Thursday's faculty meeting began with a moment of silence and concluded with a heated discussion on the role of graduate programs in the forthcoming strategic plan.

After a tribute to and moment of silence for Prof. Emeritus John Lowenstein (BCHM), who passed away Nov. 3 from pancreatic cancer, discussion launched full force into broad plans, the achievements of various programs and professors and the current status of the strategic plan.

University President Frederick Lawrence presented the framework of the plan to the Board of Trustees at its most recent meeting on Nov. 27, and will present a final draft to the Board in January. University administrators began work on the plan early last fall.

"Not surprisingly ... much of the feedback from the board at the afternoon plenary session was that all seems well and good, but where's the pop, where's the fizz, where's the great, landscape-changing views?" said Lawrence at the faculty meeting. He said he saw their perspective, and said that it was a good thing to receive this kind of critical feedback. He said his method of approaching the board was "how we can build what we need to be in a sustainable, ongoing way, and let them push back and say, 'let's lift the ambitions even higher.'" Lawrence called them an "extremely engaged" Board of Trustees.

Addressing the financial plan for the University, Lawrence said that "we've reached a level of stability that lets us think more long-term going forward." However, this stability is largely based on "extensive borrowing from the future," he added. This includes borrowing from the endowment and not investing.

Prof. Sacha Nelson (BIO), a faculty representative to the Board, reported that the faculty perspective on the board meeting was the same as Lawrence's. Nelson said he was surprised to hear a lot of similarity between Board and faculty concerns. "There was a lot of concern on the part of the faculty over the lack of specific details, specific vision, and that was ... what the Board was saying as well. Is, as one Board member put it, 'tweaking the model' really sufficiently visionary to serve as the foundation for a capital campaign?"

However, Nelson added that Lawrence made a compelling case for the plan at the meeting, and that he argued that "fulfilling the promise" of a liberal arts education at a research university was, in fact, visionary.

He described a "feisty" discussion of the plan, in which one of the trustees urged the other representatives to garner concrete feedback from students. Overall, Nelson's impression of the Board was that "They seemed to really get it."

According to Nelson, feedback from the student representatives to the Board, Beneva Davies '14 and Jack Hait '14, was that the academic model we have now is what brought students to the University.

Over the next decade, the University will also address deferred maintenance on buildings and infrastructure. According to Lawrence at the faculty meeting, the current budget funds about $2.5 million a year in deferred maintenance, which he said was "not sufficient." The plan will build a "serious multiple of that number." As a part of the 10-year financial plan, tuition would hopefully increase less than in recent years, but the University should still expect some difficulty with financial aid and affordability, which "hardly makes us unique," said Lawrence. However, he emphasized that, "This is a plan that is not designed to make cuts in the academy."

The end of the plan projects surpluses, he said.

Sponsored faculty research is expected to maintain a "flat line," which Lawrence said was optimistic.

Conversation for the bulk of the rest of the faculty meeting turned to the role of graduate studies in the strategic plan, with Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Prof. Malcolm Watson (PSYC) moderating the discussion.

Provost Steve Goldstein '78 estimated that the student population at Brandeis is now approximately 40 percent graduate students, adding that there is "certainly not parity" in the resources for undergraduates and graduates.

"The growth of the master's programs has changed the dynamics of their ability to balance between education and scholarship," he said.

Faculty debated the need for such a large graduate program and what the appropriate size might be, with two prevalent topics being which programs might stay or go, and the revenue brought in by master's and doctoral programs.

Many nodded their heads in agreement with Prof. Len Saxe's (Heller) comment that, "My preference, in fact, would be a strategic plan that says 'we're going to have master's students because the world today needs people that are trained in a different way and we have a unique opportunity,' rather than, 'this is a way we can bring in revenue.'"

Lawrence also announced that the search for a new Senior Vice President of Communications is nearing an end, as they are "down to the last couple candidates." Lawrence said he has interviewed both, and is confident that they are both very good options to fill the position. All have "extensive University experience," he said.

Lawrence also recapped his recent travels to London and Israel, mentioning that he had met with a few potentially significant donors to the University.

Donations that have already materialized include $50,000 to renovate Laurie Theater in the Spingold Theater Center.

Director of the Rose Art Museum Chris Bedford addressed faculty with an update on plans for the museum, including strategies to "align" the Rose's exhibitions and programming with classroom curricula. Bedford also announced progress on plans to bring an outdoor sculpture installation to the area in front of the Rose, and showed the audience a sketch of a light installation that he had received from artist Chris Burden.