive media attention to Brandeis. His appearance was reported from Australia to Zimbabwe. Search Google News for "Jimmy Carter" and "Brandeis"-26 pages of pointers to Web sites, both national and international. You can't buy publicity like that.

This event made Brandeis look great. Matt Brown wrote in the Justice two weeks ago that we looked just like the Ivy League. It's true-and we could again. Of all the lousy gin joints in town, President Carter came to Brandeis to make his case. Students were articulate, used their critical faculties and showed Carter the maximum respect. His importance ennobled us.

A senior colleague plaintively said to me moments before the Carter event began, that without it, we would have had funding for two undergraduate years of scholarship. I said, "This is better."

Nonetheless, University President Jehuda Reinharz warned the faculty that Carter's visit precipitates the detonation of intellectual "weapons of mass destruction." Where do these WMDs exist, and what are they?

Dr. John Hose, executive assistant to President Reinharz, told the Justice that sufficient intellectual talent on campus obviates the need for external speakers.

How, then, do we explain the administration's enthusiasm for the Harvard Law professor, whose right to freedom of speech apparently extends not only to what he wants to say (which I support), but also to where and when he wants to say it? Were I invited to play the bongos at Gosman, 30 minutes before Commencement, I think someone in the administration would say, "We'd love to hear you play the bongos, but some other time."

Dr. Hose added, "if [students] want theater, then it's best to go to Spingold." If they're hungry for intellectual engagement, let them eat... cake? Was President Carter's visit merely Les Folies Bergaere? No. This was the real world calling.

Following Carter's visit, what's next? How does the University capitalize on this significant success? Can Admissions use this event to show prospective undergraduates that this is a politically happening place and that there will be more happenings? Can Development use this event to begin crafting a new public persona for Brandeis-or does it even want to?

When 1,700 people, mostly undergraduates, give Jimmy Carter several standing ovations-although many may not have agreed with him-that's a sign something significant and good is going on.

The public image of Brandeis need not be what I have half-seriously called "Israel on the Charles." Instead, we could have "Jewish Switzerland." Its constitution is already written; the mission statement of the University is readable online. (A NEJS colleague told me, hearing this, "Switzerland is one of my favorite places!" These are just some of his favorite things.)

In Jewish Switzerland, we have a commitment to issues that concern the Jewish community-of which many of us are a part-but the institution itself remains neutral, like our mission statement says. We invited Jimmy Carter-but we were Swiss in our institutional commitment to his ideas. He might be wrong. Nobody knows if his solution would work. Nobody. But we're here to talk about it, publicly. And he could be followed by others of widely ranging political views.

A senior observer of Middle East studies told me that were he directing the Crown Center, he'd never invite Rashid Khalidi and those Columbia people who support Palestinian nationhood. I asked why. He said, "Because they never invite us to their place." What is this-middle school?

In our presentations of varied opinions from people of consequence, students can question what they hear, and learn more about thinking for themselves. That's the University's real mission.

This need not be a struggle between political and ethnic allegiances. In the 1980s, England had a Social Democratic Party trying to triangulate between Labor and the Tories. Their slogan was, "Not left, not right-but forward."

President Carter's visit was one of the greatest things to happen at the University in many years, and the senior administration is having trouble understanding this.

It's not the money. It's the mission.

Harry Mairson is a professor of computer science and chair of the Faculty Senate.