Two staff layoffs that otherwise would have occurred in Arts and Sciences are not going to happen because a little over one third of the faculty donated to a restricted charitable gift fund, according to Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe.The Faculty Senate proposed that Arts and Sciences faculty volunteer to take a 1-percent salary cut in order to prevent two to three other staff layoffs at last month's faculty meeting. It was suggested that some people might prefer to make a donation to a charitable fund rather than take a 1-percent pay cut. Jaffe explained, "In the end we decided to just do it as charitable contributions to a restricted Brandeis gift fund" because the 1-percent pay cut "turned out to be too complicated to implement."

"Some of us felt that given Brandeis' traditional, historical commitment to social justice, those faculty members whose jobs were secure might want to take a little bit of the burden for balancing the budget off the backs of staff members whose jobs aren't [secure]," Chair of the Faculty Senate Prof. William Flesch (ENG) wrote in an e-mail to the Justice in December.

Flesch, who wrote to the Justice that he planned to volunteer in the effort, explained at the Dec. 4 faculty meeting that "[the plan] would only go in effect if 30 percent of Arts and Sciences [faculty] would agree [to participate] conditionally."

"People were just given the opportunity to pledge a donation, but what we said was if we didn't get total donations which were the equivalent of 30 percent of the faculty donating 1 percent of their salary, which was about $90,000, that we would consider all the pledges void and give everybody their money back," Jaffe explained. "In the end, about a third of the faculty donated, and some staff donated as well."

University President Jehuda Reinharz said at the Dec. 4 faculty meeting that he would participate in the salary cut if the goal of 30 percent was reached. "Yes, I participated," he wrote in an e-mail to the Justice yesterday. "I think you should also know that many of us at Brandeis-senior administrators, staff, faculty, alumni and others-give regularly to the University on an annual basis. Personally, I would hope that everyone who has Brandeis's [sic] best interests at heart would choose to donate regularly in accordance with his or her capacity."

Prof. John Burt (ENG) was one faculty member who participated in the volunteer effort. "I didn't have to think about it," he wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

"I'm glad those two jobs were saved, but I wish we could have saved more," Burt wrote.

"I think it was great," Jaffe said. "I think it's great to be able to come together as a community and step up voluntarily to make a donation to reduce the impact. It was a very Brandesian thing to do, and it worked."

In the past few weeks, Brandeis has received national recognition for this proposal, including coverage by The New York Times. "I certainly think it's a good thing to have Brandeis acknowledged in the national press for its social conscience, since that's something that we emphasize as part of who we are," Jaffe said.

"The fiscal year 2010 decisions have been made," Jaffe said. "There's an implementation that now has to occur, and over the next few weeks people are going to be notified. The people who are being laid off will be notified over the next few weeks. Then we have to move on to FY2011, which is also a daunting situation that we haven't really solved yet."

However, the Special Faculty Advisory Committee, which was appointed by the provost to address the projected gap in the University's fiscal year 2009 and fiscal year 2010 operating budgets, helped Jaffe make the decision about the staff jobs. "I reviewed the whole list of layoffs with SFAC, who basically decided on what the layoffs would be and also just helped me decide which two positions we would save using the money from the funds, so it was not just me who was doing it," Jaffe said.