Former Brandeis grad student Jeff Hayes finds it hard to get upset about the Rose Art Museum when the museum is in a lousy location and the school is in financial trouble. But efforts by Gardner trustees to modify Mrs. Jack's will are another matter, he writes:

OH MY GOD ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????

Isabella Stewart Gardner built a highly eccentric and deeply individual museum which is in itself a work of art. Her will very specifically said: DON'T SCREW WITH THIS.

There's a good reason for that. The Gardner is an exhasperating, frustrating, thrilling, absolutely uniquely beautiful experience; it's my favorite museum in the whole wide world, and I know many, many others think exactly the same thing. I don't for a minute buy the argument that the museum is in deep trouble, but even if it were, punching holes in it is NOT the way to fix it. ...

Not so fast there, Brandeis alum Martin Lieberman writes:

... The Rose is symbolic of, and part of, the singularity and greatness of Brandeis University, and I don't want to see the museum be sacrificed in such tough times.