Over the summer, Brandeis University quietly terminated the Office of Sustainability, calling into question both current and future sustainability initiatives at the University.

In an Aug. 20 message posted to the Campus Planning and Operations website, Vice President of Campus Planning and Operations Lois Stanley wrote, “Our Sustainability Office has been eliminated unfortunately,” but promised that “sustainability standards and practices will continue through the ongoing efforts of all division departments.” Stanley did not provide an explanation for why the office was eliminated and how the decision was made, nor was the decision communicated to the larger Brandeis community via email.

This decision follows the departure of the University’s former Director of Sustainability, Mary Fischer. Fischer left the role in September 2023, and what followed was an arduous and fruitless search for her replacement. Fischer’s departure also resulted in the elimination of the Brandeis Sustainability Ambassadors Program, which involved a group of students who assisted Fischer with various sustainability initiatives.

In an Oct. 23, 2023 email correspondence with The Justice about Fischer’s departure, Stanley wrote, “We are looking to replace [Fischer] and I expect that the recruitment will take another few months. My hope is to have a new lead for sustainability in the spring semester.”

The administration made good progress on the hiring process for a period of time. Vivienne Scott ’26, who serves as the Director of Sustainability on Student Union, was a student representative involved in the search process. In an interview with The Justice on Sept. 16, Scott shared that she had been recommended to sit in on candidate interviews as a student representative by former Student Union President Noah Risley ’24. According to Scott, she was part of the interviewing process for three candidates that began in the beginning of February 2024. 

In March 2024, however, the administration paused the search. The Justice obtained an email from Vice President of Finance & Administration Stew Uretsky from Apr. 4 confirming that the University was “temporarily pausing on the hiring of this position while we address the University’s financial challenges.”

This decision came at the time that President Ronald Liebowitz sent a message to the community titled “Planning for Brandeis’ Long-Term Sustainability.” The email details Brandeis’ financial challenges, which have resulted in a projected $2 million budget deficit and over 60 layoffs. Relevantly, the email called for a hiring freeze, which meant that the search process for the new Director of Sustainability was put on hold.

In response, students from Prof. Sabine von Mering’s (GEC) ecofeminism course created a petition to pressure administration to “prioritize the hiring process as an urgent matter.” As of the time of publication, the petition, which was started on April 4, has 58 signatures, 42 short of its 100 signature goal. 

The elimination of the Office of Sustainability leaves many sustainability initiatives in unclear terms and poses a significant issue to the University both in the long and short term. With no staff member to oversee sustainability efforts, many longer-term projects that would have greatly contributed to decarbonizing Brandeis’ infrastructure have been left unfinished. Students interested in decreasing Brandeis’ carbon footprint or taking on other sustainability initiatives no longer have the support of a dedicated staff member either.

For instance, Vision 2030, a climate action plan from 2020 created by President Liebowitz’s Campus Sustainability Task Force, is at a standstill. Formed in 2019, this task force was co-chaired by Mary Fischer and von Mering. According to Liebowitz’s announcement of the task force, it was responsible for updating the University’s 2016 Climate Action Plan, creating a new set of best practices for new buildings and renovations and recommending further actions to implement on campus. 

The COVID-19 pandemic ultimately delayed the time frame for reviewing the task force’s recommendations. In an address from May 21, 2021, President Liebowitz assured the community that despite the delays, “the Office of Sustainability has already begun to move forward with several of the task force’s recommendations.” He highlighted the formation of a new Sustainability Committee in Dec. 2021, the reduction in the carbon footprint of food purchases, the implementation of the task force’s new green building standards, as well as the creation of a carbon mitigation plan. 

The 2022-23 academic year was also the last year that the Office of Sustainability was active before Fischer’s departure. The office was involved in organizing intensive programming for the Year of Climate Action, which aimed to “deepen [the community’s] understanding of climate change as a social justice issue.” For the Year of Climate Action, the University sponsored a number of lectures related to climate, introduced new course offerings incorporating various climate-related topics and organized numerous co-curricular activities. These activities included a Caterpillar Lab, as well as a puppet-making and clothing swap event hosted by the Department of Theater Arts. 

Besides leaving the status of many sustainability projects in uncertain terms, the elimination of the Office of Sustainability also raises questions about how the University plans to commit to advancing sustainability in the future. 

The carbon footprint of the planned new residence hall is one such example. Stanley wrote in her announcement of the elimination of the Office of Sustainability that “the new residence hall is being designed to Passive House energy standards.” Passive House is a building certification awarded to construction projects that prioritize proper insulation, natural light and efficient Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning systems that reduce energy usage.

In an interview with The Justice on Sept. 12, Prof. Sally Warner (ENVS) voiced her concerns about these statements. “They [the administration] say, ‘oh, we’re going to try to achieve these standards,’” she said, “but without someone in a dedicated role who understands sustainability … to push for that, it will be so easy for the administration to make decisions around the bottom line of construction, instead of life cycle operating costs.” 

Even before its elimination, the Office of Sustainability struggled to find ways to uphold long-term sustainability initiatives. For the entirety of her eight years at the University, Fischer was the only official staff member in the office, in addition to the eight student Sustainability Ambassadors who worked with her part-time. 

In a Sept. 12 interview, Dina Millerman ’25, a former Sustainability Ambassador, said, “I think that because it was just [Fischer], it was hard to focus on a big institutional change and much easier to target students.” Millerman explained that her work as a Sustainability Ambassador mostly consisted of tabling to educate community members on sustainable habits like proper composting and recycling methods, how to conserve energy when doing laundry and eating less meat. “With just [Fischer] and a few students, we could only do so much.”

Without a formal office in place, the responsibility to advance sustainability at Brandeis falls back on students. Student Union is hoping to lead the charge on this through their oversight of the Campus Sustainability Fund, a $55,000 fund that provides financial support for student-led projects that seek to improve sustainability at Brandeis. Last spring, through the Sustainability Fund, students and Prof. Colleen Hitchcock (BIOL) built a 35 square meter microforest between South Street and the Slosberg Music Center, using plants sourced from local nurseries.

Previously known as the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, the fund was once managed by the Brandeis Sustainability Committee, which Fischer was a part of. The CSF was moved under Student Union’s jurisdiction in 2023 as a result of controversy over the degree of student involvement in previous years’ administration of the fund. 

Student Union President Rani Balakrishna ’25 told The Justice in a Sept. 16 interview that under Fischer’s jurisdiction, there were “unnecessary vetoes” of project proposals submitted to the fund’s board. Former Student Union Senator Eamonn Golden ’24 also stated in an April 25, 2023 article published in The Justice that allowing the Brandeis Sustainability Committee to review proposals and giving staff members like Fischer voting power on the Committee caused funds to be used for purchases that only benefitted facilities, rather than the student body.

For the upcoming year, current Student Union Director of Sustainability, Scott, emphasized that Student Union will be working closely with Students for Environmental Action to support member projects that advance sustainability at Brandeis.

However, not everyone is convinced that reduced faculty oversight of the Campus Sustainability Fund is a good idea. Warner shared with The Justice, “It was the student government’s decision two years ago to pull [Fischer] out of [administering the fund] … But I don’t think that fund got spent last year. And if I were a student, I’d be really pissed that I’m paying the student fee that’s supposed to go to campus sustainability, and it’s not being used in that way.” The Justice could not independently corroborate Warner’s claims. 

Scott emphasized that she believes everyone who is elected to oversee the Campus Sustainability Fund is “capable,” and that it makes “more sense that [the fund] is student-run.”

Sustainability-focused clubs and organizations entirely run by students also have had limited success advancing sustainability in recent years. Currently, Students for Environmental Action and the Brandeis Veg Club are the only clubs dedicated to environmental and climate initiatives, along with Waltham Group Symbiosis. Organizations and initiatives that have ceased to exist in recent years include Brandeis Climate Justice, Re:wild Brandeis, as well as a rooftop garden led by the now defunct Farmers Club. 

Student opinion on the necessity and scope of the Director of Sustainability role varies. 

Scott believes an ideal administrative member would play more of a supportive role to student endeavors. Balakrishna also pointed to the necessity of someone like Fischer to advance sustainability efforts, while centering student desires: “With the vacancy of this role, there is a lot more that falls on students, and while I do love that the work is student-centered, I don’t think that 100% of the burden should fall on students.”

Leo Zhang ’25, co-president of Students for Environmental Action, emphasized that having someone like Fischer and an Office of Sustainability is crucial to accomplishing larger-scale infrastructure-based projects through facilitating communication to higher levels of administration. 

“This is a time now where we do need admin for us to have better communication with people like Ron [Liebowitz] and Stew Uretsky,” he told The Justice in a Sept. 13 interview. “I think we’ve been talking about the [Campus Sustainability Fund] as our main connection to admin, but there’s so much more than the CSF that we can talk about with admin.”

Warner underscored the power of student voice in reinstating the Office of Sustainability, and why she believes the role is crucial. “The environment can’t advocate for itself. I feel like sustainability needs a person who is dedicated to that role to make sure that it makes its way onto the table.”