As a campus where students fear violence because of their religion: What are we? As a "community" where students feel unwanted because of their race: What are we? As a university where thoughts are met with violence: What on earth are we? We are witness to the failure of those principles that Brandeis was founded on. When students live with such fear of their peers that they cannot attend class, Brandeis has failed in its mission. When minority students, by the dozens, want to transfer because of racism on campus, Brandeis has failed. When violence and hate are substituted for open discussion and the free exchange of ideas, Brandeis has failed. We risk loosing some of our best and brightest students, men and women who have strived to improve this community--for more than three years in some cases. We risk loosing whatever progress has been made in the pursuit of diversity in recent years, a development that I fear many students would welcome. Take a moment, Brandeis, to see the despair that surrounds you, to hear the sobs of your neighbors and classmates, and to empathize with a collective level of pain and grief that I, for one, can barely begin to comprehend. Three months have passed since I started my career at Brandeis, and for three months I have seen a community within our university crushed. I fear that we will not be able to repair the rift in the student body, and I fear for the future of this institution. If drastic measures are not quickly taken: what will we be?-Albert Cahn '07