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With the recent commencement, the Class of 2017 has the opportunity to reflect upon their experiences at Brandeis. What is your fondest memory from your undergraduate career, and what role did this campus play in it?
Over the years, the Justice has been fortunate to have many dedicated editors, and this year, we must bid farewell to four of the best. These editors have been an invaluable contribution to the paper, and as they leave Brandeis to begin the next chapters of their lives, this board reflects on their time here and commends them on their achievements.
On April 25, President Trump’s proposal to reduce funding to sanctuary cities was denied by a judge in San Francisco on the basis of it being unconstitutional, according to an April 25, New York times article. If enacted, the order would force the city to comply with federal immigration laws at the risk of losing over $1 billion in funding. As a result, San Francisco, among other cities, has sued Trump’s administration. What do you think of the proposal and the ability to regulate immigration policy in a sanctuary city?
Imagine spending several thousand dollars to attend a music festival in the Bahamas, only to be greeted upon arrival by disaster relief tents, cold sandwiches and no music. While there are easier things to imagine than having that kind of discretionary income, that is exactly what happened to many music fans — primarily millennials — who shelled out up to $12,780 for tickets and lodging at Fyre Fest, a luxury music weekend on an island previously owned by Pablo Escobar, according to an April 28 CNN article. Dreamt up by early-2000s rapper Ja Rule and social entrepreneur Billy McFarland, Fyre Fest was marketed exclusively on social media and promoted by the likes of Instagram icons such as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski, according to an April 28 New York Times article. On Thursday, April 28, the commercialization of music festival culture and the exponential rise of social media’s influence collided in the Exumas, and there was not an Instagram filter that could make it look good.
Tomorrow, on your walk to class, look around you. Blooms break from the earth in a brilliant display of color as the end of the semester draws into our collective consciousness. It should be a happy time. People certainly will seem happy, laughing and enjoying the new spring warmth, waiting for summer to whisk them away. But joyful as the scene is, a tough truth hides in the people you see. Behind one out of every five of those sun-stained faces, perhaps laughing along with the others, is a young adult struggling with a diagnosable mental illness. This statistic is supplied by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Some estimates suggest that the ratio is even higher, at nearly one in four, according to the World Health Organization. Though attitudes on mental health are softening in the United States, there still exists a stigma against seeking the proper help. This rings somewhat true even among Brandeis’ forward-thinking student body.
Throughout these last few weeks, tensions between North Korea and the United States have reached a new high, bringing out fear and proliferating anxiety among individuals across the globe. While the U.S. and North Korea have had a strained relationship since the Korean War, the different presidential administrations have created a historical timeline with a wide array of stances regarding international relations. The Bush administration labeled North Korea as part of the “axis of evil” in 2002, according to a Dec. 19, 2011 article by ABC news. Since then the U.S. has chosen a policy of strategic patience, where the U.S. administration attempts to diplomatically end North Korea’s nuclear program, as it poses significant threats to the U.S. mainland, but also because this conflict has the ability to endanger crucial allies in South Korea and Japan where thousands of U.S. troops are stationed. Seeing the historical trends in the relationship between the U.S. and Iran in regards to nuclear power, the regime of Kim Jong-un is attempting to prevent history from repeating itself by advancing the nuclear weapons program, because it understands once these weapons are developed they will gain a hegemony in a region that is critical to U.S interests. Thus, while the U.S. could strategically target the regime of Kim Jong-un, the repercussions of such a strike are what makes this foreign policy dilemma extremely complex.
Contemporary art is on the rise, and with the attention toward the form growing, United States museums are seeing more and more visitors.
Since the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Aug. 23, 2016 that graduate employees at private universities had the right to unionize, graduate students at several universities have endeavored to establish unions at their respective schools. Brandeis is included in this number. Today, graduate students who provide instructional services will vote to determine whether to be exclusively represented by the Services Employees International Union Local 509.
This past Friday, University President Ronald Liebowitz announced a 3.75 percent increase in comprehensive undergraduate charges. This follows a similar tuition hike of 3.9 percent last year and a 3.7 percent increase the previous year. This board understands the necessity of such hikes to the University’s various educational and extracurricular initiatives. However, this board urges the University to continue its transparency with regard to the allocation of tuition funds and to work toward a stable, non-increasing tuition structure.
A Feb. 13 article in Vanity Fair reported that two of President Donald Trump’s top advisers, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign chair Steve Bannon, were getting along very well. Kushner even went so far as to propose knocking down the wall that separated his office with that of the notorious right-wing agitator. The report was met with widespread surprise as the backgrounds of the two would lead one to assume that they would be diametrically opposed to one another.
Much like immigration and health care, political correctness was a point of contention in America’s 2016 presidential election. In one of his many infamous Twitter rants, President Donald Trump said that former President Barack Obama and his administration “put political correctness above common sense, above your safety and all else,” according to a Dec. 7, 2016 Washington Post article. Though the term’s origins are unclear, it entered mainstream consciousness after it was the subject of a series of articles in the New York Times in the early nineties, such as 1991’s “Political Correctness: The New Bias Test.” The article describes the employment of specific language, policies or measures intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society.
On April 13, the United States deployed the Massive Ordinance Air Blast, nicknamed the "Mother of All Bombs," on an Islamic State-controlled cave in eastern Afghanistan. Despite the bomb's capabilities, the Islamic State's local radio outlet remained unaffected by the bombing. Officials in Nangarhar are also questioning why "American forces are not letting anyone visit the site of the bombing" according to an April 18 New York Times article. What is your reaction to the use of the bomb and the U.S.'s secrecy?
In light of recent events such as the live-streamed killing of Robert Goodwin Sr., an important discussion needs to be held on the role of social media in today’s society. While sites like Facebook or Twitter were created with the intention of connecting individuals and creating a platform for sharing ideas, we have collectively strayed from these ideals and turned to more malignant use. With the addition of a feature to broadcast live video, it has become easier for individuals to find an audience for their actions, be it beneficial or not.
You enter Sherman and examine each food station to determine what appears the most edible. Disappointed with the selections, you grab a little of everything. “What’s the harm?” you ask yourself. As you eat your dinner, you quickly lose your appetite. With a pile of half-eaten food on your plate, you shrug your shoulders and slide your plate onto the conveyor belt. Although this is a semi-regular event for most students, how often do you consider the impacts of wasting food?
On Sunday, the University welcomed admitted students and their families to campus, seeking to attract those students who will hopefully make up the next class of Brandeisians. While we welcome all new members of the Brandeis community, this board urges the University to focus efforts more on diverse admissions to campus.
Following the Justice’s publication of “Lots of Latex, limbs and laughs,” we received a great deal of feedback from the Brandeis community that drew our attention to one particular line in the otherwise positive review: “However, the moves from the models while on the catwalk more resembled those seen by girls in fraternity basements than the representation of each zodiacs [sic] characteristics.” This statement should have received greater scrutiny during the Justice’s initial editing process, and publishing it was a regrettable oversight.
In light of poor cell phone coverage in certain areas on campus, this board urges the University to pursue potential solutions, including the addition of more cell phone repeaters around campus.
Following the Student Union’s Friday release of its Community Emergency and Enhancement Fund grants for the year, this board would like to commend the CEEF committee on its foresight and its commitment to transparency, as demonstrated by their public announcement of the initiatives.
According to a March 27 New York Times article, the recent airstrike in Mosul, Iraq resulted in a civilian death toll of over 200, possibly one of the worst American military strikes in Iraq. Some Iraqi officials believe that this increase is due to President Trump's push to expedite the battle — resulting in missile strikes that take down entire structures. U.S. officials, however, argue that the death toll is in part due to Iraqi forces fighting terrorist groups. What do you think about U.S. involvement in these airstrikes and should there be reform in the way that they are approached?
In 2015, a 13-year-old girl who was suffering from cancer was allegedly raped and blackmailed by eight of her teachers at her private school, according to a March 26 NDTV article. The girl, who has not been named, was forced to stay after school under the pretext of extra classes, during which time these eight teachers raped her multiple times over the course of a year. According to an India Times article from March 25,the abuse began on April 12, 2015 when they took nude photos of her. They told her not tell anybody and threatened to kill her if she did. She got pregnant as a result of this rape and was forced by her rapists to take an abortion pill.