In 1948, Jews across America banded together to raise funds for Brandeis University, named after Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. At the time, most American universities were affiliated with sects of Christianity, and many allotted only a small number of slots for Jewish students.

“What we did back in the ’40s was a radical concept,” Eitan Marks, special assistant to the president at Brandeis University, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “We said higher education should be for everyone, not just the elite, not just the privileged, not just men, not just white people, but anyone who wanted access to higher learning… That was what we contributed to the landscape in 1948, and what we’re contributing to the landscape today is a renewal of the liberal arts education for the modern age.”

His optimistic outlook about this “renewal” — which follows a period of hard financial times for Brandeis — is one shared by the vast majority of staff at the institution. In March, 87% of faculty voted for the fully implemented restructuring, which is being presented at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday. The high spirits radiating through the campus starkly contrast with the views most employees held of the university’s management only one year prior.

Brandeis, like most American colleges and universities, has struggled post-pandemic with low enrollment, rising administration costs and high tuition. Problems exacerbated for higher education institutions after the Trump administration set itself on defunding colleges under the premise of combating antisemitism and left-wing politics. Just last May, Brandeis laid off 60 employees, and in the fall, Brandeis President Ronald Liebowitz resigned after faculty voted that they had no confidence in his leadership, specifically pointing to frustration with his budgeting, fundraising and response to campus protests against Israel.

Liebowitz’s replacement, Arthur Levine, a former president of Teachers College at Columbia University, has proved a much more popular leader, according to Brandeis faculty members, with many affectionately calling the reorganization “Arthur’s vision.”

Getting 87% of university faculty to agree on anything is amazing, Jeffrey Lenowitz, the Meyer and W. Walter Jaffe associate professor of politics and chair of the faculty senate, told eJP. “We spend all day reading journal articles and books and finding problems with other people’s arguments.”

The previous university structure included three core schools: a school for arts and sciences, which served graduate and undergraduate students; a school of business and a school for social policy, both serving graduate students. The restructuring creates four core schools that feature both undergraduate and graduate programs: the School of Arts, Humanities and Culture; the School of Business and Economics; the School of Science, Engineering and Technology; and the School of Social Sciences and Social Policy.

The goal is to have overlap between schools and between undergraduate and graduate programs, with students able to take certain introductory master’s classes that will count towards both their undergraduate degree and a future master’s degree.

Programs with lower enrollment are being reviewed with the possibility of merging with other programs. “We are trying to look at how we can continue to offer as many of the things that we currently offer for our students, but doing it in a slightly different way in some cases,” Carol Fierke, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, told eJP. For instance, the school for social policy and the school of business each offered MBAs, but those programs are now merged. Courses will also be shared across majors, so one class may fill multiple needs. Fierke does not anticipate changes will lead to firings, though the university has shifted away from depending on adjunct professors, prioritizing long-term faculty.  

“We didn’t do this because of finances,” Fierke said. “We did this because we thought that this was a more exciting way to organize the institution.” But she acknowledges that “we are also hoping that by bringing together some different disciplines, that they will find ways to share courses that are more exciting and possibly could decrease cost.”

As a way to better prepare students for careers, schools will have increased focus on internships and research, with undergrads working side to side with grad students in the university labs, something that has always happened but will now happen more.

The School of Business and Economics launched two new majors during the restructuring: “quantitative economics” and “philosophy, politics and economics,” which bridges schools with students taking classes in philosophy and politics from other departments.

“Our goal is that having these new and interesting majors will attract more students to Brandeis, and it’ll give opportunities to our existing students to branch out in different areas,” Linda Bui, dean of the School of Business and Economics, told eJP. The school also hopes to launch a minor in sports analytics, which would be an opportunity to engage “students who wouldn’t necessarily think about economics and business into entering into this area.”

When a major is added to a school, it causes ripple effects, Susan Birren, dean of the School of Science, told eJP. Her school is adding an engineering major.

“Everything changes in science,” she said. “This bringing in of new engineering faculty gives us the opportunity to really open up some new areas of research and depending upon who I talk to and what conversations I have, that means that my laboratory will be bringing in new techniques, will be bringing in new ideas, that students will be doing new things. There’s nothing static about any of this. It’s all about not only recognizing that change happens, that change is inevitable and not being afraid of it.”

For the first time, undergraduates will be able to take classes in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, a graduate program within the School of Social Sciences and Social Policy that allows students to study with leading policy analysts. “This brings undergraduate students much closer to that policy process than they have been in the past,” Sara Shostak, dean of Social Sciences and Social Policy told eJP.

Students will hopefully not notice major changes, Fierke said, but will simply view the university “as one Brandeis.”

The reason staff overwhelmingly supported the changes is that they were involved in the planning, Lenowitz said. “It’s hard to find [an employee] in another university that isn’t going through lots of changes at their university, but [the changes are] usually quite aggressively top down. The way that we’ve done it at Brandeis has been quite consultative, with engaging with faculty quite deliberative, from the moment Arthur got here. It’s something to be proud of, that we are being treated as partners in reshaping the university going forward in a way that it seems quite unique.”

The reorganization was proposed by at the end of January, new staff positions including two new roles — vice provost for undergraduate affairs and vice provost for graduate affairs — were announced in May and the reorganization occurred on July 1.

Future planned changes in “Arthur’s vision” include an improved career center, which “is something that Brandeis has perhaps lagged behind some of the other schools,” Fierke said, and a revised core curriculum set to launch next fall that will focus on “micro-credentials,” which are sought after in the employment world, such as communication and leadership skills. Additionally, the university is fundraising for a potential Center for Jewish Life in partnership with Hillel. The historically Jewish school has never had a physical building focused strictly on Jewish life on campus.

“You can be an undergraduate at Brandeis and work in a lab with a Nobel-winning professor,” Marks, who graduated from Brandeis in 2024, said. “I don’t think you can do that anywhere else.” His undergrad thesis was titled “Building Brandeis: A Jewish-American Movement,” and today he is proud to be part of the movement that began in the 1940s to offer a Jewish contribution to American higher education. This reinvention is the next step, he said, and it should inspire others. 

“I see shutting down programs at BU, at MIT, at Harvard, all these other schools, and we’re the only ones who have a plan,” he said. “We’re the only ones with a plan to move higher-ed forward, not just for us, but for the whole higher education project.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified who had voted in favor of the plan.