Moratorium_Letter_4.01.09

OPEN LETTER, APRIL 1, 2009

Dear President Reinharz and Provost Krauss,

We, the undersigned members of the Brandeis faculty, write in support of the important work of the Committee on the Future of the Rose Art Museum. We wish to ensure that the Committee has sufficient time to deliberate a full range of options regarding the future of the Rose Art Museum, and that possible recommendations not be precluded or rendered moot before those deliberations are completed.

We note with concern: (A) that the current exhibitions in the Rose Museum will close on May 17; (B) that no further exhibitions are being planned; (C) that students normally seeking to pre-enroll now for Fall internships at the Rose now have no such option, and that educational programming at the Rose is now in jeopardy; (D) the contracts of the director and key members of the Museum staff end on June 30, 2009. We are thus concerned that the Museum will be effectively closed as of June 30, 2009.

We therefore urge that you act to keep the Rose Art Museum open as a public art museum, with professional staffing, continuing exhibitions and active educational programs, until at least June 30, 2010.

Respectfully,

Mark Auslander (Anthropology) Markus Baenziger (Fine Arts) Debra Booth (Theater Arts) Marty Boykan (Music) Marc Brettler (NEJS) Bernadette Brooten (NEJS and WGS) Claudia Bucher (Fine Arts) Mary Baine Campbell (English and American Literature) Bulbul Chakraborty (Physics) Eric Chasalow (Music) Thomas Doherty (American Studies) Irina Dubrina (Russian) Helen Featherstone (Education) Gordie Fellman (Sociology) Elizabeth Ferry (Anthropology) Dian Fox (Romance Studies) Richard Gaskins (Legal Studies/American Studies) Michael T. Gilmore (English and American English) Maria Green (Heller) Donald Hindley (Politics) Peter Kalb (Fine Arts) Thomas King (English and American Literature) Jane Kamensky (History) Nina (Cornelia) Kammerer (Heller) Dmitry Kleinbock (Mathematics) Ann Koloski-Ostrow (Classics) Susan Lanser (English, Comparative Literature, and WGS) Susan Lichtman (Fine Arts) Harry Mairson (Computer Science) Sophia A. Malamud (Anthropology and Linguistics) James Mandrell (Romance Studies and WGS) Wayne Marshall (Music and AAAS) Janet McIntosh (Anthropology) Bob Meyer (Physics) Robin Miller (Russian and Comparative Literature) Paul Monsky (Mathematics) Janet Morrison (Theater Arts) Paul Morrison (English and American Literature) Leonard Muellner (Classics) James Olesen (Music) Eric Olson (Heller) Richard Parmentier (Anthropology) John Plotz (English and American Literature) David Powelstock (Russian Language and LIterature) James Pustejovsky (Computer Science) Laura Quinney (English and American Literature) Dirck Roosevelt (Education) Michael Rosbash (Biology) George Ross (Sociology and Politics) Daniel Ruberman (Mathematics) Ellen Schattschneider (Anthropology and WGS) Nancy Scott (Fine Arts) Dan Stepner (Music) Marion Smiley (Philosophy and WGS) Ramie Targoff (English and American Literature) Jonathan Unglaub (Fine Arts) Javier Urcid (Anthropology) Jennifer von Mayrhauser (Theatre Arts) John Wardle (Physics) Joseph Wardwell (Fine Arts) Hermann Wellenstein (Physics) Aida Wong (Fine Arts) Beverly Woodward (Philosophy/Sociology) Bernard Yack (Politics and HOID