--------- Forwarded message ---------From: Irving Epstein <epstein@brandeis.edu>
Date: Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 7:54 PM
Subject: NEASC standards re faculty
To: bbrittingham@neasc.org
Cc: Susan Birren <birren@brandeis.edu>, Eric Chasalow <chasalow@brandeis.edu>, Susan
Curnan <curnan@brandeis.edu>
Dear Dr. Brittingham,
We are writing in support of the letter you recently received from the Brandeis University
Faculty Senate expressing concern with the changes in the NEASC standards regarding
faculty. Specifically, we have concerns with the loss of “Faculty” as a standard and the fact
that it is subsumed in the standard on “Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship”. This change
de-emphasizes the centrality of faculty as scholars and educators at research universities.
We understand that the NEASC standards need to cover a wide variety of different types of
institutions and emerging forms of teaching and learning. Brandeis is committed to
innovation in both teaching and research. However, at highly selective research
universities, faculty continue to play a central role in driving that innovation, and the loss of
specific recognition in the title and articulation of the standards leads to a perception of a
devaluation of the faculty role. We therefore urge you to maintain a specific “Faculty”
standard to emphasize the continuing role of faculty in driving the high research and
educational standards at many institutions like ours. We recognize the emerging roles for
academic staff in contributing to that excellence at some institutions, but see this as an
independent function that need not be articulated within a single standard.
Sincerely,
Irving Epstein, Provost
Susan Birren, Dean of Arts and Sciences
Eric Chasalow, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences