"We can learn a great deal from colleges in this area," Sachar says. "We have always been able to get counsel and the benefit of their experience."
One of the most successful of the new University's policies has been its attempt to maintain an approximate eight-to-one ratio of students to faculty. Right now there are 472 students and 54 teachers. With planned expansion of the student body, the teaching community will also grow. Twenty new men joined this fall.
The administration hopes to get at least one outstanding man in each field. This latter policy has already brought Max Lerner to the Social Sciences, Albert Leon Guerard and Ludwig Lewisohn to Comparative Literature, and Irving Fine to Music. Brandeis got chemist Saul G. Cohen from Harvard in line with its program to get a base of good young instructors for all of its departments.
Although the university has been operating only three years, and has thus never had a senior class, there are already a great many campus organizations. A Student Union, with officers elected from each class, acts as a student government, planning social program and aiding other groups. There is The Justice, the university newspaper, and The Turret, a literary magazine. The Newman Club, a Catholic group, is very active and will be host to all other Newman Clubs in New England this fall.
The fact that Brandeis is a coeducational institution certainly does not hurt students' social life. Most of the on campus dances and parties--or just afternoon post-class bull sessions--take place in the dormitory common rooms, a system closely approaching Harvard's.
About one-fourth of Brandeis' expansion program is already started. Construction is in progress on new dormitories and an athletic plant; by next year the college expects to increase its incoming class to 300 students.
The future plans also call for a new library (the present one has 40,000 books), several college buildings, and the establishment of a faculty of medical sciences, law, and public, business, and social service administration. The total cost of the project is estimated at $22,665,000.
Brandeis' fund-raising system, which will help meet this bill, has three divisions. The main costs, building expenses, will be paid for by donors on the list of the United Jewish. Appeal, the Agency for Jewish Charities in this country. Members of the University Associates group, who pay $100 per year, add an additional $700,000 each year to meet maintenance expenses. The National Women's Committee collects $5 per member and donates its funds toward support of the library. A modest endowment fund is being set up and Sachar expects it really to grow as soon as the school has an organized alumni.
Scenic Graduate Center
When the building program is completed, Brandeis, which started out with a castle-like structure as its main building, will look almost like the Harvard Graduate Center sprawled over tree-covered hills. The architects behind the "functional" planning are Saarinen, Saarinen and Associates.
One of Brandeis' best divisions will probably be its School of Music, according to Sachar. This school, so far only in the paper stage, will be developed under the guidance of Serge Koussevitsky, ex-director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein. A fund-raising group that calls itself the "Friends of the School of Music" already has formed to give the music division its start.
The 800 undergraduates who will be attending Brandeis when the College operates at full strength in 1952 will represent all parts of the nation and several foreign countries, though about one-half of the student body will come from New England and New York.
Diversification: No Filter
We don't ask for a youngster's picture, or for his religion, or for his mother's name," Sachar said, "but we're confident that we can get diversification without any artificial filters. It will become increasingly easier as the pool of students we have to draw on grows."
To get special talent, both athletic and scholarly, to come to Brandeis, the Admissions Office carries on a policy of "dignified recruitment" which is bolstered by 60 or 70 scholarships.
"We are determined to do well in each thing we start," Sachar said. "This school is in the American tradition . . . and therefore we hope to get students competent in the field of sports. We intend to have neither a Notre Dame nor a Chicago. We don't think that a student's athletic ability should be held against him."