The Justice, November 9, 2010 issue

Page 1

FEATURES Page 8

FORUM Occupation week is dishonest 12

NEW MUSEUM

ARTS The Boston premiere of La Tosca 23 The Independent Student Newspaper

the

of

B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9

Justice

Volume LXIII, Number 12

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

admissions

ALUMNI

POTENTIAL NEW SCHEDULES

Merit aid facing reductions

Waltham, Mass.

Recent alumni give less ■ The decline in alumni participation is largely due to the young age of Brandeis graduates.

■ The decision to reduce

Merit aid scholarships has been occuring for the last several years.

By ALANA ABRAMSON

By SARA DEJENE

JUSTICE EDITOR

JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

decision on the block scheduling proposal. “The Provost will now decide whether to accept the new block schedule and institute it starting next academic year. It is her decision whether to accept it or not.” In an interview with the Justice, Krauss said that she has been working with Hewitt to determine the deadline for making a decision on the proposal since it will affect the scheduling of classes for next year and said that she expects to make a decision “within the next couple of weeks.” “The block scheduling committee has worked really hard and revised their recommendations, … and there seems to be a good

The rate of alumni providing monetary contributions to the University has declined from 34 percent to 30 percent between fiscal 2006 and 2010, according to Vice President of Development Myles Weisenberg. Weisenberg said that 34 percent of alumni provided contributions in fiscal 2006, 33 percent participated in fiscal 2007 and 30 percent participated in fiscal 2008 and 2009. Weisenberg said that the numbers for fiscal 2010 have not yet been finalized. However, according to the annual ranking of universities in U.S. News and World Report, 30 percent of alumni participated in the provision of donations in fiscal 2009, a figure that placed Brandeis 24th among 262 universities. In a phone interview with the Justice, Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship attributed the decrease in participation to the fact that a majority of the donations come from members of the earliest graduating classes when the University was extremely small and that the later classes have fewer students providing donations because they are younger and cannot provide as much. Winship also added that even though the participation rate has declined, the level of contributions has remained relatively steady and continues to constitute 16 to 18 percent of the money raised annually. “Every year, more students graduate and they are very young. So if you go back to 1952, you might only have 80 or 90 people in that class versus 700 or 800 today, so that means that we keep getting younger,” Winship said, explaining that this dynamic differentiates Brandeis from schools where there are equal numbers of younger and older alumni. Weisenberg said that the rate of participation from alumni who graduated in the 1950s and 1960s is approximately 40 to50 percent but that the rate of participation

See CHANGE, 5 ☛

See ALUMNI, 5 ☛

According to Vice President of Enrollment Keenyn McFarlane, the number of merit scholarships offered to students has been gradually reduced in recent years and will be further reduced for the Class of 2015. The further reductions are due to the fact that many students offered merit aid in recent years declined attend the University. According to statistics provided by the Office of Enrollment, the number of matriculating students who received merit aid declined by 78 percent from 2006 to 2010. In an interview with the Justice, McFarlane said that by limiting merit aid funds, the University aims to meet 100 percent of estimated financial needs of more students. According to McFarlane, the elimination of merit aid due to the declining number of students offered merit scholarships matriculating is independent of the University’s new financial aid policy, which states that students will be admitted into the University on a need-blind basis until there are no more available funds to admit students while meeting 100 percent of their need. From then on, applicants would be admitted on a need-sensitive basis, meaning that their financial need would be added to a list of factors that would determine whether or not the student would be accepted into Brandeis. According to McFarlane, the reduction of merit-based aid has been “ongoing” for “several years.” McFarlane said that after reviewing the incoming class each year, the administrators in Enrollment found that they were more “effective” in being able to fund students when money was given in the form of needbased financial aid rather than merit scholarships since the number of students who received merit-based aid and matriculated into Brandeis has declined by 78 percent since 2006. McFarlane said the University also has a higher yield rate of matriculation when need-based aid is given rather than merit scholarships.

See SCHOLARSHIPS, 5 ☛

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

SCHEDULE CHANGE: Prof. Malcom Watson (PSYC) and Registrar Mark Hewitt discuss potential changes at the faculty meeting.

Senate backs block changes ■ The provost will now

review the scheduling changes the Faculty Senate approved at last Thursday’s faculty meeting. By HARRY SHIPPS JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

The Faculty Senate approved a proposal for a new block schedule at its meeting last Thursday, Prof. Tim Hickey (COSI), chair of the Faculty Senate, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. The proposal, which includes switching classes currently on Friday afternoons to Thursday afternoons, will now be sent to

Provost Marty Krauss for final approval, according to an e-mail to the Justice from Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Malcom Watson (PSYC), chair of the block scheduling committee. Watson and University Registrar Mark Hewitt presented the proposal to the Faculty Senate at the meeting on Thursday. Hickey wrote that the proposal passed by a large majority, but he was not sure of the exact numbers of the vote. “The faculty senate felt that Professor Watson and the Registrar, Mark Hewitt, made a convincing case for the new schedule,” he wrote. Watson wrote in his e-mail that Krauss will now make the final

Dancefest 2010

Tournament bound

Report released

Adagio Dance Company brought in other schools for its performance last week.

 The women’s soccer team qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988.

 The Centers and Institutes Review Committee released its recommendations.

Arts 20 For tips or info call (781) 736-6397

Let your voice be heard! Submit letters to the editor online at www.thejustice.org

INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 7

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

COMMENTARY 11

News 3 COPYRIGHT 2010 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.


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