Former Tufts VP resigns from Brandeis post

Former Tufts Vice President Mel Bernstein abruptly left his post as provost of Brandeis last month after less than two years on the job.

Little explanation for the departure was given, and both Bernstein and Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz have refused to talk to the media. The departure of an administrator in the middle of an academic year is unusual, though not unheard of, according to Brandeis Associate Vice President for University Affairs John Hose.

The community was informed in an e-mail from the President that said, "After much reflection, Dr. Bernstein has decided that his academic vision and goals are better suited to a different institution, and that both he and Brandeis University would be best served by his departure."

This e-mail came as a surprise to almost everyone at Brandeis.

"I hadn't noticed conflict -- but I'm not privy to all these meetings," said Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Michaele Whelan, who left Tufts for Brandeis a few months after Bernstein.

Faculty also said they had no idea what was happening until they received the e-mail and have since not been told anything. The few people at Brandeis willing to speak publicly about Bernstein's department say they did not see any major rifts between him and the faculty or administrators.

"Within the senior administration, my relationship with him was very positive," Hose said. "Among others with whom I work closely, I think he was well-received and well-liked. "There are well-liked people who come and go from universities just as there are disliked people who remain."

Bernstein was supposed to stay on at Brandeis as senior Vice President for Academic and Research Policy and a professor of chemistry. But he is not listed as teaching any class this semester and his office at Brandeis was cleared out within days.

It is likely that no one will ever know what went on between President Reinharz and Bernstein that caused the abrupt resignation. The e-mail was "intended as the essence of what's going to be said and no more," Hose said. "Because issues such as this are personnel matters, there are vast areas that the University wouldn't discuss about any employee in any circumstance."

Bernstein's main accomplishment in his short time at Brandeis was the development of new curricular initiatives in conjunction with the faculty. These proposals, which include the creation of interdisciplinary majors and minors such as global studies, creative writing, health sciences, society, and policy, and business, continue to be debated and put in place in Bernstein's absence.

"The fact that they're all continuing is a testimony to the fact that they emerged from the community itself," Whelan said.

Though Bernstein had a five-year contract with Brandeis, the provost is an employee-at-will, meaning that he can be asked to resign at anytime, according to former Brandeis Provost Irving Epstein, who preceded Bernstein. An intense conflict between the provost and president or board of trustees is one possibility for why a provost would step down, he said.

"Being unwilling to carry out an order one deems unreasonable, e.g. closing a school, might be another scenario, but there is no evidence for this in Dr. Bernstein's case," he said.

It is also not unusual for a new university administrator not to be a right fit for the school. An estimated 20 percent of all administrators last less than two years in the job, according to former Tufts provost Sol Gittleman.

"For a provost coming from outside the university, learning and adapting quickly to the Brandeis culture is another difficult challenge," Epstein said.

At Brandeis, Bernstein was coming into a well-established administration. Reinharz has served as president for the last ten years and was provost prior to that.

Bernstein served as vice president for arts, sciences, engineering, and technology at Tufts for ten years before he left for Brandeis. Prior to that, he was provost of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

His predecessor at Tufts suffered a similar fate upon leaving the University. Robert Rutberg left to become president of Lafayette College and lasted only two years in the position. His departure was partially related to discontent over his efforts to control athletics.

Bernstein was also not the only dean to leave Brandeis last month. Sophomore class dean Deborah Hahn resigned the same day he did, effective immediately. According to Brandeis personnel, the resignation was unrelated.