Brandeis President Steps Down Amid Budget Issues and Protests

Brandeis University (MA) said on Wednesday that its president of eight years, Ronald D. Liebowitz, will step down effective November 1. The announcement by the university’s board of trustees followed a vote of no confidence in Dr. Liebowitz by the faculty, which accused him of “damaging errors in judgment and poor leadership.” In taking the vote, members of the faculty had cited budget and fund-raising shortfalls as well as what they viewed as an overreaction to pro-Palestinian student activists last year. Enrollment at the university had declined by about 9 percent in the past five years. The faculty vote was adopted last week by a margin of only 10 votes, 159-149, and publicized on Tuesday, calling on the university’s board of trustees to “act.” His departure marks at least the fifth major university president who has stepped down due, at least in part, to campus conflict over the war in Gaza.