"The purpose of it was really to help keep watchdog journalism alive," said Graves, who has worked for The Washington Post, and founded the national political and investigative journal, Common Cause Magazine.
"To me, watchdog journalism is really at the heart of democracy," Graves said.
Now, a little more than two years later, the institute has been renamed the Elaine and Gerald Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, thanks to a $5 million gift from the two philanthropists.
"We are happy to support the urgent work of the institute, especially in this era when fewer media outlets will dedicate the resources needed to dig deeply and expose wrongdoing," said Elaine Schuster, who serves on the Women's Studies Research Center's national board at Brandeis.
"The institute's efforts are much needed in bringing to light public policy," Schuster said, "exposing problems in the criminal justice system, and pursuing often-overlooked stories about injustices to women, children and families."
Since it was founded in 2004, the institute has raised awareness on the Brandeis campus about journalism's role in pursuing truth and justice. Currently, the center is working on three investigative projects: the Political and Social Justice project, the Gender and Justice project, and the Justice Brandeis Innocence project.
"We're really working to develop the projects that we have, it's going to take a few years to get everything that we've started established," Graves said.
Of the three projects, Graves said the Justice Brandeis Innocence project, which focuses on the incarceration of thousands of innocent people nationwide, is the biggest example of what the institute has investigated and published, as it has with The Washington Post.
The project includes following up work that the New England Innocence Project feels is worth further investigation. NEIP, which works on innocence cases involving DNA evidence, cannot further investigation on those particular cases themselves because no DNA is involved, and they are virtually passed on to the Schuster institute.
"That's been huge for us to be able to have cases first screened by them," Graves said.
For now, Graves wishes to focus on the institute's three projects at hand, but she also has plans for the road ahead, and would eventually like to put some other ideas in place.
"What is my dream? I would love to have a project on the environment and justice," she said. "I'd love to have a project on health and justice, and race and justice."
But Graves also said receiving the gift from the Schusters is something she is more than honored with.
"To me personally, I'm really honored that they've shown the faith to put their money behind the kind of work that we're doing, because they could put their money anywhere," she added. "They have many choices, and the fact that they chose us is really an honor and it also speaks to the fact they seem to understand the importance of this kind of reporting and maintaining it."
Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz also showed his appreciation in a recent statement for Schusters' generosity, acknowledging the importance of the institute, and its presence on the Brandeis campus.
"We thank the Schusters for their support for this groundbreaking institute," Reinharz said, "whose mission is consistent with the university's foundational ideal of pursuing truth, even unto its innermost parts.' "
"It means that we're on firm ground, they have given us an extraordinarily generous gift," Graves said. "It's tremendous, it means that we're going to be able to develop our work for a long time."
Matt Perkins can be reached at 781-398-8009 or at mperkins@cnc.com.
