Brandeis Denies Turmoil Over Menu

Officials at Branders University this week denied reports that the addition of pork and shellfish to the campus cuisine has cost the school millions of dollars in alumni support and led to widespread student unrest at the predominantly Jewish school.

School officials denied a report in The Justice, Brandeis' student newspaper, that the university has already lost about $3 million in alumni fundraising because of the food change, which some perceive as a sign of the university's "de-Judaization."

According to the student newspaper, an unnamed "senior fundraiser" said that the university has lost millions of dollars because, as a result of the pork and shellfish, it was written out of the wills of at least two potential major donors.

But the director of Brandeis's "Annual Giving" program and interim head of alumni relations. Dr. Michael Hammerschmidt, yesterday said that the menu change has had no negative effect.

"There has been no $3 million dollar loss as the Justice claims," he said. Hammersehmidt added that "the effect on giving to Brandeis has been minimal."

According to Hammerschmidt, fundraising has actually risen this year in the school's alumni "phone-a-thon." He said that less than 2 percent of alumni contacted refused to donate money because of the policy, and 99 percent of the angry letters his office has received are from non-donors.

He also said The Justice was aware of the increase in this year's fundraising when it published its articles but refused to cite them.

Only a small group of people "consider the addition of pork and shellfish an issue," said Sally Riggs, a spokesman for Brandeis's president. She said she was unaware of Brandeis having been excluded from almuni wills on account of the cuisine change.

Orthodox Jews on campus were not protesting the meal change, Hammerschmidt said, because "they have never really considered Brandeis totally kosher in the first place. We've always served cheeseburgers in our non-kosher dining hall."

Brandeis introduced pork and shellfish in one of the university's two dining halls this September in an attempt to "establish an international kitchen facility which will better serve Asian and other ethnic and religious groups' preferential tastes," according to a report by the committee which approved the change.

"Many people don't understand that Brandeis is not a religious institution," Riggs said. Though it has strong ties to Judaism, Brandeis is a non-sectarian university, she said.

Officials said the university still caters to the needs of kosher diners, who do not eat pork and shellfish because it contradicts the dietary laws set forth in the Bible.