The Union Senate has unanimously approved a resolution last Sunday condemning the Swastika found in North Quad on Jan. 13, in addition to general hate and racism on campus.The resolution was worked on by Class of 2005 Senator Mitchel Balsam, Rosenthal Quad Senator Ezra Stark '06 and Senator-at-Large Jonathan Cohen '06.

Stark said the resolution will "condemn that it happened," and will "question why it took so long [to respond] and encourage people to not allow this to happen again."

Stark and Balsam said that they worked in collaboration with Hillel and the ICC in order to produce a cogent response. Stark added that some Hillel representatives added their thoughts to the resolution.

I offered some suggestions to the senators who are working on the resolution," Hillel President Rachel Silverman '04 said. "They took my suggestions, [and] added to them."

Balsam said the campus did not act as quickly as it should have.

"[The administration] only spoke about it after two weeks," Balsam said.

North Quad Director Rusmir Music said that what appeared to be a slow response on the part of the administration was merely an attempt to form a unified response.

According to Music, the swastika was reported late on Jan. 13. He sent out an e-mail to North Quad residents the following day. But an administrative all campus e-mail was not sent out until Jan. 26

In this e-mail, Coordinator of Diversity Services Rev. Nathaniel Mays condemned the swastika and indicated that educational programs were being planned in order to address the issue of anti-Semitism and hate.

"We were just trying to have a unified response," Music said during a phone interview, stating that the administration was attempting to coordinate a proper and consistent response among many campus groups.

While Balsam said there was no excuse to the slow response, he said he understood the Department of Student Life was still in the process of figuring out how to react to the incident.

"I buy what the Administration says, that it was simply an operational overlook," he said, "but, [the response] definitely lacked a sense of urgency."

Balsam also said that when other groups are targeted by hateful speech or symbols, "the outcry is much faster and larger."

Silverman approved of the administration's actions, although she expressed disapproval for the campus' slow reaction.

"[Hillel] feels very supported by the administration," Silverman wrote in an e-mail. "Reverend Mays wrote a letter to our community and President Reinharz suggested a speaker for us to bring in and directed me to other campus resources."

However, Silverman sent an e-mail on Feb. 4 to Hillel members condemning the presence of the swastika and questioning the Brandeis community's apathy.

"Why is it that the Brandeis community does not view the painting of a swastika as offensive?" Silverman wrote in the e-mail, which she also submitted to the Justice. "Why don't we see this as a threat to our community? Have we become so insular to believe that just because Jews are in the majority, we cannot be affected by anti-Semitism? This community has the obligation to stand up against every act of injustice!"

Stark attributed the apathetic response to the swastika to the fact that there is a Jewish majority at Brandeis, allowing people to feel less enraged and more insulated from anti-Semitism. He condemned this attitude, stating that it has necessitated a response in the form of a Senate resolution.

"The fact that there was a delayed response to it is unacceptable," Stark said.

However, there have been some forms of campus responses to the swastika. The newly chartered club, the Brandeis Coalition for Tolerance, issued a statement via e-mail, condemning the symbol and promised to create educational fliers and programs "that can help us heal after the painful fall semester, strengthening community at Brandeis."

According to Silverman and Ammad Bahalim '04, one of the founders of Brandeis Coalition for Tolerance, a discussion entitled "The Swastika and Other Forms of Hate" will take place in order to respond to the swastika [See Editor's note].

The event will be co-sponsored by Hillel, Brandeis Coalition for Tolerance, Trisk, the Pakistan Dialogue Group, MSA, Buddhist Club and Mays.

In order to further coordinate efforts, Silverman requested that the ICC include a Hillel representative. "I asked if we could have a representative to their [ICC's] board and Suzie [Talukdar, Director of the ICC] suggested that we look for someone to be a member-at-large," Silverman said.



Editor's Note: A discussion about the history of the swastika will be held Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Levine-Ross room in Sherman.