Three staff members in the Office of Communications were let go as a result of restructuring last month that included the hiring of Bill Burger in the new position of associate vice president of communications.According to an e-mail to the Justice from Senior Vice President of Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully, "The Communications Department has been restructured so we can be better positioned to reach the long-term communications and marketing goals that we're developing for Brandeis. The changes are the result of an assessment I began when I arrived on campus in November."

As of March 17, Assistant Vice President of Communications Ken Gornstein, Director of Media Relations Dennis Nealon and Operations Supervisor Sossy Megerdichian are no longer employed by the University because of the reorganization.

Gully wrote that the restructuring is not yet complete, saying, "We expect to make at least one additional hire once we finalize our new priorities and that position will likely be used to improve communications within the campus community."

Gully selected Bill Burger to serve as the associate vice president of communications after speaking with students, staff, faculty, alumni and trustees about Brandeis' communications needs.

According to Gully's e-mail, a major result of the restructuring revolves around Burger's role in the office. He wrote, "The biggest change is that the [Burger] is managing the entire staff on a daily, hands on basis, and has an office in Usdan with the group." Gully explained that Burger will oversee the Office of Communications staff as a whole and interact with them directly on a daily basis, which marks a shift from the management structure that previously existed.



Burger began working at the University March 17, he said in an interview with the Justice. Burger worked for 14 years as an editor of Newsweek and has worked during the last 15 years in development organizations for a variety of companies. According to Burger, his varied experiences have given him "a combination of media and business and marketing background."

During his time at Brandeis so far, Burger has been meeting with staff, administrators, faculty and students "to start learning what some of the issues are and the needs of the University from all the perspectives that these people bring to the table." He also mentioned that he wants to better understand how students use University communication resources such as BrandeisNOW.

Burger would like to look into how the University can utilize the Internet in its future communications projects. He said, "I'm very interested in the Web and how we can make the best use of the Web to tell the Brandeis story.