Rights in the News: All Eyes on Brandeis

The atmosphere of uncertainty at Brandeis University—which faces a looming budgetary crisis, falling applications, and a plummeting endowment—has been brought to a fever pitch by President Jehuda Reinharz's botched announcement of the closing of the university's prestigious Rose Art Museum. Rasky Baerlein, the public relations firm recently retained by Reinharz to mitigate (among other things) the Rose fallout, has its work cut out.

Amidst the turmoil over the Rose—which has been scrutinized throughout the collegiate, regional, national and, indeed, international press—FIRE has continued to goad Reinharz and the Brandeis administration to end once and for all the ongoing injustices it has wrought against Professor Donald Hindley, and in doing so begin to restore the long-broken trust of the Brandeis community. This week, FIRE was given no fewer than four separate forums to do so, and used them to great effect:

• In The Huffington Post, Greg seizes on the comparative lack of outrage spawned by Hindley's abhorrent treatment in light of the floodgates of coverage that the Rose closing has opened.
• The Justice, a student newspaper at Brandeis, features a guest editorial by Adam, in which he scrupulously lays out how Brandeis' handling of Hindley's case has tainted the administration's ability to enjoy the campus's trust.
• Minding the Campus features an essay jointly penned by Will and Harvey, giving yet another devastating account of Hindley's case and the threat it poses to the University's long-term health.
• Yesterday's issue of The Brandeis Hoot, another student newspaper at Brandeis, prominently features an ad from FIRE drawing stark attention to the university's free speech crisis.

While much of the higher education-related press has been consumed with Brandeis' Rose debacle, our recent call for applications for the Justice Robert H. Jackson Legal Fellowship has not gone unnoticed, to our great delight. Thanks go to Eugene Volokh—who generously makes an exception to The Volokh Conspiracy's usual policy in order to help spread word of the opportunity to his readers—and to Robert VerBruggen at Phi Beta Cons. FIRE is happy to have such endorsements of this young but essential aspect of our mission.