Fiscal Year 2013 budget plans to draw on the Brandeis endowment by 5 percent. In Thursday’s faculty meeting, President Lawrence noted: “Is that drawing the endowment too high? You bet,” but conceded that it is the lowest draw rate in a number of years. “FY-13, I think, is a good budget,” he said. “It should allow us to feel the wind, ever so slightly, at our backs, and blowing in the right direction.”

The increase in tuition, according to Lawrence, will go partly to foreign language and partly to LTS, because, he says, as a research institution, a well-funded and current technology service is imperative.

The Princeton Review included Brandeis in their “Guide to Green Colleges.” While there are no rankings in the guide, Steve Goldstein says Brandeis is on the “cusp of silver, but still bronze.”

Professor Irina Dubinina (RUS) has been awarded the Louis Brandeis Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her students laud her with making the complex Russian language understandable “and even easy,” according to one of the nominations.

Professor Timothy Hickey (COMP) won the Lerman Neubauer award. He chairs numerous committees, as well as the computer science department for a number of years and the faculty senate.

Numerous changes were made to the faculty handbook. The position of “instructor,” which does not require a PhD or pending PhD, was created, and appointment terms for non-tenure track professors were shortened.