What Brody's left behind

By:

Posted: 3/27/08

During his 12-year tenure, President Brody has overseen immense growth in the University's endowment, improved undergraduate education, worked to enhance student life and significantly increased security on campus and in the neighborhood.

All of his efforts have dramatically elevated Hopkins's stature nationally and internationally. He was the first Hopkins president in over 20 years to live on Homewood campus and arguably the most accessible president this university has seen. Several issues, however, have been neglected and these should be made priorities by Brody's successor.

First of all, Brody, the rest of the administration and the Board of Trustees should move towards full divestment from companies that do business with the Sudanese government. Hopkins must take a definitive stand when its money could potentially be fueling a government that is committing genocide upon its own people. For this reason it is unacceptable for Brody to skirt questions about Sudan divestment and call it a "non-issue." Hopkins must follow in the footsteps of the dozens of universities that have already divested - it is regrettable that Hopkins has not already done so.

In a related issue, the University must have more transparency regarding its endowment. Students, their families, alumni, faculty, staff and donors - as well as anyone interested in attending Hopkins - all deserve to know how the University's money is being allocated and invested. Most of our "peer" universities have taken it upon themselves to increase the transparency of their endowments. Hopkins would be more accountable for their decisions with increased transparency, which would foster a stronger relationship between the University and all those connected with it.

Furthermore, despite Brody's efforts to increase financial aid, he has not done enough to curb the University's skyrocketing tuition, room and board prices. Middle-class students have been hit hard by Hopkins's rising costs, as they often do not qualify for financial aid, yet scrape by to pay full tuition. The University has not done enough to address their needs. Tuition cannot continue to increase faster than the rate of inflation; if Hopkins must allocate more of its endowment toward keeping tuition down, then so be it. Brody has indeed been a prolific fundraiser, but he must now set the stage for his successor to focus on building endowment funds that can be used to make the Hopkins education more affordable. This should be the overarching goal of the next long-term fundraising campaign, because too many students are incurring astronomical debts that will take decades to pay off.

We are glad that Brody has shown an interest in reducing the University's footprint on the environment. However, we want to see the administration collaborate more with students and take more concrete steps towards becoming more environmentally friendly. Hopkins must recognize that environmental sustainability is a long-term, constantly evolving project, and one that is easily stymied by bureaucratic gridlock. Outsourcing the work of reducing our carbon footprint to aloof administrative committees will not do. The University must articulate far-reaching goals, and build a broad coalition of student support to achieve them.

Brody has done much in his 12 years at Hopkins; he is clearly capable of mobilizing different groups of people and convincing them of what must be accomplished for the sake of the University.

This page hopes that through the end of his term in December, Brody will reflect on what he has not yet accomplished and use all of the skills and resources at his disposal to ensure that his legacy is one of which we can all be proud. Brody may entering the twilight of his career, but he now has a rare opportunity to help shape the University's overarching priorities in the years to come. We hope he takes it.