Campaign celebration brings Brandeisians together

Brandeis Stories

Campaign celebration brings Brandeisians together

By David Marino
Photography by Gaelen Morse
November 3, 2026

More than 100 Brandeis alumni, students, faculty and staff came together during Alumni & Family Weekend to celebrate The Brandeis Promise: From the Classroom to the Street, a comprehensive campaign to realize the university's bold plan to reinvent the liberal arts and prepare students to thrive in a world of constant change. The campaign was officially launched earlier in October.

The event on the Waltham campus invited all Brandeisians to take part in the campaign, which has already raised more than $500 million toward a fundraising goal of $750 million. The campaign is embracing six broad priorities: expanding student access and success; advancing academic excellence; driving research and innovation; enhancing career readiness and experiential learning; strengthening campus and connections; and honoring the university's founding values.

Brandeis undertakes the campaign at a time when "everything about higher ed is being questioned," said university President Arthur Levine as he addressed the full house at the Sherman Function Hall event.

Levine emphasized the core of what the Brandeis Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts entails, including the use of microcredentialing to prepare students for the workforce and reimagining the curriculum for a world marked by constant change and the rise of artificial intelligence.

"At Brandeis, we don't ask students to choose between a world-class liberal arts education and preparation for a world in which they are going to live and work," he said.

There was a lot to be excited about already, Levine said, including the best fundraising year in the university's history, a positive reception to the Brandeis Plan nationally and a 10-place jump in U.S. News & World Report university rankings.

A campaign video shown during the event helped illustrate the university's goals in the campaign, complete with action shots of research, sports, and other activities on campus interspersed with interviews with campus leaders and students.

Several attendees at the celebration expressed excitement at the public launch of the campaign and were impressed with what they saw in the video, including Edgar Ndjatou '06, president of the Brandeis Alumni Club of D.C.

"The campaign is phenomenal in how it's looking toward the future of higher education," Ndjatou said. "I think that students and alumni benefit so much from it, along with parents."

The student perspective on what the initiative is already bringing to campus came from Georgie Balogun, a senior studying chemistry and health: science, society, policy - and conducting research in the lab of Nobel Prize winner Michael Rosbash, Peter Gruber Endowed Chair in Neuroscience and professor of biology.

Balogun a Posse Scholar from Queens, NY, emphasized the multifaceted student life offered at Brandeis: beyond working in labs, she had the opportunity to participate in intramural sports and volunteer with the Waltham Group.

Her remarks also highlighted the continuity between Brandeis' current efforts helping students and the impact of past alumni.

"Though campus may look a bit different, you helped to create something special," she said. "And I'm fortunate enough to witness it and benefit from your legacy."

Brandeis Alumni Association President Amy Cohen '85 responded in kind.

"I'm grateful for those who have stepped forward today with their generosity to fulfill the promise of a Brandeis education for future generations," Cohen said.

Earlier in the evening, Brandeis a cappella group Starving Artists opened the event by performing Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," as well as the Brandeis Alma Mater. Their intricate harmonies were popular with the crowd, with President Levine joking that they were a difficult act to follow.