Senior administrators, including University President Jehuda Reinharz, Provost Marty Krauss and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French discussed University finances and answered student questions regarding the Rose Art Museum's closure and other possible emergency measures to narrow the school's budget gap at an open forum for students last Wednesday.The forum was organized by Student Union President Jason Gray '10.

Reinharz said that students would "have [a] voice in the deliberations" about measures to solve the University's budget crisis but that they will "need to think ... what it is you could live without" and "be as creative as the faculty" in their involvement with resolving the University's budget issues.

In his opening slideshow presentation on Brandeis' financial history and current issues, French said the "structural deficit" of the University has resulted from its small base and endowment as compared to similar institutions of its quality. According to French, the University has also "historically relied on gifts ... more than other institutions, and when you get a recession like this, you tend to get fewer gifts, so it makes us vulnerable." French said that Brandeis has taken too much out of its endowment historically and that dipping into the endowment for funds is "not something that you want to do on a sustained basis because you're going to end up with no endowment."

Reinharz and Krauss also addressed student concerns regarding the lack of prior notification by the administration surrounding the decision to close the museum. Both Krauss and Reinharz defended the University's decision not to inform students or Rose staff that the University was considering closing the museum.

"The board decided to keep this under wraps because they did not ... want the discussion of the closing of the Rose to take place in the newspapers," Reinharz explained to students. The choice not to tell Rose director Michael Rush was "to protect [him]," Reinharz added. Krauss later said, "If you try to have this discussion in public, it would completely destabilize the Rose."

French said of the final decision to close the museum that "the conclusion that we have come to and that the trustees have come to after looking at all those options we're doing the right thing."

Reinharz said in response to a student question that the process of selling the art from the museum "may take months; it may take years." He also stressed that the administration "[does] not plan to violate donor intent" in selling the works of art and that "there will be a discussion" with living donors on the sales of individual artworks.

Krauss and Reinharz also emphasized that Brandeis is not the only university combating financial difficulties. Reinharz told students that "Brandeis is not alone in the kinds of decisions we had to make," and said that other institutions are considering drastic actions to combat budget crises.

"We are the talk of the town right now, but I would really predict that we will see other universities making very tough decisions," Krauss said.

Assistant Vice President for Students and Enrollment Frank Urso addressed the future of athletics programs in light of the budget crisis. He mentioned that the administration has considered "converting [teams] to club sports as opposed to being varsity programs" and said that the swim team is set to "operate for at least one more year" despite the closing of the Linsey pool.

Student Union President Jason Gray '10, who proposed the forum to Reinharz, said the meeting was "a very strong first step." Gray said, "I think what was awesome is [the forum] showed how engaged the student body wants to be and deserves to be."

Alex Melman '11, a writer for the blog Innermost Parts, called the meeting "very productive" despite the fact that "some of [the student questions] didn't get as specific answers as we would have liked." He added that "if we'd have done this earlier we would have avoided a lot of student demonstrations."

Senator for the Class of 2009 Eric Alterman said that the forum was "largely what I expected," and added that he hoped the administration would follow up the forum by "bringing students into the [decision-making] process at all levels." Alterman also added that he wished the "contradictions" between different sources of information about the Rose's closing "had been addressed."

He later said that initially the announcement of the Rose's closing implied that the Board of Trustees had "mandated the complete sale of all the artwork," but that at the forum "it became clear that there were a lot of ambiguities to the process." Altman later told the Justice that "over the past week or so, ... [the contradictions have] been resolved in the sense that [the administration has] kind of told their story.