By a narrow margin, the faculty at Brandeis University voted in favor of the motion of no confidence against its university president Ronald Liebowitz partly over his “excessive” handling of on-campus protesters.
In an email, Chair of the Brandeis Faculty Senate Prof. Jeffrey Lenowitz told faculty members Monday the motion passed with 159 votes in favor, 149 votes in opposition, and 26 abstentions. Lenowitz said this vote represented 76.4% of the faculty.
“There were ten more votes in favor than against,” Lenowitz wrote to Brandeis’ student paper “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 divided on this motion.”
The faculty’s “no confidence” vote could lead to President Ronald Liebowitz leaving his position. (Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
This vote will now be taken to the Board of Trustees, who will decide whether to remove Liebowitz from his position and who will replace him.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Brandeis University for comment.
The motion was first introduced on May 30 ahead of the 2024-2025 school year to discuss concerns about Liebowitz’s leadership over issues like “badly handled budget shortfalls, failures of fundraising” and what faculty referred to as “excessive responses to student protests.”
Brandeis University was one of multiple college campuses to be rocked by anti-Israel protesters over the Hamas terror attack against Israel last year. After protests grew nationwide, Brandeis, under Liebowitz’s leadership, chose to no longer recognize the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for its support for Hamas and the elimination of Israel.
About a month after the Oct. 7 terror attack, Liebowitz wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe saying student organizations “should lose all privileges” if they called for violence.
Brandeis University disbarred the Students for Justice in Palestine for its support of Hamas. (Getty Images)
“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. 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,” Liebowitz wrote.
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He added, “Contrary to the prevalence of the BDS movement on college campuses, Brandeis will pursue closer ties with Israeli academic and cultural institutions and will encourage more universities to follow suit.”
Brandeis University was one of the first universities to crack down on campus protests in 2023. (Shmuel Thaler/The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP)
Although a slim majority of the faculty appear to be dissatisfied with Liebowitz’s methods, Brandeis University was one of two colleges to receive an A grade over its handling of antisemitism and for promoting a safe environment for Jewish students, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card published in April.
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Fox News’ Megan Myers contributed to this report.