New committee on the Rose met for the first time
CORRECTION APPENDED SEE BOTTOMThe Committee on the Future of the Rose Art Museum that was formed by Provost Marty Krauss last week held its first meeting last Thursday to discuss the charge of the committee, according to Prof. Detlev Suderow (IBS), a member of the committee.
The first meeting largely consisted of discussions revolving around the exact charge, or purpose, of the committee, Suderow said. "The task at a very generic level is the future of the Rose, but there is some disagreement over whether the future of the Rose is dependent or independent of the current fiscal realities. We are currently finalizing the ultimate responsibilities of the committee. When it is finalized on paper, it will be published to the larger Brandeis community," he said.
The meeting was not open to the press or the public. While Suderow said in an interview with the Justice that the committee recognized the need for transparency, the committee agreed not to discuss any specifics of their discussions from the first meeting in an effort to prevent any confusion and prevent conflicting messages.
"The committee is keenly aware that the Brandeis community needs to be updated on a regular basis. Transparency is very much on our minds. This is not a secret committee, but a committee of dedicated members looking at an extremely controversial issue. The committee agreed not to make any statements until we have agreed on those formal statements," he said.
Suderow hopes that a decision will be published soon but said he did not know when that would be. "When people do not know anything, they begin to speculate about what is going on," he explained. "The sooner the statement comes out, the better," he said.
While Suderow said the committee had not finalized the technicalities of the communications process, he said he expects the committee to follow the established procedure of publishing minutes for the public, which he said he will suggest at the next meeting.
Suderow also said the members of the committee represented a wide range of opinions about the Rose Art Museum which contributed to the delay of finalizing a decision about the specific task of the committee.
"The committee consists of people from the Fine Arts faculty and Roy Dawes, a member of the Rose Staff, as well as people from the business perspective," Suderow said, adding that "there are a wide range of opinions to sort through, but we will all do what is necessary to come out with a report to present to the Board of Trustees that reflects the considerate opinion of this wide-ranging committee. We will certainly agree to do the right thing for the University," Suderow said.
Prof. Jerry Samet (PHIL), the chair of the committee, wrote in a March 16 e-mail to the Justice that the committee's objective is to provide recommendations about the Rose Art Museum to the administration who will then make recommendations to the Board of Trustees.
"The committee will only make recommendations; it will not make final decisions. The broader Brandeis community will have an opportunity to digest and comment on the report, and the administration will ultimately make a recommendation to the board of trustees," Samet wrote, adding, "We'll try to figure out a reasonable timeline for our report at the first meeting."
"In my personal opinion, recommending that the University keep the museum open as a public museum will only be valid if we present other options," Suderow wrote in a March 16 e-mail to the Justice. "Just saying 'no' is not a solution," he said.
However, Samet wrote in a March 23 e-mail to the Justice that he would not be able to say "anything of substance" about the committee's first meeting.
Catherine McConnell '10, the undergraduate student representative on the committee, could not be reached for comment by press time.
Suderow said that while the committee agreed to try to formulate a report by the end of the semester, it will continue working beyond this semester if it does not fulfill that goal: "The committee agreed that we should not rush to form a proposal for the board of trustees, because this problem is too important to form a consensus, but that we should provide the larger community with a status report before the end of the semester."
If the committee is able to compile a proposal for the Board of Trustees by the end of the semester, Suderow said that he is unsure if it will change the University's decision to close the Rose as a public museum unless it presents alternative options of handling the fiscal crisis.
Correction: The article initially attributed a quotation to the wrong professor. The quote, "In my personal opinion, recommending that the University keep the museum open as a public museum will only be valid if we present other options ... Just saying 'no' is not a solution," was written by Prof. Detlev Suderow (IBS), not Prof. Jerry Samet (PHIL).
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