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In the midst of heavy criticism of the administration, distress over the impending closing of the Rose Art Museum, and various protest events, it is easy to forget one important and positive development in the budget crisis saga – the Brandeis Plans wiki. The wiki, which can be found at wiki.cs.brandeis.edu/faculty/index.php?title=Main_Page, is an outlet for any member of the Brandeis community from graduate students to custodial staff to share in a giant brainstorm.

Topics include the pros and cons of a business major, the possibility of more courses taught by ‘all but dissertation’ doctoral candidates, the elimination of SAT scores in the admissions process, and a number of topics dedicated to the summer semester proposal.

When reading the various entries, it is clear that the poster has given extensive thought to the various plans. Indeed, the wiki shows that Brandeis faculty, staff, and students are not just interested in complaining – they are actually interested in offering thoughtful critiques of proposed plans, and sharing innovative ideas of their own construction.

The wiki should be taken as proof by President Jehuda Reinharz and the rest of the administration that faculty, staff, and students do not desire a voice in the process of reconciling a deficit budget to simply make noise. While not every plan posted to the site will be feasible, effective, or even intelligible, it is our fervent hope that the work so many have already put into the wiki does not get lost in the internet abyss. The Brandeis Plans wiki should be bookmarked by every administrator as a source for new ideas and for thinking more deeply about their own.

A university is a great gathering of brilliant minds from the broadest of backgrounds. And it is the exchange of ideas between these diverse minds which makes our campus so special. Whether our meetings of the mind happen in the campus center or on the web, let us not allow our greatest resource go to waste.