Executive compensation, changes to meal plans and dining, renovations to campus dormitories and overall transparency were just some of the topics of concern brought up at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Student Union on Thursday evening. According to an email announcing the roundtable discussion from Student Union President Ricky Rosen '14, the first half of the event was meant to be a discussion between the Student Union representatives and administrators, while the second half was meant to be a "forum for students to pose questions to members of senior administration."

The panel discussion, which included Student Union members as well as two administrators, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel and Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid, took place in the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Admissions Center presentation room.

The first segment of the event featured questions posed to Flagel and de Graffenreid from Union representatives on varying topics. Union Vice President Charlotte Franco '15 kicked off the event with a question about the level of student involvement in the decision-making processes surrounding major changes, such as the upcoming bid processes for the campus bookstore and mailroom. The University is currently evaluating their options regarding bookstore vendor and is currently in the bidding process for a potentially new mailroom vendor.

More specifically, she asked why the Student Union only heard two of four proposals for meal plans before the final decision on which would be offered to students was reached.

"Details of [Sodexo's] contract are under a mutual non disclosure agreement," responded Flagel, who said that he was "not engaged" in the bidding process for dining providers. "But I think it's fair to say that one of the major factors that was in the [request for proposal] and a major factor of the contract is student satisfaction, so a large part of [Sodexo's] responsibility is interfacing with you over these meal plans and their development."

Relaying too much information during ongoing contract negotiations could be problematic, said Flagel, because "you don't get the best possible price point with completely transparent negotiations."

Franco said that, in the future, she still hoped to see more student representatives on committees that review options for outside contractors, such as the mailroom and the bookstore.

Flagel agreed that "[w]e didn't really have a student input structure for any of those [bidding processes] because it hadn't changed in a decade so there wasn't a whole lot to discuss." However, he added that "ultimately, you all want the same thing we want: we want the best level of service that students can have for the best possible value." He proposed a "University administrative systems committee" to work with committees and vendors in areas related to student life.

Union Secretary Sneha Walia '15 then raised concerns regarding budget transparency, specifically President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz's compensation. Reinharz's salary has been highly scrutinized following its publication in both this paper and The Boston Globe in November.

De Graffenreid responded that based on conversations she has had with "counterparts" at other private institutions, "Brandeis is now probably the most transparent private university in the country in terms of executive compensation."

Releasing University President Frederick Lawrence's salary at the March faculty meeting "was a very big step for the Board of Trustees to take," said de Graffenreid, calling it "sort of precedent-setting in the United States."

Flagel then noted other substantial budgetary areas. "There was a massive investment, about five million dollars in sustainable energy projects, that had a lot to do with heating and cooling across the campus. ....  The cleanup of the steam pipes that were sending steam shooting in different directions up through the ground, fixing those leaks," he said. "There's investments in the infrastructure that you've all experienced like the massive overhaul of East [Quad] that went on over a two-year period. This summer, we're going to be doing two of the halls of Ziv [Quad] and the [Foster] Mods."

The next portion of the event featured questions from the audience of approximately 30 students. To start the segment, Class of 2017 Senator and Chair of Senate Dining Committee David Heaton questioned who holds the ability to change the current and oft-scrutinized meal plans, "You seemed to indicate that the composition of the meal plans was actually the responsibility of Sodexo, but in our meeting with Sodexo, they said that it was the responsibility of the administration," he said.

Flagel responded, "The crafting and structure came out of Sodexo and my impression was that that had been ongoing discussion, so the fact that it has this level of disconnect troubles me, but I assume that everyone is operating in good faith."

The conversation then shifted from dining to executive compensation. "How much do University administrators make annually and why is this not released to the full Brandeis community?" asked David Miller '14 of the Brandeis Labor Coalition.
De Graffenreid responded, saying that the Board of Trustees was "concerned that transparency on individual administrator's salary would not allow [University] President [Frederick] Lawrence to manage his team in a way that is effective." She said that administrators have tasks that they are supposed to accomplish every year, "and we're accountable to President Lawrence for those things.  

"Our compensation depends largely on how well we do on those work plans, and the Board thought that if it was completely transparent, that people could see how people were performing, which would limit the ability to have continuous improvement and performance in people's jobs," she continued.
Andrew Nguyen '15, also representing the Brandeis Labor Coalition, then turned from the salaries of the administration toward that of the president in particular.

Nguyen expressed his dismay of a quote by Board of Trustees Chair Perry Traquina '78 in a Justice article last week, namely that the University "would never get a president here" if the presidential compensation was "handcuffed to the lowest-paid staff member.

"Shouldn't a president want to come to Brandeis because of its commitment to equity, not in spite of this?" asked Nguyen. "Why don't we have a full-time sexuality and gender diversity coordinator" if we can pay such high salaries to administrators?

Flagel said the University is making progress toward a full-time lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer adviser position.
 "My hope is that in collaboration with other offices and with looking at space that we're actually going to be able to realize the full student proposal that you all voted on of creating a gender and sexuality center on campus. We're looking at space in Usdan [Student Center] right now where we can carve that out," he said.

The issue of sexual assault on campus and the new blog SpeakOut! Brandeis was also addressed.

Flagel expressed his surprise at the amount of people who don't think sexual assault is an issue [at Brandeis] because "people are so nice." Flagel affirmed that "[sexual assault] is already here" and "we've really just begun the work" needed to combat it.

Other topics included the lighting and safety of the various South Street crossings, reductions in cost of the Golding Health Center as measures to cut costs, potentially recognizing greek life on campus and the overall image of Brandeis.

Town hall meetings on marketing and presentation of Brandeis, including the University logo, will be held "toward the end of April," according to de Graffenreid. "We'll get those dates out to everyone, and we're going to buy pizza, and you should come and let your voice be heard," she said.

-Marissa Ditkowsky contributed reporting