OAJ Hot Take: Where are Ron Liebowitz and Carol Fierke?
“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.” Macbeth. Act I, Scene IV.
The piece below is part of our weekly blog post series written by the Open-Air Journal team where we explore issues at Heller, current events, or whatever is presently on our minds.
At the beginning of the 2004 comedy “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” the legendary dodgeball coach Patches O'Houlihan provides a group of unathletic dodgeballers with the fundamentals of the game — dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.
Unfortunately, this credo has made its way from the “average Joe’s” on campus up to the Irving Presidential Enclave, home of the university’s administrative offices. During a Fall 2023 semester that has been rife with conflict and contention (both academic and otherwise), the five D's of dodgeball have proven ever useful those in charge of running Brandeis.
And still, despite controversial changes to the music department, proposed alterations to the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, and police violence on campus, President Ronald Liebowitz and Provost Carol Fierke have immured themselves in their ivory tower. Questions from students and faculty alike have been resisted with Olympic-level evasiveness.
For example, on October 31, just days after students and faculty discovered that campus administration might split up the Heller School and sell it for parts, the Finance and Administration leadership team hosted their annual town hall. Billed as “a wonderful opportunity to hear directly from some of our senior managers on a wide range of topics,” the university advertised the session would answer questions “submitted in advanced [sic] or during the town hall.” Upon arriving at the town hall, listeners were informed that speakers would only answer prescreened questions. At the meeting’s conclusion, listeners and attendees were thanked for attending, and out of “respect for everyone’s time,” the speakers would answer no questions.
Just over a week later, at the November 9 All-Heller Town Hall, the Interim Dean of the Heller School, Maria Madison, responded to a litany of queries about the potential closure of Heller. Attendees reacted to most answers with a mix of consternation and muffled groans (especially when the Dean replied that the Heller School needed to “build back better”). A packed Zinner Forum (which included three former deans) and dozens of Zoom attendees all listened to Interim Dean Madison answer questions from concerned students and faculty by herself. Dean Madison had no support from the true decision-makers on campus, as both President Liebowitz and Provost Fierke did not attend the meeting to address student and faculty concerns. Worse yet, students and faculty still had few answers about the potential liquidation of the Heller School.
Five days after the dissatisfying All-Heller Town Hall, Provost Carol Fierke then canceled the Educational Priorities Town Hall scheduled for November 17 which was supposed to be aimed at analyzing “the headwinds facing higher education today, followed by discussions on possible responses to these challenges” so that community members could “participate in other opportunities this week to discuss current events.” The “current events” Fierke was likely referring to was the protest made violent by police on the Great Lawn. It is likely Fierke did not want to have to answer questions that day about who or why police officers were called to campus, and why they used force against peaceful student protesters. She also would not have wanted to answer why she was working to suppress the free speech rights Louis Brandeis advocated for from the Supreme Court bench. Students, faculty, and staff alike are still waiting for the new town hall date.
Fierke’s strategy is very much in line with that of the university president. Ron Liebowitz’s signature moment of 2023 was publishing an op-ed in the Boston Globe describing how universities should handle antisemitism on college campuses. Later that day, he banned the Brandeis chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, both from behind his computer screen and without any public appearance afterwards. While I do think it would be unreasonable for him or the provost to hold a press conference every time something happens on campus, the President does owe students, faculty, staff, and alumni answers regarding why certain decisions are being made.
Per a recent poll by The Hoot, less than 11 percent of students approve of Brandeis’ Administration's response to recent on-campus events. He and the provost are not autocrats in a ruling party who govern by edict nor is this the Ancien Régime - they are administrators at a progressive university founded on Jewish values. Or so their mass emails say.
Connect with this creator: