On Jan. 23, Brandeis community members opened their inboxes to find a message from Interim President Arthur Levine ’70 titled “Plans for the Future.” This email begins by explaining that he presented “some ideas about Brandeis’ future” at the faculty meeting on Jan. 17. Levine explains that he “spoke to several hundred students and attended many student events since coming to Brandeis in November,” specifically thanking the individuals who he has shared meals with in the two University dining halls.

The next section of the email summarized some of the main takeaways that Levine noticed in his conversations with students, including wanting “Brandeis to remain a world class research and liberal arts university.” The students also expressed wanting Brandeis to remain a non-sectarian university while still following the values of its founders. Levine highlighted students’ want for “Brandeis to excel at preparing students to thrive in today and tomorrow's world.” Lastly, this section concluded with the statement “You wanted a refurbishment of the physical plant, a richer student life, and a greater focus on careers.”

Levine continued by highlighting a future Brandeis capital campaign “focusing on facilities, student life, faculty, academic programs, and graduate and undergraduate student support.” He explained that Brandeis alumnus Jordan Tannenbaum ’72 has come back to the University to lead Institutional Advancement as they prepare for the campaign. Tannenbaum’s work includes serving as Chief Development officer for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum from 2004 to 2024. During his time at the museum, Tannenbaum oversaw all of the fundraising activities, including a one billion dollar comprehensive campaign. 

Levine acknowledged that “the world is changing profoundly and rapidly as we move from a national, analog, industrial economy to a global, digital, knowledge economy-the world you will live in.” He followed up this statement by explaining that as a result, proposed “to the faculty that Brandeis leads higher education into this new era and create the programs all students will need to live successfully in the global, digital, knowledge economy.”

This proposal was broken into three different initiatives, the first “[expanding] Brandeis’ focus on career, life planning, and preparation for the future.” This initiative has many different aspects, including internships and work experiences. Additionally, Levine highlights a focus on “a suite of liberal arts and work-related competencies (skills and knowledge) in areas such as communication, data analytics, critical thinking, A.I. literacy and many more.” This programming will result in “students [being] awarded certifications or micro-credentials for mastering them.” In addition to receiving these certifications, students will receive a second transcript for both graduate schools and employers where they are reflected.

The second initiative Levine mentioned was rethinking the Brandeis Core in order to focus more on the skills that students need in the ever-changing world. The final initiative shown in the email is to reorganize the structure of the Brandeis schools, “creating four new units, reporting to the provost - 1) Arts, Humanities and Culture, 2) Science, Engineering and Technology, 3) Economics and Business and 4) Social Sciences and Social Policy.”

Levine believes that these initiatives “will differentiate Brandeis from every other university in the country. Brandeis will indeed be the university that reinvented liberal arts education.” He will be discussing these with students at a town hall in February that has yet to be scheduled.