He sported dreadlocks in honor of The Wailers playing at Springest this year; he has made it into the police log for being the victim of vandalism; and he accompanies astronomy students in their star-gazing. He is none other than Justice Louis D. Brandeis in statue form, created by sculptor Rober Berks as part of the centennial celebration of Louis Brandeis' birth.Unveiled on November 13, 1956, the metal statue has become one of the most recognized figures on campus.

You may recognize Berk's technique in various busts and sculptures peppered around campus. His unique and recognizable style DESCRIBE made him worthy of capturing the essence of the great Judge atop the knoll in front of the Shapiro Campus Center, where he has and forever will be a reminder of the first Jewish Supreme Court justice after whom this university is named.

According to a Boston Globe article from the early 1990s, Berk's other works have included statues of such high profile individuals as JFK and Albert Einstein, which he created in the 1970s.

Donning a flowing robe, with eyes gazed toward the distance, Brandeis takes on the look of a visionary prophet. A man of progressive politics, Berk planted Brandeis' feet firmly in the ground, but pointing outwards, showing his readiness to move forward.

To capture this image of Brandeis, Berk had to become an expert on his life. The Globe reported, "Commissioned to sculpt the likeliness of Brandeis at age 33, Berks hoped to capture the deceased justice's vigorous search for fairness. In preparation for the sculpture, Berks read books about Brandeis, studied photographs of him and even borrowed the jurist's court robes from the Brandeis family."

To get the right feel of the movement of Brandeis' robe, Berks had his wife wear the borrowed robes on the Staten Island Ferry in New York. They rode the ferry back and forth all day and into the night, the robes billowing in the wind behind her.

According to the Globe article, it was Berks' hope that the public interact with his sculptures. And interact they do.

Students are often seen lounging around the statue on a warm, sunny day. Brandeis' form is also used for promotional purposes as well, offering a convenient spot to post flyers for campus events or hang a novelty pair of oversized bar mitzvah-style sunglasses.

The statue has come to represent a physical pulse of this campus. Many student causes and major campus events have made their way to the statue. Students have placed "SAVE DARFUR" and fair trade coffee posters in the statue's hands, and stuck flyers for coffeehouses to its sides.

But when the statue was erected in 1956, however, not everyone was enamored by it. In an e-mail to the Justice, Eleanor Pam '56 wrote, "We thought the robe looked ridiculous and that it both blended into and obscured the body. Our impression was that the statue was indistinct and undistinguished even though the Justice himself was not."

Karen Engelbourg '79, assistant vice president in Alumni and University Relations, remembers the statue more fondly, recalling occasions when classmates would dress the statue in correlation with the seasons; on Halloween the statue could be found with a black and orange striped scarf wrapped around his neck and toilet paper streaming from behind his cape. "And I remember during different snow storms," Engelbourg reminisced, "particularly during the blizzard of '78, how the hillside was impossible to climb because we had so much snow.but how students had dressed him up as a snowman, with coal for eyes and carrot for a nose, and a warm winter wool cap."

On the most pleasant of days, students can be found reading in the statues's shadow or posing with Louis for pictures. Whether you think the work of art is a proper representation of the great man, or find it a confusing and poorly envisioned attempt at capturing his greatness, his near-regal presence on the hill is not only a convenient advertising location, but also succeeds in drawing people together.