Brandeis reflected on how the university is living up to its mission and its plans for the future in the first part of a self-study conducted by the university in September 2018. The self study, a part of Brandeis’ reaccreditation process by the New England Commissions of Higher Education (NECHE), requires each school to reflect on different parts of their university.

Every 10 years, each university in the Association of American Universities (AAU) must receive reaccreditation from various commissions of higher education in the U.S. Brandeis was reaccredited by the NECHE in April 2019, according to an earlier article by The Brandeis Hoot. 

During the reaccreditation process, each university must submit a self-study to the visiting team sent by the NECHE to self-evaluate their university based on the nine standards expressed by the NECHE. 

The standards for accreditation establish criteria for institutional quality, according to the Brandeis website, and each of the standards describe a smaller dimension of institutional quality. 

Standard 1: Mission and Purpose

The first standard, Mission and Purpose, ensures that the mission and purpose of the specific institution is appropriate with higher education and consistent with the Standards of the Commission, according to an earlier Hoot article.

The current Mission Statement, approved in 1984 by the then Board of Trustees, states that Brandeis is both a research university “dedicated to the advancement of the humanities, arts, and social, natural, and physical sciences” and a liberal arts institution that “affirms the importance of a broad and critical education in enriching the lives of students and preparing them for full participation in a changing world.” 

The self-study also points to the social justice focus of the university as “central to [our] mission as a nonsectarian university founded by members of the American Jewish community.” 

In 2006, the university adopted a diversity statement to supplement the existing mission statement, which states that the university “seeks to encompass ‘diverse cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences,’” according to the self-study. 

The self-study requires that the schools reflect on their current policies and what needs to be improved in the future. Brandeis noted three major continuing challenges that the university is currently working toward. 

The first challenge comes out of the small size and number of resources that the university has access to. Brandeis is a small school, compared to other schools of similar prestige. The second challenge is the university’s uniqueness as a Jewish-founded non-sectarian university. Brandeis is one of the only schools in the country that has Jewish foundings, according to the self-study. The final challenge is the “deep rooted commitment to being a pluralistic university,” given the university’s struggle to be a non-sectarian university but to also remain tied to its founding Jewish values. 

The university is still working towards “reflect[ing] the heterogeneity of the United States and world community” on campus. “[Brandeis is] one of the few universities in America that has inclusivity as one of its original principles,” the self-study goes on to say. “Brandeis is committed to assembling on its campus the most extensive range of backgrounds, experiences, cultures and religions as possible. At the same time, Brandeis is guided by further values rooted in Jewish tradition and experience.” 

Standard 2: Planning and Evaluation

The second standard states that “the institution is able to prioritize and find success in ‘strategic, academic, financial, and other resource planning and the evaluation of its educational effectiveness,’” according to an earlier Hoot article.

A commissioned external study of university finances found a documented “structural imbalance between the scope of our academic enterprise and our financial resources,” wrote Liebowitz in an email to the Brandeis community in fall 2016.

Prior to beginning his role as president, Liebowitz commissioned the study by an external source to look at university finances. He asked Kermit Daniel, a financial consultant, to do a study on the university’s finances in July 2016. The study also added that that comparable research universities to Brandeis are much wealthier and/or larger than Brandeis. 

Brandeis utilized different budgetary devices—such as drawing too much from the endowment, putting too much gift money into the operating budget (instead of endowment), paying faculty less than other peer institutions and under-investing in physical and technological infrastructure for the bettering of the university—to help pay for funds. The self-study called these methods unsustainable in the long run. 

Following the previous reaccreditation process Brandeis went through, they transitioned to a new strategic plan in 2013 for finances, a comprehensive guide for decision making and allocation of resources for higher level administration, according to the self-study. 

Following a major shift in senior leadership during the 2014-2015 school year, including the resignation of former President Frederick Lawrence, Liebowitz used the transitional period as an opportunity to bring about a new financial plan for the university. While the 2013 Strategic Plan was more of a “wishlist,” the current financial plan outlines the use of the university’s resources. 

In this standard, the university also states four strategic priorities that they are working on to improve the university. The first is “redefining the student experience” by changing the demographics of the student body and how faculty and staff impact the lives of students. 

The second is “fostering excellence in scholarship” across the entire university, both in undergraduate and graduate studies. The third is strengthening the connections of the university with other institutions and businesses. And the final is providing educational programs for Jewish organizations, while still remaining a fully nonsectarian and inclusive university. 

During the previous reaccreditation process, the visiting team sent by the NECHE found that the university lacked “systematic controls and procedures to perform accurate and easy internal and external multi-year comparative analysis,” according to the 2018 self-study conducted by Brandeis. This meant the university was lacked a centralized institutional research office. Through this feedback, they established the Office of Planning and Institutional Research (OPIR). 

This is the first part in a series that will look into the rest of Brandeis’ self-study.