Unrestricted Support in the Age of COVID

by Abigail Klingbeil
Because of the pandemic, Sandy Lakoff ’53 decided to establish a gift at Brandeis earlier than he originally intended, to help it address the coronavirus-related instability and change every university is facing.

Lakoff, the Edward A. Dickson Professor Emeritus of Political Science at UC San Diego, established an estimated $2 million charitable gift annuity at Brandeis in May. The gift is unrestricted, meaning the university can use it for its most-pressing needs (Lakoff has given President Ron Liebowitz a “wish list,” which the president can follow at his discretion).

“As an academic myself, I don’t like the idea of tying the university’s hands,” Lakoff says.

A member of Brandeis’ second graduating class, Lakoff credits Brandeis with his career success, reporting he had “a very fulfilling, exciting college experience.” He majored in politics and served as an editor of The Justice. He recalls the distinguished visitors who came to campus: “Justices Douglas and Frankfurter lectured on the Constitution. David Ben-Gurion spoke on the founding of Israel. A poetry series meant weekends with W.H. Auden and Dylan Thomas. Leonard Bernstein mesmerized us with Mahler and led the thrilling American premiere of ‘The Threepenny Opera’ and his own ‘Trouble in Tahiti.’”

Originally, Lakoff didn’t intend to become an academic. “I was thinking about a career in journalism,” he says. “But the Brandeis faculty was so good they really opened my eyes, especially to the social sciences.”

He went on to earn a PhD in political science at Harvard and founded UCSD’s political science department in 1975. Though he’s retired, he’s still teaching UCSD adult-education lectures over Zoom. He has written or edited more than a dozen books, including “Democracy: History, Theory, Practice” (1997) and “Max Lerner: Pilgrim in the Promised Land” (1998), about the renowned journalist who became a Brandeis faculty member.

Today, Lakoff is a member of the Brandeis Board of Fellows. He has hosted Faculty in the Field events, and has returned to campus to speak at Alumni College and a Media Reunion for former Justice writers and editors.

A former university president who’s a friend of Lakoff once said to him, “Of all the universities in the country, none has achieved as much as Brandeis.”

Lakoff agrees. “Brandeis has managed to maintain a small-college feel and become a major research university, and that’s quite a remarkable feat,” he says. “The university has made tremendous strides over the years, and I simply want to see it flourish.”