University President Frederick Lawrence addressed parents and students on the University's past year and plans for the future as part of the Fall Fest family weekend last Sunday in Levin Ballroom.

Lawrence spoke about the role of Brandeis in responding to the unique challenges that students face. Because of the current economy and competitive job market, he said, students today know that they may not immediately find a place in the workforce. According to Lawrence, students therefore view their time at school as an investment and have become "healthy consumers" of their education. Brandeis addresses this investment by providing an education that prepares them not only for their first job but their "fifth, sixth, tenth jobs," he continued.

According to Lawrence, this long-term focus, based in part in an inability to "predict the job market in 40 years," fosters an emphasis at Brandeis on transferrable skills that students can apply to multiple fields and positions. Included in these skills are the ability to analyze carefully, to communicate clearly, to identify and solve problems, to think creatively and to turn raw information into knowledge, he said.

Brandeis aims to give students the tools to identify "the people they want to become [and] the lives that they want to live" by emphasizing the importance of social richness filled with interactions with people, Lawrence continued.

In response to a parent's question about the increase in Brandeis tuition, particularly in comparison to other private universities and in relation to the proportionally lower increase in the cost of living, Lawrence stated that the University is moving toward high-return investment projects, including renovations that will make utilities such as air conditioning and heating more efficient, and toward working to collaborate with other schools and further facilitate students' use of other universities' resources.

In response to a question from a parent about the role of Judaism at Brandeis today, Lawrence spoke of the nationwide shift in religious, racial and gender quotas since the University was founded. Though these quotas are no longer in place, Lawrence remarked on the University's role in this historical process as a "powerful part of the Brandeis legacy."

"I am in ... a highly unusual situation as a university president that I never have to apologize, ever, for any admission policy decision this University has ever had," he said. "And that's something we don't take lightly."

The University's "deep roots in the Jewish community," Lawrence continued, are no longer "reacting to a negative thing," such as other universities' religious quotas for student and faculty, but "projecting a positive thing."