After Sarah Slone '05 filed a request in March to use the Shapiro Campus Center atrium for Chabad's annual Purim Megillah reading ceremony-during which the book of Esther is read to commemorate the Jewish triumph over a potential execution-Linda Corriveau, a manager in the campus center, said the event could not use the space.Slone was told that according to conditions laid out by the building's donor, Chabad's program was prohibited because of its religious nature

"[Corriveau] said we wouldn't be able to use [the Atrium] because the donor had requested it be a neutral space," Slone said. "The administration hadn't enforced this before, but for some reason now they decided to enforce it."

Corriveau agreed, attributing her decision to the nature of the event and the limitations of the space.

"It was a religious-based event in a high-traffic public space," Corriveau said. "I probably would have been more receptive if they were looking at the multi-purpose room or the art gallery."

John Hose, University President Jehuda Reinharz's executive assistant, said that he does not recall any prohibition of religious activity in the original agreements about the center's use.

"With a gift of that scale there is a written agreement and that's the basis on which I say that I know of no requirement that forbids religious activity," Hose said. "[Carl and Ruth Shapiro] may be talking about appropriate activity to the community, which may be open to interpretation. But I don't know of any physical space on campus where the use is defined in a way that would categorically forbid discussion of some kind."

Hose also said that he has attended several events with religious connotations in the Shapiro Campus Center over the last year, including a menorah-lighting ceremony and caroling under a Christmas tree.

Reinharz said that, like Hose, he too attended religious events in the atrium and has not been confronted about it by the building's donors.

"Never ever has [Carl Shapiro] mentioned the word 'religion,'" Reinharz said. "God knows how many religious services there."

The atrium has previously hosted various ceremonies of religious and multi-cultural importance. Chabad staged megillah readings there for the previous two years.

"We've done things in the atrium plenty of times before including a Lag B'Omer celebration and Hanukkah menorah lightings," Slone told the Justice. "Were they not aware of the policy before?"

Assistant Dean of Student Life Alwina Bennett attributed the discrepancy in practice to a change in the management of the campus center when Corriveau took over in August of 2004.

"Linda is a new person and probably read the policies a little more carefully than people have read them in the past," she said.

Bennett said that the policy dates back to an agreement made while plans for the Campus Center were being developed. She attributed the Shapiros' wishes to a desire to make the atrium a public and student-focused place, and contrasted this with the private nature of personal worship.

"The atrium is a public area," Bennett said. "To have a religious service in the middle of that can be awkward for both the people praying and practicing their religion and for people who inadvertently find themselves in the midst of a service."

Taimur Dad '07, president of the Brandeis Muslim Students Association, said that the association had not held any events for which they requested the atrium, but had encountered problems in booking the Multipurpose Room on the second floor of the building.

"I personally believe that that if the donor does not want to hold religious events, the administration should block controversial events from taking place there," Dad said.

Cindy Spungin, Hillel's student activities director, said that she did not anticipate this policy affecting broader areas of campus religious life.

"I think it is too broad a leap to assume that the policy of one department affecting one space in one building will have an impact on the future of religious ceremonies at Brandeis," Spungin said.



-Jacob Olidort

contributed to this report.