Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, Inc., the University's temporary public relations firm that was hired Feb. 2, will no longer serve in a day-to-day spokesperson role but will fulfill an assignment that it began prior to the completion of its contract, according to Senior Vice President for Communications Lorna Miles.In an e-mail to the Justice, Miles wrote, "The Rasky Baerlein contract was for a two month duration and most of Rasky Baerlein's work was completed at the end of last week. Rasky Baerlein will no longer be serving in a day-to-day spokesperson role for the University with regard to the Rose [Art] Museum."

However, Miles also wrote, "They will be completing some assignments currently in progress that are part of their contract regarding working with some media outlets on stories near completion. It is expected that these assignments will conclude by the first week in May."

Miles explained in a phone interview that the contract was not extended, but "implicit in the contract was that any projects that had been started prior to the completion of the contract date would be completed."

President of Rasky Baerlein Joe Baerlein declined to comment. "All calls have to be forwarded through [Miles]," he said. Miles also responded on behalf of the rest of the senior administration.

Rasky Baerlein, which was hired Feb. 2, was paid for by 10-percent salary cuts taken by both University President Jehuda Reinharz and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French.

In a phone interview with the Justice, Miles explained that Rasky Baerlein's assignment in progress is a story that involves the Rose that a Boston Globe reporter was working on but has not completed. "I think that [Rasky Baerlein] had worked on one story involving the Globe that has not seen the light of day. So it's a story that someone is working on that they arranged some interviews for. . I don't know where in the process it is, but I suspect that's the kind of project that we're talking about here," she said.

Miles said that Rasky Baerlein will be available in the future if the story "needs to be taken care of." She said that she didn't know if the story would ever be completed. She added that this is the only story that Rasky Baerlein is working on that she is aware of.

According to her e-mail to the Justice, Miles wrote that Rasky Baerlein was hired "in large part to deal with an avalanche of national and international media inquiries concerning the Rose Art Museum."

In a Feb. e-mail to the faculty listserv, University President Jehuda Reinharz wrote, "[Rasky Baerlein is] charged with helping the University present a fuller picture of the varied efforts now underway to seize the economic challenges we, and all other institutions of higher education, are facing in proactive, inspired, and creative ways."

In early February, Baerlein told the Justice, "This is a limited assignment, and again, most of the work we do in these times of what you call 'crisis assignments' are of limited duration, of pretty high intensity, and so we see this as no more than a two-month assignment." However, in an e-mail sent to the Justice yesterday, Miles wrote that it is possible that similar communications services could be needed past this academic year.

"I think that if circumstances were such that we had a high volume of inquiries about a particular topic, if we were looking for help, we would turn to a firm that has expertise in that particular area," she said.