Faculty pass no-confidence motion against Brandeis president, cite 'excessive responses to student protests'
The faculty of Brandeis University recently voted in favor of a 'no-confidence' regarding the job performance of university president Ronald Liebowitz.
One of the primary objections to his performance included 'excessive responses to student protests' in regard to anti-Israel demonstrations.
The faculty of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts recently voted in favor of a “no-confidence” regarding the job performance of university president Ronald Liebowitz, with the motion objecting to his cracking down on anti-Israel protests.
The motion, brought forward by the faculty senate in May, blamed Liebowitz for “badly handled budget shortfall,” “ failures of fundraising,” as well as “excessive responses to student protests,” among other accusations.
Liebowitz also wrote an op-ed in The Boston Globe shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks against Israel and took a strong stance against anti-Semitism, stressing that Brandeis would not endorse anti-Israel student protests.
“Most urgently, in this twilight zone moment when students and faculty seem to be enjoying their freedom to express grotesque language about Jews, Jewish life, and the Jewish state, Brandeis will uphold free speech rightly understood,” Liebowitz wrote. “Universities cannot stop hate speech, but they can stop paying for it. Brandeis will ensure that groups that receive privileges through their affiliations with the university, including using its name, will lose their affiliations and privileges when they spew hate.”
John Plotz, a professor of English at Brandeis who favored the no-confidence motion, told The Justice that he objected to Liebowitz “narrow conception of [Brandeis’] identity” and his alleged opposition to free expression.
“Over the last eight years President Liebowitz shut down the normal channels of communication that allow staff, students and faculty to air their views and contribute their expertise where needed,” Plotz said. “Brandeis has a long proud history as a cosmopolitan and nonsectarian university, but the current President’s narrow conception of our identity has weakened our core pedagogical and scholarly mission.”
Jeffrey Lenowitz, the chair of Brandeis’ faculty senate, noted that the motion passed by a vote of 159-149, which he optimistically viewed as an indication that Brandeis’ faculty favor free and open discussions and care for the university’s future.
”The motion of no confidence passed by ten votes,” Lenowitz told The Justice. “This reveals what our multiple faculty conversations and debates on it made clear: while faculty are united in their care for Brandeis and their great desire for it to flourish, they are closely divided on this motion.”
With the measure having passed the faculty senate, Brandeis’ board of trustees will reportedly weigh the no-confidence motion and decide whether to remove Liebowitz from his post as president.
Campus Reform has reached out to Brandeis University for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.