President Ron Liebowitz released the second independent investigation report on Nov. 29, describing the climate of Brandeis as built on personal relationships that can confuse the chain of command, unclear about complaint processes and host to a “widespread anxiety” about coming forward with complaints.
The report itself did not focus on recommending reforms, but listed reforms already in progress to clarify the complaint process at Brandeis. In an interview with The Brandeis Hoot, Liebowitz described how Brandeis would address the complaint process and the culture of Brandeis, including releasing a campus climate survey in Fall 2019 to the student body.
Liebowitz spoke about the problems listed in the report, saying, “I don’t think it’s unique to Brandeis, but I also think the line in that report that was important for us to think about is ‘but we’re Brandeis,’ and we aspire to be something different only because of who we are, how we were founded and what we stand for.”
In response to the difficulty some students, faculty and staff have in coming forward with complaints either out of fear of retaliation or a confusion of who to speak to, Liebowitz emphasized that he wanted to make sure members of the community had multiple opportunities to report complaints.
He spoke about the new Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), which will report to the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The OEO will become the central office for complaint and reporting processes, focusing on discrimination or harassment based on “race, color, ancestry, religious creed, gender identity and expression, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, genetic information, disability, military or veteran status, or any other category protected by law,” according to an email to the student body.
He also emphasized that, in their November meeting, the Board of Trustees discussed this report for over five hours, and had a separate discussion on improving the Title IX complaint process for three hours.
Liebowitz also described the new reporting website, www.brandeis.edu/report, which lists different resources on how to report for students, faculty and staff both within Brandeis and outside of campus.
To address “a stunning lack of diversity” the investigators found in their first report in the athletics department, which they said reflected a similar lack of diversity in the larger community, Liebowitz plans to change the search process for new hires. In using search firms, he emphasized that they would be told to seek a diverse and experienced candidate pool.
Liebowitz also emphasized that his senior team as well as the President’s Management Council (PMC), which the report specifically cited as an example of “the homogeneity of the senior administrative ranks,” would be undergoing diversity, equity and inclusion training.
The PMC and the senior team will participate in six three-hour group and six three-hour individual training sessions in the spring, Liebowitz announced in an email to the student body.
“The goal for us is once we go through it is to then determine the best way cascade that down to each of the organizations,” he said.
The report also described a lack of diversity in the Board of Trustees. Liebowitz emphasized that a subcommittee of the board’s Nominating and Governance Committee is seeking to increase diversity on the Board of Trustees. The board discussed the report with the independent investigators.
Liebowitz said that the conversation was helpful to describe the climate, as many of the trustees are not in an academic environment. “The rest of the trustees I think got a lot out of the conversation about the campus environment, about the dynamics among students [and] the change in the student body over time, which has become more diverse,” he said.
“I think the outside investigators did an excellent job of contextualizing their findings at Brandeis,” he said. He continued, “A lot of the questions surrounded the historic founding of Brandeis and what it means for the institution to have been founded as it was with a certain set of values, [and] as it goes forward how does it, you know, recast those values, and live those values and be true to those values.”
The report also identified a feeling amongst faculty members at Brandeis that Brandeis’ Jewish roots would be diluted by an increasingly diverse population. Liebowitz emphasized that a diverse student body creates a “far better quality of education.” He further said, “I don’t think that’s necessarily of watering down what Brandeis stands for, percentage of the population doesn’t necessarily reflect who exactly you are.”
The report cited faculty concerns on metrics, and the perception that they are too like “the very ‘quotas’ Brandeis was founded to oppose.” Liebowitz emphasized that metrics can take a variety of forms, saying, “Numbers don’t do it.” He spoke about how the metrics the Board will receive will depend on the goals of the university with regards to diversity.
