READER COMMENTARY: Admins used poor judgment for Rose

By:

Posted: 5/19/09

In response to your feature "A history of controversy" (April 28 issue): Ms. Fineman has written an excellent article highlighting the importance of an honest, open and interactive process when a transition of a great institutional resource is under consideration and the unique educational opportunities of a bona fide art museum on campus. In contrast, the administration has exhibited the most incomprehensible and reprehensible constellation of behaviors from secretive deliberations to fraudulent and obfuscatory public responses. In light of a seriously depressed art market and a multiplicity of other options for funding Brandeis' expansion, no one is fooled by this transparent if not criminal attempt to transfer the collection to the benefit of unnamed private sources. The result has been a destruction of donor confidence in Brandeis as a whole and an ongoing stain on the reputation and judgment of the faculty and trustees.

-Dennis J. Solomon

Cambridge, Mass.