(04/08/08 4:00am)
Two students were arrested by Waltham police and Brandeis public safety officers in the early morning Sunday, March 30 following fighting that broke out during a party in the Foster Mods. Witnesses estimated 11 officers, including seven from the Waltham Police Department, arrived to break up the unregistered party at about 2 a.m. after the Department of Public Safety received two calls reporting a fight. One of the callers suggested a gun may have been present, but no weapon was found. Waltham police arrested 20-year-old Rashad Baldwin '11 for disorderly conduct. Detective Sgt. Tim King of the Waltham Police Department said Baldwin repeatedly ignored officers' request that he leave the scene at Mod 22, swore at the officers and incited the crowd. Baldwin denied each of these accusations and said no officer read him his Miranda rights."A bunch of lies were in the police report," Baldwin said of the Waltham Police Department's account of the incident.A Brandeis officer arrested 21-year-old Walaa Sbait '08 for disorderly conduct soon after Baldwin's arrest, and both were taken to the Waltham Station that night and held in cells until about 5:30 a.m. Sbait declined to comment Monday night. Sbait and Baldwin appeared at an arraignment March 31 and have pretrial hearings scheduled for May 8, the clerk's office in the Waltham District Court said. Baldwin said he is acquiring legal representation.According to the Waltham police report, when officers attempted to break up the party, Baldwin repeatedly ignored an officer's command to leave and shouted: "I'm not fucking leaving. I'm waiting for my brother." Baldwin said he never uttered a vulgarity and the officer only asked him once to leave. "I never told them I wasn't leaving," Baldwin said, adding that he only said he didn't live at the residence and that he was waiting for his brother, and one of his friends, to come outside. He said he then turned his back to the officer, began walking away and started to make a call on his cell phone to a friend to pick him up. It was then that a Waltham officer arrested him, he said."I guess I didn't move fast enough for him," Baldwin said with a note of sarcasm. "If you don't move right away when the cops tell you to leave, you get arrested."Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said some from the crowd were being uncooperative. "Police repeatedly asked individuals to leave, and they didn't comply," he said. When officers arrived at the Mod, Callahan said the fight was still going on and one student was being assaulted. Witnesses said neither Sbait nor Baldwin initiated the fight, nor were they assaulted. Mod 22 resident Gabriel Gaskin '08 said a group of about 10 non-Brandeis individuals had shown up at the party uninvited around 11:30 p.m., and at about 1:30 a.m., several of them physically attacked a couple of Brandeis students, initiating the fight. Baldwin and Gaskin said Baldwin helped break up the fight. The non-Brandeis individuals ran out the back door of the Mod onto South Street just before officers arrived, Gaskin said. The Public Safety report said 15 individuals were seen running on South Street. Callahan said Public Safety is looking for these individuals.Because they heard a weapon might be involved, University officers-who are unarmed-called Waltham for backup. Both groups of officers arrived on scene to find about 50 people yelling and running around, King said.Baldwin said nowhere near 50 people were present, and the scene was not that chaotic. King said Baldwin was making it difficult for officers to disperse the party guests, as he was standing in front of the door to the residence, blocking the way for others to leave.The report states Baldwin was getting the crowd riled up, as they started chanting, "Fuck the police," and "Fuck you pigs," and "appeared to be following the lead of Baldwin."Callahan described the scene as disorderly and out of control as well.Baldwin denied these claims. "I'm not some type of ringleader. No one was following me," he said. "I didn't feel like the crowd was getting intense. They were just wondering and questioning why I was being arrested." When Baldwin was cuffed outside the Mod, "he was calm. He wasn't upset; he wasn't riled up," Gaskin said. Once Sbait saw that Baldwin was being arrested, he approached a Brandeis officer and asked in a calm voice why Baldwin was getting arrested, Gaskin said. The Brandeis officer, Gaskin said, pushed Sbait against the Mod, even though he clearly said, "Officer, I'm not resisting arrest." "It's crazy," Baldwin said. "It really surprises me how they handled the situation with no professionalism at all." Baldwin, who is black, also suspects that his race played a role in the officer's decision to arrest him.Baldwin said he and Sbait were never given the opportunity to write up their side of the story at the station.They were released on personal recognizance, King said.Sbait, a Palestinian student from Haifa, was arrested by Brandeis officers outside the Mods in October 2006 after a heated confrontation with an officer.Brandeis students arrested at a house party on South Street last semester complained that Cory Amarante, one of the Waltham officers who arrived at Mod 22, had used excessive force.Mod 22 suitemates may face University judicial action, Gaskin said.
(02/12/08 5:00am)
Jessica Ricci has two dreams. Her "realistic dream" is to someday write about music for the Boston Phoenix, and her "unrealistic dream," she says, is to write for Rolling Stone. I gather that Ricci, a 19-year-old employee at the youth-run More Than Words used bookstore on Moody Street, loves music.Her iPod contains an eclectic mix that represents her diverse musical tastes. "Everything from classical to Britney Spears to Metal," she says, grinning. Ricci is one of the 16 employees between the ages of 16 and 21 at More Than Words who comes from the foster care system or are homeless and are referred by the Department of Social Services, probation officers and non-profit agencies to the bookstore. More Than Words is essentially a job-training program for these youth. They run nearly every operation of the non-profit-including managing their own book sections, arranging the displays, running the register and shipping books-- for six to 12 months, before leaving for college or another job. Ricci sits downstairs in the More Than Words basement, a space whose walls are lined with bright blue and yellow posters with aphorisms like "Negotiation is About Compromise" and others dedicated to the "Principles of Selling." Seemingly endless rows of books line the far left side of the basement. I am told that employees are in the process of sorting and organizing these books to display in their sections or ship off to customers. A master schedule with staff shifts and store events hangs directly across from the shelves on the opposite wall. Nearby, Matt Soloman, an 18-year-old associate with blonde-streaked hair, who has worked at the store for about one-and-a-half months, shows several new employees how to enter their work hours into an Excel spreadsheet and calculate the percentages of their attendance and punctuality. When Soloman gets frustrated with the spreadsheet, Jodi Rosenbaum, the store's director, turns to him: "Take a deep breath. We're on the same team, kiddo." She guides him step by step, and when he understands how to perform the function, he turns to the boys around him and explains it to them, epitomizing the wisdom behind experiential learning. "If your percentage drops below 80 percent, you'll get $50 out of your paycheck," Soloman tells the others, quickly explaining how they can earn back this money through continued, diligent work. When I ask Ricci to tell me about herself, she gives me a brief summary. She was born and raised in Waltham, and spent time in a number of hospitals before her counselor from the Department of Social Services referred her to More Than Words, where she's been working for two months. Today she juggles a 20-hour a week work schedule and a busy senior year at Waltham High School. Ricci shifts to talking about her work at the store. A pattern of focusing on the present and the future becomes apparent the more employees I speak with. More Than Words represents a clean slate for these youths. Whatever their background, they begin anew here on equal footing. When they work here, they're not talking about their past experiences or what circumstances brought them to work at the store. Instead, they focus on their day-to-day running of the store, building their professional tool kits and looking to plans for next year. Many of the youths, who come from all around Boston, enter the store not knowing how to turn on a computer, but they leave knowing how to operate a variety of computer programs and a cash register, send professional e-mails, speak before a group of people and other skills."We really look for the youth who have a lot of need and definitely the want of the program," says Carolyn Gordon, the transitions manager, a social worker who plans with each youth their next steps in life.Upstairs, the used bookstore, art gallery and performance space located at 376 Moody St. offers a warm, spacious respite along the downtown Waltham street. I peruse the sections: Psychology, Fiction, Parenting, and a special display on Boston. An artfully decorated front window displays some of the store's highlights: The World of the Dalai Lama, The Pursuit of Happyness and The Village of Waiting. The store's name is painted on a sky blue sign in white bubble letters above the door, greeting shoppers as they approach. The youth have painted encouraging words like "Equality", "Love" and "Knowledge" on the door. A stage area in the back with room for chairs and a plush red sofa serves as a performance space for open mic nights and other events. Although it's nestled between restaurants Tom Can Cook and Jewel of India, it's possible you've never noticed the cozy storefront. Rosenbaum, a veteran of the juvenile justice system with a Masters degree in Education focused on risk and resilience, founded the store as an online bookseller (then called Teen Leep) in 2004 with several teenage boys. When I ask her how she decided to start a job-training program for youth, she explains her frustration with the statistics surrounding young people who get stuck in the system. According to Rosenbaum, 60 percent of youth who leave state custody don't have a high school diploma or job experience. "These are the kids that will fall off," she says with a twinge of sadness. Her tone quickly changes to one of pride when she tells me that alumni of the store have gone on to college, two have entered Brandeis' Transitional Year Program (one is currently in TYP), and another, for instance, got a job at the Boston Science Museum. The store also has partnerships with local businesses, including Mount Auburn Hospital and the Westin, Frank Galligan, DSS' area director in Arlington, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "These businesses will often employ 'graduates' of More Than Words knowing that they have learned considerable skills," he wrote. This model of social enterprise is becoming a framework for job-training around the state, Rosenbaum says. "This is what real job training looks like," she adds knowingly. Several years ago, Galligan wrote some letters of affiliation and support that helped Rosenbaum receive start-up grants for the store, and currently the store is under review to become a DSS Family Networks provider. Today, More Than Words is largely self-supporting. The store is a hybrid social enterprise, meaning it covers around 35 percent of its budget with earned revenue and receives private donations for additional support.Youth empowerment has been the bookstore's theme from day one. Employees named the store, they interview and train applicants, and agree that they feel at home there. "This is their house. This is their store," Rosenbaum says. While an "adult" is always present during the store's hours (either Rosenbaum, Gordon or volunteers), Rosenbaum calls this person "back-up." Employees shelve books in their sections with ease and approach customers to explain items and answer questions with confidence. When I first enter the store, I am greeted proudly by the employee behind the counter, "Hi, Welcome to More Than Words." The youth move up through "pods," or positions at the store, starting out as an associate, moving up to partner, manager and then alumni after they've left the store. As associates, they make $7.50 an hour, $7.75 as partners and $9.25 as managers, gaining new responsibilities as they progress. The store also serves as an art gallery and shop, with tee shirts, bags and other merchandise made by the youth prominently displayed. Paintings by Artists for Humanity--a Boston-based non-profit that gives underserved youth paid employment in the arts--cover the walls. One painting of a blue head with piercing, bloodshot eyes, surrounded by blinking red lights is particularly startling. The piece, by Fredy Gerrero, Raul Fernandez and D. Arguelo, is priced at $300. Inspiring quotes by figures like Muhammad Ali, T.S. Elliot and the youth sprinkle the walls and ceiling. The store's laidback, artsy atmosphere is balanced by the focused, serious nature of the employees' job training and transitions planning. "We help them dream. We help them think through goals too," Rosenbaum says of the balance. Gordon, the lone, full-time transitions manager, who is currently working with around 60 youths, says her goal is for her clients not to wind up at entry-level positions "when they can do more." Her frequent "action meetings" with each employee touch on housing, education prospects, health coverage, skills development, career interests, public speaking and professional e-mailing. Gordon takes the youth on monthly site visits to transition options offered at colleges like Pine Manor in Chestnut Hill, Bentley College and Brandeis. She and Rosenbaum stay in touch with recent graduates, continuing to offer their support and occasionally asking them back for shifts and special store events, like visiting authors and open mic nights. Erika Smith, Brandeis' TYP director, says she's met with More Than Words youth, and will continue recruiting from this pool. "Hopefully it becomes a long relationship," she says.Kristin Carmichael (TYP), an employee at More Than Words for four months, says when she first started, all she knew was she "really into books." She didn't know that she would most enjoy working the register and arranging displays. Initially, Carmichael was pretty shy, but she came out of her shell, gladly accepting feedback from her coworkers and excelling in group leadership, Rosenbaum writes in an e-mail to the Justice. Carmichael grew up in Bellmont and took the commuter rail to the bookstore, pulling 25 hour a week shifts through high school. She describes her high school experience as fairly "isolated," except for her love of reading and work at the bookstore. Today, she continues taking shifts every so often, and plans to study creative writing at Brandeis and pursue writing professionally."It has been amazing to watch her grow and find herself and realize how bright and capable she is," Rosenbaum writes. The store's high standards encourage youth to pursue higher education and/or employment opportunities. The store's challenge is maintaining those high standards of responsibility and accountability for all employees, keeping it empowering and youth driven, yet never lowering the bar. "It's working . That said, there's always a kid [who] falls off," Rosenbaum says.Thomas Pineros Shields, a researcher at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, concurs with Rosenbaum that the model of on-the-job entrepreneurial learning works for some, but not for all. Still, because it's empowering, experiential learning works universally. "I'm a convert," he admits jokingly. The typical strategy among this population has been direct service, but on-the-job training looks at young people as having assets and being capable of contributing to society, Pineros Shields says. "When you provide opportunities for young people to have responsibility and to contribute, they'll rise to that occasion. I've definitely come to the conclusion that young people are more than just a bundle of needs," he says. "It's hard to undo 17 or 18 years of trauma or drama or dysfunction," Rosenbaum says. Still, when she maintains high expectations and the youth set high goals for themselves, "They rise to it every time." Pineros Shields currently works as the project manager for a research team at Heller that's evaluating the curriculum of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an organization that partners with high schools in low-income communities to teach business skills. In the curriculum, students start their own businesses. Jodi, a trained NFTE teacher, infuses sections of the curriculum into workshops and trainings. "It's not just book learning," he says of NFTE. "It's based on the idea that you learn best by doing. Overall it's an approach of seeing young people not just as problems to be solved, but as contributors to society who are able to.participate as entrepreneurs." While Ricci, like others, has loved working at the store, she's honest about the stress that comes with the responsibility of running a business. Her most recent challenge has been planning author Anita Diamant's visit to the store at the end of last month. As the project manager, Ricci coordinated the event's logistics and communicated with Diamant regarding how everything would run. "I e-mailed back and forth with Anita," she says. I pause and look up at her from my notebook. "Anita?" I ask. Rosenbaum says teasingly, "Oh, e-mailing back and forth with Anita. That's what I'm talking about." "I just try not to think of her as a big, famous writer," Ricci responds. That confident attitude seems a far cry from how she felt when she first arrived. "I was worried that I was going to mess something up and be gone in two weeks," she says. A few days later I'm back in the store for the big event. Ricci, who wears her blonde hair in pigtails and dresses in black pants and a white button-down shirt, appears cool and collected. She greets customers as they peruse the shelves and nibble on refreshments, and she smoothly introduces Diamant, who answers questions about her latest book of essays, Pitching my Tent and her 2005 bestseller The Red Tent.In the intimate, warm space in the back, Diamant sits in a chair next to employees Jazmin Cunha, 18, and Gordon Doristin to answer the questions. They ask her poignant questions about how women today compare to women in the Bible, how religion influences her writing, how she got into writing and the differences between men and women.After the event, Cunha shares with me her relief that it's over. "I don't know if you saw me, but I was shaking," she says, adding, "I just tried to keep my head high." She appeared calm and always kept a steady tone. As I walk around the store, I try to approach as many employees as I can. Banks, a 22-year-old alumnus who left six months ago, tells me about how he stays in touch with the store, welcoming the opportunity to perform his lyrics at open mic nights, helping with training and More Than Words presentations to the public. "I'm a regular favorite," he says. "I'm always here." Instead of emphasizing any troubled past, employees tell me about their duties at the store and their hopes for the future. I move on to Manny Sanchez, 17, who spoke before Diamant about what it means to him to work at More Than Words. As a manager, Sanchez frequently represents the store to the public through presentations and interviews youth who apply for work. I ask him if he was nervous about speaking today before the audience. Without a moment's pause, he answers that he feels comfortable and confident in front of even 500 people. "Mostly what I was nervous about was that Anita Diamant was here. Other than that, this was just another presentation for me." He hopes to attend Bentley College and study business.Cunha, a senior at Newton South High School, has been with More Than Words for four months. A day or two before the event, I interviewed her at the store. She speaks eloquently and appears sophisticated, her short black hair rounding her face. She admits that working at the bookstore has been a life changing experience, but it hasn't always been easy."Truthfully, it's been up and down. I have my lows and I have my highs," she says. The hardest part, she says, has been realizing that she's growing up, but the best part has been picking up the business and social skills she needs for the future.Rosenbaum jumps in with a suggestion of Cunha's assets. "I think you've also uncovered leadership skills," referring specifically to a recent team meeting when Cunha "empowered" everyone during a run through for the event. Team meetings (led by and for the youth) are held every Wednesday evening. Cunha is hoping to attend Pine Manor College next year, an all women's institution. "It's just really nice. It's really relaxing," she says of the campus. Gordon took Cunha and others on a tour of the college recently. Beyond college, Cunha dreams of traveling the world. Some Brandeis students and staff not only shop at the store, but also contribute to it. Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams, who serves on the store's board of directors, taught a six-week creative writing workshop last year. The workshop included discussions on the meaning behind an artist's pen name, different genres of poetry, like haikus, limericks and free style, and time for the youth to produce an anthology of poetry and practice performing their pieces. Adams was most moved by the candor and fearlessness the youth expressed in their "raw" and "unbreakable" poems. "I don't know if they even see their brilliance, so I like that," Adams says. It's unfortunate, however that some may discount their abilities because of the challenges they've faced, he says. He would like to see Brandeis students share their interests with the youth and teach workshops of their own. While Waltham Group led a successful "Dump and Run" last year, which yielded 1,200 books for More Than Words, Rosenbaum said she would love to see greater collaboration with a university. "We would love to get picked up by a university," she says. "That would be my dream." Specifically, she hopes a university will allow More Than Words to place receptacles around a campus for students, staff and faculty to drop off old books for the store. Adams says Brandeis could potentially partner with the store.Other store goals include opening a café in the next few months, hiring another transitions manager, starting up a local slam poetry team and spreading the More Than Words model to other communities. "The hope is that it becomes infectious," Adams says.
(02/12/08 5:00am)
Israel advocates are certainly at home at Brandeis. We wish the same were true for those who feel conflicted about Israel. If you love Israel, if you care about its politics, the peace process or any other aspect, you can count on the array of Zionist clubs (Zionists for Historical Veracity, Student United for Israel, Brandeis Israel Political Action Committee, Brandeis Religious Zionist League, etc.) to frequently offer events. Every week it seems the campus hosts a lecture, a panel discussion or a social event about Israel. Last week, for example, Hillel hosted an Israel-themed Shabbat dinner. Events about Jewish-Israeli culture, medicine, politics and the education system are all important educational programs that enrich our community. But these events are generally missing voices that anyone who is concerned about Israel today must engage. It is short-sighted to think that attending only events that reinforce what many already believe about Israel will bring peace to such a troubled land. And it is unfair to deny anyone seeking to learn more about the situation the opportunity to develop a nuanced perspective. A university, and more importantly a student body, that prides itself on pluralism should indeed embrace intellectual diversity in its many forms, not stifle it in fear.Obviously, not all events can or should address all sides at once. Zionist groups on campus are entitled to program as they see fit. But when events are held that challenge these groups' political and ideological assumptions, their members barely turn out at all. Chelsey Berlin '08 studied abroad last year in Egypt and spent a great deal of time in the West Bank. She has first-hand knowledge of Palestinian and Middle Eastern life in general. I, Rachel, attended her communiversity class last week, to watch a stimulating film and participate in a discussion about life for Palestinians in the territories. Only five students, including me, attended this class. It was disappointing also last week when no more than a dozen students besides the organizers attended a panel discussion held for "Lighting Gaza Week" featuring Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC) and a Palestinian student from Harvard. The discussion challenged popular American Zionist beliefs about Israel's role in perpetuating the conflict and explored the misery many Palestinians feel Israel continues to cause. Students with little to expansive knowledge about Israel could have benefited tremendously from hearing this alternative narrative expressing the horrors of daily life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. While few attended this event, an upcoming event featuring Khalid Abu Toameh, a West Bank-born, Israeli-Arab journalist who is critical of free speech abuses in the Palestinian territories, has dozens of confirmed attendees on facebook. Toameh's presentation will provide analysis of Palestinian society but will likely serve only to affirm many students' notions about Palestinians. The facebook invitation hints at this by stating that he's "the most neutral perspective," yet Students United for Israel is sponsoring the event.Part of the resistance to hearing these alternatives is apparently institutionalized. Anne Lawrence, the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies academic administrator, sent out an e-mail over the NEJS and Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies list-serves advertising "Lighting Gaza" events last week. Within the hour, Ms. Lawrence sent out an e-mail apologizing: "Indeed, our NEJS list-serve is not a political forum, and it was my mistake to distribute it under our department's name." We were perplexed by the apology. Far from an endorsement, the e-mail simply notified students of the event's logistics. Seeking further explanation, we e-mailed Dept. chair Prof. David Wright (NEJS). He echoed Ms. Lawrence, writing, "We seek to avoid advocacy on any side of political or religious issues, and therefore we generally do not send out announcements of this sort on our list-serve." Apparently, "some faculty members observed that the message should not have been sent out."But the department sends out announcements over the NEJS and IMES list-serves about trips to Israel sponsored by Zionist organizations and opportunities to hear Israeli representatives speak all the time. Although these events are not always explicitly political, they do tend to view Israel through one lens. The "Lighting Gaza" panel was not explicitly political either, but rather aimed at exposing students to an experience seldomly shared at Brandeis. The department shouldn't shy away from promoting a multitude of Israeli and Palestinian political and religious events. NEJS and IMES should publicize events for open dialogue and events with varying perspectives, without fear that they are dolling out an endorsement. Academic freedom relies on the courage of an institution to embrace intellectual and political diversity. Likewise, those students seriously concerned with Israel must know that encountering alternative and often deeply challenging perspectives brings about progress towards mutual understanding.
(01/15/08 5:00am)
A new fund started in 2006 in honor of Louis Brandeis' 150th birthday will provide a $3,500 stipend for 10 students interning in unpaid social justice positions this summer, the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences announced recently.The anonymous alumnus responsible for the new Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice has slated $35,000 just for this summer for rising sophomores, juniors and seniors participating in internships for and not for credit, said Jessica Paquin, the Office's Academic Internship Administrator.In total, he has contributed over $500,000 to the fund, said Raquel Rosenblatt, director of donor relations."The purpose of the fund is to advance the social justice efforts of our University's namesake,"she wrote in an e-mail to the Justice Tuesday.Stipend applications, available on the University Web site, are due Feb. 11. A small panel of faculty and staff will choose recipients by March 7, Paquin said. She declined to name the selection committee's members.With 60 to 70 percent of Brandeis students participating in unpaid internships each year, helping students explore internships and offering stipends has been a long-time goal of administrators and alumni, she said. "Funding for internships and experiential learning has been on the administration's radar for quite some time," Paquin said. "More and more students are doing internships now, so of course the University has to recognize that and of course encourage that." Brandeis is providing two other new summer stipend opportunities for internships in social justice, civic leadership and other fields through the Hiatt Career Center, which offers $3,500 for an internship in career exploration and the Eli Segal Citizen Leadership Fellowship, which ALSO offers students $3,500 each. The new funding available has come about through long-term planning and recent funding initiatives."It just happened to come up and coincide with other stipends that have come to fruition at the same time," Paquin said. Recipients of the stipend through the social justice fund will receive $3,000 in April to cover such expenses as housing and airfare and will receive $500 when they return in September to cover reimbursements and any other smaller expenses. The alumnus hopes the internships will include work in social justice, democracy and advocacy, for example, Paquin said, and "make the connection with the classroom and the larger picture." According to a press release, examples of host agencies include "those that address issues of labor law, child and family policy, housing rights, health care advocacy, the elderly, environmental justice, educational access [and] discrimination."So far, the new fund has supported activities of the Justice Brandeis Jubilee, the creation and dissemination of a Justice Brandeis scrapbook about his life, and the production of the PBS documentary on the life of Justice Brandeis. In the future, it will support the writing and production of a biography on Justice Brandeis, Rosenblatt wrote.
(11/13/07 5:00am)
Stipends for students working in unpaid internships this summer are now available through the Hiatt Career Center, the University announced last Thursday. Fifty rising juniors and seniors selected by Hiatt are eligible to receive $3,500 each to cover living expenses.The $175,000 grant comes from the University President's office, Hiatt Director Joseph DuPont said. The deadline to apply for the grant is Feb. 15. The internship may be in any field, and Hiatt counselors said they hope students will be daring and creative in their choices.DuPont said this program should ease some of the financial barriers students face when deciding between paid and unpaid summer positions."There are many students who can't or feel like they can't follow their true passion because they have some real practical limitations in terms of having to raise money over the summer, and so by creating this program we're hoping to alleviate a lot of those burdens," DuPont said. Between 60 and 70 percent of internships Brandeis students participate in are unpaid, Rusmir Music, Hiatt's assistant director of experiential programs, said. "They may sacrifice getting skills for just getting paid at a job that may not be propelling them toward their career," Music said. For years students have expressed concern over securing internships, and counselors said this is one step among many they plan to take to address this issue. While the application process is still being worked out, Hiatt counselors said applicants must already have an internship--which can be anywhere in the world--in place when they apply. Applicants must be able to articulate what they're looking to learn through their internship, Music said. Like student fellows at the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, upon their return from summer, selected students will present their experiences to the Brandeis community. Alex Wilson '08, a student advisor at Hiatt, said Hiatt is anticipating a large and competitive applicant pool. A Hiatt committee, whose composition hasn't been decided on, will choose the winning applicants, Music said. DuPont said recipients would be notified by mid-March.Counselors and resources on the Hiatt Web site can help students organize their resumes, Music said, adding that a Web site would be up and running soon with further information."There's a great interest on the Brandeis campus for internships critically between the sophomore and the junior year so this is in response to what students on campus are really searching for and what we as career advisors know is a wonderful thing to do," Hiatt Counselor Jane Pavese said. This grant program is only the beginning, DuPont said, as Hiatt plans to use this model to jumpstart robust job development opportunities. In the future, he said the Center will utilize the stipend to attract potential employers to hire Brandeis students over the summer."We think this is a very scalable model so hopefully in the future we'll have a lot of success with this and then we'll be able to use this to expand the program accordingly and give even more opportunity," he said.DuPont said they may ask applicants about their particular financial situation, but more likely they will wait and see the makeup of this year's applicant pool, and evaluate in the future whether personal income and other factors should be taken into consideration. Many other institutions sponsor similar stipend programs. At Smith College, 400 students were given $2,000 each last summer, according to a July 2006 New York Times article about college internships. Alumni primarily gave these grants. "We did do some research but we basically decided this was a need that was driven by the Brandeis community so we really started there," DuPont said.While other departments and centers like the Women's Resource Center already offer stipends for internships, Music said, none are this large or broad.
(11/13/07 5:00am)
It's clear that the Recording Industry Association of America is playing catch-up in the digital age. By picking on college students who download and share music online-around 15 Brandeis undergraduates were forced to pay $3,000 each to the RIAA last semester-the music industry is revealing the weaknesses in its outdated business strategy for promoting artists. Independent bands such as Family Junction are taking a stand against the RIAA through the Digital Freedom Campaign, an organization that promotes the rights of artists and fans to utilize digital technology without unreasonable government restriction or fear of RIAA lawsuits.Family Junction, an eclectic funk/jazz/rock/hip-hop band performing at Cholmondeley's Thursday at 9 p.m., includes Ryan Pressman '06, a post-bac in studio art (guitar/bass/drums), Brandeis Hillel staffer Dan Levine (guitar/vocals), Matt Ross (guitar/bass/drums) and Alan Cohen (guitar/bass/vocals). The Family got involved in the campaign for digital rights after signing on to the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group of artists and Internet radio providers such as www.pandora.com, currently lobbying hard against a federal bill proposing massive hikes in royalty rates at the expense of Internet radio stations. "We don't want the rates to be so high that Internet radio stations are put out of business that play our music," said 24-year-old Seth Kroll, the band's manager and co-lyricist. The Copyright Royalty Board's proposal last March sought to increase royalty rates by between 300 and 1,200 percent, but Kroll said the bill is still in limbo. Family Junction and other bands that get airtime primarily through college and Internet radio stations rely on the freedom and accessibility of the Internet to get their music heard around the world. Kroll said around 40 percent of music played on the Internet is from independent artists, as opposed to terrestrial radio, which Kroll said plays about 10 percent independent music. By aiming to put these stations out of business, the RIAA shows its panic over challenges being made to its monopoly on conventional music promotion. If the proposed royalty rate increase goes through, Cohen said, Internet radio stations would have to pay $500 for each channel they use, and a site like www.pandora.com, which uses a multitude of stations, would inevitably go bankrupt. "Just because record industries are entering this new phase where they're going to have to start adapting and have to start changing how they create their revenue, doesn't mean they should get so scared and try and restrict new inventions and innovations," Kroll said.Levine, 23, whose shaggy brown hair falls past his ears, doesn't think the exorbitant lawsuits are scaring people away from downloading files off peer-to-peer sharing sites. If anything, the suits just make fans more determined to download and come up with new methods of finding music.To show their support for the Digital Freedom Campaign, Family Junction performed on the campaign's college tour Oct. 12 at Northeastern University, and they're continuing to advocate for user rights through their own work."It's in their business interest not to encourage us to succeed, and it's a shame. That's where it really touches us personally. People should be able to trade music. It really does affect us when the RIAA acts in such a way that restricts us from connecting with our fans," Kroll said.The RIAA tracks Internet Protocol addresses on filesharing Web sites and then contacts the Internet service provider (in our case, Brandeis University) and orders the users to pay $3,000 or else face much more serious financial consequences in court. But whether the industry likes it or not, the Internet, largely unregulated, is drastically changing its fan base and the way the music market functions. Since the RIAA can't seem to prevent college students, or anyone, for that matter, from downloading, it should adapt to the new environment and adjust their business model, bandmates said.On their recent self-produced album, Running Trains (We're Huge in Japan) released this year, at $10, the disc comes with a movie they created, mp3s to download off a "FamJam Music-Stache" featuring music from 12 fellow independent artists. Free downloads are available on the band's website.Family Junction also distributes its albums online at little cost to them through CD Baby, an Internet-based store with music by independent artists. While record labels were previously the basic way bands promoted themselves and recorded albums, the Internet makes it easier for independent artists to do this work on their own terms.Aside from selling albums, Family Junction also embraces simple sharing of its music. Rather than viewing disc burning and file sharing as obstacles to profit, Family Junction sees them as opportunities for self-promotion and for drawing people to their shows."Our goal is to build community, and so we want to embrace what our community wants, and if it means that we don't want to strictly enforce certain copyright laws that we could, fine. That's something that we have to deal with and that we have to work with," Kroll said.The guys especially take issue with the RIAA's claim that illegal downloading is destroying the music industry's potential for growth. Instead of focusing on record sales as a primary means to make money, the RIAA should put more energy into live shows, band merchandise and digital accessibility.Levine said record labels fail by charging excessively high prices for their albums and by controlling the management of digital media by making it impossible, for instance, to transfer songs between computers, iPods and CDs."How can you question what [the consumers] are going to do with a product that they own?" Pressman said. "It sucks for the artist who's not making money from it, but at the same time, it is their CD, and they can do with it what they want. Somehow you've got to draw the line without policing it and telling them they can't do what they want with what they own." With the myriad of opportunities made available by the Internet, the record industry needs to adapt rather than punish consumers for seeking other means of listening to or buying music. "Why should they be policing, as opposed to seeing how the market is changing?" Levine asked. "We're willing to pay for music. Just stop trying to rape our wallet.
(11/06/07 5:00am)
Brandeis' anti-genocide activists had reason to celebrate last Friday when Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill making the commonwealth of Massachusetts the 21st in the Union to divest funds from companies that do business with the Sudanese government, which is reportedly carrying out genocide against people in its Darfur region. With the bill's passage, the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board within a year will sell about $54 million worth of stock in eight companies, including PetroChina, which is collaborating with the Sudanese government to increase oil production. Daniel Millenson '09, the national advocacy director for the Sudan Divestment Task Force, heads lobbying efforts across North America to get governments and universities to divest funds as a means of putting economic pressure on the Sudanese government. He also is one of three co-founders of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which formed in April 2005.Massachusetts is 14th in the Union to employ the Task Force's "targeted model," Millenson said, which divests funds from "the highest offending companies" identified by the Task Force. The first three states to divest, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon, passed legislation for total divestment."[Massachusetts is] a very difficult state," he said. "Not a lot of bills get passed here. It's not been this difficult in any other state." Millenson said he's working on campaigns in other states as well.Under Massachusetts law, the governor has 10 days to sign the bill, which Millenson said passed a week and a half ago but was nearly killed several times last summer.Millenson attributed the recent success to diligent lobbying and awareness efforts by Brandeis' chapter of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, as well as other Massachussets schools and community groups.Rep. Jay Kaufman '73, D, is one of the co-sponsors of the bill, Millenson said.The United Nations estimates that around 450,000 people have died since the conflict began in 2003.
(10/23/07 4:00am)
Benjamin Pogrund, a former South African journalist who was jailed for his writings on apartheid, condemned labeling Israel as "the new Apartheid" in the first event sponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Wednesday afternoon. Around 65 students and members of the public attended the event, "Is Israel the New Apartheid State?" held in Golding 110.Pogrund, the founding director of the Yakar Center for Social Concern in Jerusalem, emphasized the difference between his experience growing up in Apartheid South Africa, the system of government-sponsored racial segregation, and the experience of Arabs and Palestinians under Israeli control. While minorities in Israel are oppressed, he said, the system under which they live doesn't resemble Apartheid and any comparison between the two is offensive. "Anyone who knows South Africa would laugh if you said Israel is an Apartheid state," Pogrund said. The motive for making this comparison, he said, is to delegitimize Israel. While Pogrund criticized Israel for its control in the West Bank and its discriminatory policies toward Arab citizens, ultimately, he said the two societies are incompatible."The vote is there. The vote means power and they have the ability to apply it," he said of Arabs in Israel. During Apartheid South Africa, Pogrund said blacks weren't citizens and couldn't vote.While it has evolved over time, the definition of Apartheid, always denotes white supremacy and racial segregation, he said. In Israel, Jews and Arabs both range in skin color and the comparison is misunderstood, he said."To compare Israel to pre-1994 South Africa is simply not valid," Pogrund said. "Apartheid relates to the color of your skin, a means of separating race by a physical contrast. End of story." The United Nations convened an anti-racism conference in 2001, adopting a resolution denouncing Israel as an Apartheid state and calling on nations to adopt an international policy of isolation toward Israel. Pogrund criticized the United Nations for cheapening the experience of Apartheid by applying it erroneously."It's just not a valid comparison," he said. "Not remotely."Reflecting on a personal health scare four years ago, Pogrund, who has lived in Israel since 1997, said his time staying in a Mount Scopus hospital encapsulates the difference between Israeli society and South African Apartheid. "When I first came to the hospital, I noticed that my doctor was an Arab, the nurse was a Jew, the secretary was an Asian; basically, every person of status was of a different race. And that my friends, is not Apartheid," Pogrund said.Between the West Bank and Israel proper, he made it clear that checkpoints serve as a security measure rather than a means solely to discriminate against Arabs."The occupation is brutalizing and corrupting both Palestinians and Israelis," he said, but it's up to the majority to decide how it will treat the minority. Israel isn't unique in this case, he said.Following the lecture, Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS), the director of the Israel Studies Center, opened the floor for questions. Lisa Hanania '11, who identified herself as a Palestinian who lives in Israel, said she experienced discrimination when she was unfairly detained by Israeli police officers when her identification card used to say "Arab." She challenged Pogrund's assertion that Israel's security measures are warranted and that the state's treatment of minorities is improving. Pogrund resonded, saying, "It's wrong. It's changing." Pointing to improvements in the field of health, he cited Arab infant mortality rates and life expectancy as examples of ways the Israeli government has increased Arabs' standard of living. As a journalist for the Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg, Pogrund wrote about the experience of black South Africa. After being imprisoned for his writing, Pogrund left South Africa for London where he worked for several papers. Pogrund is working on a book that argues against likening Israel to an Apartheid state.
(10/16/07 4:00am)
Think back to a time when you did something you now regret. You're overcome with feelings of shame; a fairly typical experience for college students. Maybe you left the house in only your bra and underwear to attend a campuswide party. Little did you know your campus newspaper had sent a writer and photographer to report on this party and why the administration objects to it. The next thing you know, you're on the front page of the paper--underwear and all-laughing and partying with your friends. Another scenario: You get arrested one night for smoking marijuana. The local police compile a report associating your name with the incident publicly. An article about the episode appears in your college paper-online edition included-and suddenly you have to worry about your name forever being linked, thanks to Google, to the time in college you smoked marijuana and got caught.It would be easy to blame journalists for ruining lives. College is the universally accepted time for experimentation; how dare journalists treat the very students they claim to serve with such insensitivity by posting their moment of regret online? The nightmare scenarios I've described happen regularly on our campus. As editor in chief, I receive requests from students, parents and University administrators either to not print or to remove names and photos from our Web site that they feel might inhibit a student's ability to get into law school, obtain a job or receive the respect of his/her peers and professors. Frequently, I feel like the bad guy. I'm responsible for making an event they want to leave in the dust public. I have to tell students that I'm very sorry, but what they did is public information, and as a newsworthy event, we have the right to print and post it. Unsurprisingly, I receive angry letters and phone calls, threats to sue the paper and me and requests by administrators to meet them for a stern talking to. Of course, the Justice isn't infallible. We may make decisions you strongly disagree with. Readers are the strongest check on a newspaper; we rely on you to confront us and write letters to the editor arguing your point. The issue though boils down to the inherent conflict college journalists face between the obligation to "serve" the community and simultaneously report on it. Sometimes the news isn't pretty: a student commits suicide, a senior administrator publicizes statements about donor discontent, an angry staffer sues the University for discrimination, a student gets arrested for drunk driving. But journalists, whether they write for a college paper or a professional one, must report on their environment while being accurate and balanced. Photos accompany articles to illustrate what a story is about. We can't remove photos that are crucial to a story because a community member worries about what readers will think of him or her after seeing or reading it. Yes, we care about the well-being of our readers, but not at the expense of our journalistic integrity. Thomas Friedman '75, probably the most famous journalist to graduate from Brandeis, writes frequently about what it means to live in what he calls a "flattening world." One characteristic of this new world is the widespread availability of detailed information about individuals, famous and unknown, online. These "digital footprints," as Friedman calls them, can never be erased and frequently shape the way others view us. Most newspapers post their content online these days, which means journalists produce an abundance of digital footprints. This is an extremely tricky position to be in, but also an exciting and important one. Delivering the news means deciding what the community needs to know. Essentially, journalists have the ability to shape public perception of a person or event. Justice editors are often forced to decide what's newsworthy, which turns into a constant battle between our obligations. I love Brandeis and care deeply about our community. I care most of all that we remain well informed about our happenings and surroundings. I care that we serve as a watchdog on the Student Union and the administration. Knowing about club programs, the latest decisions on the faculty tenure clock, fundraising and construction is just as important as knowing about campus arrests, administrative corruption and controversial parties. Serving the community means providing accurate and informative news. I ask you to put yourself in our shoes. Understand the balancing act we must play every week and the considerations we put into every article and photograph we print.
(10/16/07 4:00am)
Administrators defended University President Jehuda Reinharz's recent decision to arm the campus public safety officers next year at last Thursday's faculty meeting, and a group of students is mobilizing to confront the decision this week.Chief Operating Officer Peter French, who chaired the firearms advisory committee that submitted a recommendation to Reinharz in favor of arming the officers, discussed the circumstances of the decision and responded to several questions from faculty members. The committee was formed in the wake of the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute last April.Ben Serby '08, who formed a Facebook group called "Students for a Gunfree Brandeis" to protest the decision, said he hopes to gather around 30 students to accompany him at Reinharz's office hours this Thursday afternoon to present a petition signed by several hundred students and dozens of faculty and staff who oppose either the decision-making process or the decision to arm in general.Before officers are armed, they must pass physical and medical examinations and a psychological test, French said. After passing the tests, sergeants will be armed by early May and officers by the end of Spring 2008. "If any of our police are deemed inappropriate to carry a gun, they will not carry a gun," Reinharz said.All 20 officers will undergo training by the Waltham police at their training academy, French said, even though eight are already licensed to carry firearms. "There's urgency attached to Public Safety, and we proceeded as quickly as we could," French said. "The community should be prepared for the worst even if it has not happened here."At the faculty meeting, Prof. Sabine Von Mering (GRALL) asked French how the committee knows that an armed police force can respond to an emergency more effectively and whether they conducted research on the subject.French answered that the committee consulted Waltham and Brandeis police officers and solicited outside advice. Von Mering repeated her question, seeking a more complete answer.Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan spoke about the decision. "Individuals have come to campus with knives and guns," he said. Although the officers haven't needed guns to defend the community in the past, Callahan said it's important for the University to be proactive. "We will be developing protocols, as have other colleges and universities such as Bentley and Tufts, regulating the use of that force," French said.Currently, if the Department of Public Safety receives a call that involves the threat of a deadly weapon, officers call the Waltham Police Department for backup and have to wait up to around 10 minutes for police to arrive, French said.Prof. Stephen Burg (POL), also responding to Von Mering, said a properly trained armed police force creates an image to outsiders that Brandeis is well protected and prepared."The reality is we are perceived as a Jewish institution," he said. "We have always been perceived as a potential target."Reinharz spoke briefly about how he changed his mind on the arming issue. In 1995, after being presented with the same recommendation, Reinharz said he didn't follow it because he didn't believe arming was warranted at that time.Reinharz and French, however, both said the world has changed since then, and Brandeis must keep up. Aside from the Virginia Tech incident, a shooting took place last Friday at Delaware State University. "We have a very aggressive policy ... in [the Department of] Student Life so if we see any problems among students, we intervene very quickly," Reinharz said.Eddy discussed a training program this semester that will teach faculty how to identify troubling signs in students. Robert Berlin, director of the Psychological Counseling Center, will lead the program.Serby said he opposes the way in which the administration decided to arm the officers as well as the decision itself, explaining in a phone interview that the debate didn't include enough students, faculty or staff. The student-petition he will present to Reinharz this Thursday states that "The advisory committee did not conduct an objective and thorough study and did not fully represent the Brandeis community.""Submitting the petition is a step that we'd like to take because it mobilizes people on this issue in a very direct and real way," Serby said. Serby added that he and around seven to 10 students who meet weekly to discuss the issue are considering submitting a resolution to the Student Union expressing the student body's disapproval with the decision."I'm not expecting that [Reinharz] will really listen to us.but I do think it's important that we not stand idly by," he said. The petitions are mostly symbolic in nature, he said.
(10/16/07 4:00am)
Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners In Health, a global humanitarian organization, spoke about the need for "pro-poor" international policy at the opening of the renovated Heller-Brown building at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management last Thursday morning. Farmer, an infectious disease expert, Harvard Medical School professor, anthropologist and author of four books, has opened and run hospitals in Haiti, Peru, Russia and Rwanda to treat patients suffering from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, among other illnesses. He challenged "the state religion of public policy," which, he said, cowers from alleviating the suffering of the poor in the modern world. For years, Farmer said policymakers told him it wasn't "cost-effective" or "sustainable" to confront AIDS and other infectious diseases in the third world. Economists, namely, argued that it would be too expensive to fund treatment drugs."I learned that these conversations are not meant to start a conversation, but meant to end it," Farmer said. Instead, Farmer said he decided to "leave the policy community behind" until they caught up with him. In 2002, the new Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria gave Partners In Health a major grant to build Zanmi Lasante (Partners In Health in Haitian Creole), a health clinic in Haiti, and train and pay local community workers to help run the clinic and care for patients. "We have built up a system in Haiti that is robust and pro-poor," he said. Farmer urged the students, professors and donors in the audience to focus on global health equity and develop "pro-poor policies" in their research."We don't have a good plan as a research and teaching community," he said. "We've got to learn how to link our teaching and research to service." Partners In Health's new policy, Farmer said, is to focus on strengthening the public sector. "[In] all of these places we have gone into the public sector and built infrastructure and public sector facilities owned by the people of Haiti," he said. Farmer's work isn't just about treating illness; he said funding for clinics also creates jobs, advocates for clean water and encourages primary education. "Haitians use money to do water projects, to organize patient groups, food and agricultural intiatives," he said. Farmer displayed several maps showing the prevalence of AIDS in Africa, the number of physicians there, and before and after photos of now-recovering patients. One from Rwanda, he noted, looked near death and now needs to worry about his expanding gut. "He went from looking skeletol to looking like he needs lipitor," he said jokingly. Farmer also realized clinics must have a local name, despite the pronunciation problems that might occur for English-speakers. If everything were named Partners In Health, that would be a form of "anthropological machismo," he said. That is why his Rwandan clinic is called Inshuti Mu Buzima (Partners In Health in the Rwandan national language, Kinyarwanda). Farmer's organization has brought its successful strategies back to Boston. "All we're trying to do is raise the Harvard level of care to the Haiti level," he said jokingly.During a question-and-answer session, Farmer discussed why policy makers avoid pro-poor policy."People want to talk about sustainability, but they don't want to talk about history," he said. "It's as if poverty arose de novo from the earth. They want to erase history. Erasing history is the oldest trick in the book for policy people."What we need to sustain, Farmer said, is "our willingness to fight for what's right."Thomas Glynn, Ph.D. '77, chair of Heller's Board of Overseers and chief operating officer of PIH, introduced Farmer, characterizing his life and work as "audacious." As first-years, the Class of 2008 read Tracy Kidder's 2003 biography of Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World for its new-student forum. Undergraduates watched the speech through a live video in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater due to space limitations in the Schneider Building, where the event was held.
(10/09/07 4:00am)
Two students and one alumnus were arrested last month by the Waltham police on charges of drug possession, disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to a police report of the incident. Their arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 22 in Waltham District Court.Although the students, Meredith Ives '09, James Fruchterman '09 and Anderson "Knox" Thomas '07, don't dispute the charges, they said the officers were overly aggressive in their treatment of them and inaccurately reported the African-American alumnus' behavior during the arrest. According to the report, Waltham officers arrived at 73 Highland St., Fruchterman's residence, the night of Friday, Sept. 14 after a neighbor called in with a noise complaint. The Waltham police "got called there for disturbance . when they got there they discovered a loud party, and when they got there they could smell the marijuana coming from the apartment," Waltham Police Department spokesman Sgt. Tim King said. Ives, thinking a friend was at the door, rushed to open it with a pipe of marijuana in her hand, she said. The two officers then ordered Fruchterman, Ives, the 25-year-old Thomas, and the 10 to 12 other Brandeis students in the house outside, Fruchterman said.Once outside, Waltham officer Cory Amarante arrested Ives for possession. The incident report, given to the Justice by Ives, said that as Amarante "was double locking Ives' handcuffs Anderson Thomas [approached Amarante and Ives] flailing his arms in an aggressive manor and he began questioning why we were placing Ives under arrest."Ives and Fruchterman said this description of Thomas' behavior is completely inaccurate.Thomas couldn't be reached for comment Monday."My friend Knox . [saw that] I was crying, he was worried about me," she said. Fruchterman said when the officer grabbed Ives and handcuffed her, Thomas stepped forward and asked why Ives was being arrested, and the police told him to back away."I want to know why she's being arrested, and I'd like you guys to not handle her roughly,'" Fruchterman paraphrased Thomas' request. "They immediately started telling him, 'You're threatening us. You're making threatening movements,'" Fruchterman said.After explaining to the police that he was unarmed, Thomas was told again by the police to back away or else he would be arrested as well for interfering with Ives' arrest."They singled out the one large black man at the party and took him down," he said. Ives agreed. "He was very polite. He was very by the book." The incident report said, however, that Thomas approached the officers "in an aggressive manner and motioned as if he were going to pick up the pipe," at which point Amarante and Waltham officer Adam Lord advised Thomas to stay back and radioed the dispatch for more officers. Ives estimated that four additional officers arrived soon after."In this particular incident, you have a gentleman . approaching police in an aggressive manner," King said. "It's not a safe situation for the police, and it's not a safe situation for the students who were there.
(10/09/07 4:00am)
CORRECTION APPENDED SEE BOTTOM:Chief Justice James Ansorge '09 and Justice Robert Schwartz '08 both recused themselves from ruling on the case against Union Secretary Michael Goldman '08, with Ansorge pulling out Thursday and Schwartz withdrawing just 30 minutes before last Sunday evening's trial.Goldman, who revealed vote tallies to candidates and friends of candidates during election periods last spring and this fall, was accused by Rivka Maizlish '10 of violating his post as elections commissioner and making the unconstitutional appointment of a technology assistant to his office. The court ruled against him on both counts.Goldman's then counsel, Jacob Baime '08 (Senator for the Charles River Aparments Rachel Graham Kagen '09 has since taken over), accused Ansorge of bias against Goldman before the trial because he publicly announced his disapproval of Goldman's actions to several Union officials. "The Chief Justice's comments have gone so far beyond the standard of impartial conduct as to render his sitting on this case a perversion of the course of justice," her motion for recusal, released last Wednesday, said.In an affidavit submitted by Ziv Quad Senator Justin Sulsky '09, Sulsky wrote that Ansorge expressed his support for a petition circulated by Kerns condemning Goldman's actions. Union Technology Assistant Rajiv Ramakrishnan '10 also submitted an affidavit, claiming that Ansorge told him last Monday that "Mr. Goldman's alumni counsel would not be allowed to appear at trial." Ansorge added that Ramakrishnan's appointment to his current position was unconstitutional, Ramakrishnan wrote.Maizlish's counsel, Village Quad Senator Michael Kerns '09, submitted a motion over the weekend requesting that Schwartz recuse himself because he is a good friend of Goldman's. Schwartz agreed that he couldn't judge impartially."I was bothered that he hadn't recused himself yet," Kerns said. Jacob Baime '08, Samuel Dewey '06, Igor Pedan '05, Albert Cahn '07, Jason Brodsky '07 and Kagan all submitted the motion for Ansorge's recusal Wednesday at 3:40 a.m. Dewey and Pedan are former UJ chief justices. Kerns submitted a motion last week to dismiss the alumni."I feel very strongly that alums have had their opportunities when they were undergrads to experience the challenges of student leadership, and that they should leave such challenges and experiences to the current participants," Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer wrote in an e-mail to the Justice Sunday morning. Kerns, however, expressed concern that alumni were acting on behalf of Goldman. "This is a Student Union case," he said. "It's an internal student body matter. I'm sure I'm irritated that it's me up against a Harvard law student and some buddies who are older and have graduated."Correction: The article originally didn't clarify that Rachel Graham Kagen '09 wasn't Michael Goldman's '08 lead counsel and the one who submitted the motion. While she signed her name to the motion, Jacob Baime '08 was Goldman's lead counsel at the time.
(10/02/07 4:00am)
James Ansorge, chief justice of the Union Judiciary, announced that he has removed himself from ruling on the case against Union Secretary Michael Goldman '08, following a call for recusal by several current and former Union officials. The case, Maizlish v. Goldman, accuses Goldman of violating his role as elections commissioner by disclosing or hinting at election tallies during the voting period of two Union elections, last month and last spring, and thereby unfairly influencing the elections. Goldman's counsel accused Ansorge of biasing himself against Goldman by publicly announcing his disapproval of Goldman's actions to several Union officials. "The Chief Justice's comments have gone so far beyond the standard of impartial conduct as to render his sitting on this case a perversion of the course of justice," the motion, released Wednesday, said. Jacob Baime '08, Samuel Dewey '06, Igor Pedan '05, Albert Cahn '07, Jason Brodsky '07 and Rachel Graham Kagen '09 submitted the motion for Ansorge's recusal Wednesday at 3:40 a.m. While Baime and Kagen, the senator for the Charles River Apartments, are serving as Goldman's counsel, it's unclear exactly how the alumni are involved in the case. Baime and Goldman refused to clarify.Dewey and Pedan are former chief justices and Brodsky served as director of academic affairs last year. "I feel very strongly that alums have had their opportunities when they were undergrads to experience the challenges of student leadership, and that they should leave such challenges and experiences to the current participants," Sawyer wrote in an e-mail to the Justice Sunday morning. That said, Sawyer said it's up to the UJ justices how they want to handle the case, but he is here to provide assistance if asked. Village Quad Senator Michael Kerns '09, Rivka Maizlish's '10 counsel, expressed concern that alumni were submitting motions and acting on behalf of Goldman. "This is a Student Union case. It's an internal student body matter. I'm sure I'm irritated that it's me up against a Harvard law student and some buddies who are older and have graduated," he said.Kerns filed a motion at 3 a.m. Friday morning calling to dismiss the alumni from participating in the trial. The UJ hasn't responded yet. He also submitted a motion over the weekend requesting that Justice Robert Schwartz recuse himself, since he is a good friend of Goldman's. The UJ hasn't responded to this motion either.Ansorge agreed to recuse himself Thursday, admitting that he had made up his mind on the case before the trial. "I have reason to believe that Michael Goldman, as Union Secretary, Chief of Elections, and Elections Commissioner, has disclosed running vote tallies of elections still in progress to numerous candidates for the purpose of giving that candidate an unfair advantage. While I do not believe that these actions have specifically altered the outcomes of any elections, they could have, and may have been intended to do so."Kerns said Friday that he's irritated by his opponent's motions."I'm frustrated that they're dwelling on semantics instead of honorably and openly dealing with the actual issues of the case," he said. Goldman refused to make any comments until after his trial.In an affidavit submitted by Ziv Quad Senator Justin Sulsky '09, Sulsky writes that Ansorge expressed his support for a petition circulated by Village Quad Senator Michael Kerns '08 condemning Goldman's actions. "Having publicly aligned himself with Mr. Goldman's vehement opponents," the counsel wrote, Ansorge has violated his post. Kerns told the Justice last week that the only appropriate course of action for Goldman would be for the senate to impeach him or for him to resign.Union Technology Assistant Rajiv Ramakrishnan '10 also submitted an affidavit, claiming that Ansorge told him last Monday that "Mr. Goldman's alumni counsel would not be allowed to appear at trial." Ansorge added that Ramakrishnan's appointment to his current position was unconstitutional, Ramakrishnan wrote. Goldman created the position and appointed Ramakrishnan to it before the senate confirmed him Sept. 30. According to Union bylaws, the senate must approve appointed officials before they assume their position.Kerns claims the process was unconstitutional. Since the senate censured Goldman and as punishment, removed his power to view the elections software, Ramakrishnan will view the software in Goldman's stead. In a joint declaration, separate from the motion for recusal, Dewey and Pedan wrote, "In our view any comment to the news media on the merits of a pending case creates an appearance of a conflict of interest. Any Justice making such a comment should recuse themselves as a mater of course." They are referring to Ansorge's comment to the Justice Monday that, "This is one of the most epic trials in Brandeis history." Goldman's counsel also pointed to an AOL Instant Messenger conversation between Aaron Laufer '10 and Kerns last Monday, in which Kerns wrote, "Most everybody else on the Union, including the leaders of [every] branch, find it outrageous that [Goldman is] still in office." Laufer submitted the conversation, but refused to make it public because it contains information discussed during an executive session, a private meeting of Union officials."Necessarily, one who makes highly negative statements about the defendant's conduct at issue would be perceived by any reasonable person to be biased in the cause," the motion read.The public hearing is tentatively scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium.
(10/02/07 4:00am)
The University hired an assistant director and a program coordinator for the new $15 million Schusterman Israel Studies Center, Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS), the Center's director, said Monday. Stephanie Gerber Wilson Ph.D '07, the new assistant director, said she'll help plan conferences and lectures as well as collaborate with faculty, students and other centers on campus like the Office of Global Affairs and the Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. "I think that the Schusterman Center can really be a hub center of the Israel studies community on campus and in the broader Israel studies community," she said. Wilson, a 35-year-old native of Southern California, received her Ph.D. in NEJS with a specialty in Israel studies. Troen, her advisor, said she's the first Ph.D. recipient he's ever mentored. Wilson worked for the Ethics Center between January 2001 and last May, helping manage Brandeis' partnership with Al-Quds University, a Palestinian institution in East Jerusalem."The hope is that there will be many more like her," Troen said. "I think [Israel studies is] a field that's just starting and growing, and I think there's a lot of opportunity to build it up," Wilson said. Rachel Litcofsky, the new program coordinator, most recently served as assistant director of public affairs at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, the Reform movement's seminary. Litcofsky, who started her position last week, declined to comment and deferred questions to Troen. "She has a lot of interest in Israel studies and that's one of the reasons she's come to work for us," Wilson said. Troen said Litcofsky lived in Israel for a year and will help create and manage programs, seminars and scholarships.She is married to Rabbi Greg Litcofsky, the spiritual leader of Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, Mass. "They're both people of experience and knowledge of the subject matter and [have] wonderful common sense," Troen said of his new hires. Still, Troen acknowledged that making the new Center successful will be challenging."It's going to be a lot of work," he said.
(09/25/07 4:00am)
The study abroad industry has recently come under fire, as college program providers are being investigated for offering universities so-called perks for exclusively sending students on their programs. Four of the five programs subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General's Office last month are programs approved by Brandeis, but the University's study abroad office says it hasn't been tainted by this scandal."None of the programs have made any type of qualifier in terms of our participation," Director of Study Abroad Scott Van Der Meid said. After The New York Times reported Aug. 13 that officials from private study abroad companies offer university officials money and trips in exchange for exclusively directing students to their programs, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo decided to research various companies' business practices. The Institute for Study Abroad affiliated with Butler University, the Institute for the International Education of Students, the Center for Education Abroad at Arcadia University and the Danish Institute for Study Abroad at the University of Copenhagen are University approved programs that have been subpoenaed. Brandeis sends 35 percent of its junior class abroad, many of whom travel on the four subpoenaed programs, Van Der Meid said.The American Institute for Foreign Study was also subpoenaed, but the program isn't approved for Brandeis students. Amy Bartnick-Blume, the vice president of Butler's study abroad program, told The Times they have "exclusive agreements" with certain institutions and provide around $500 to each student for maintaining that relationship.Van Der Meid denied ever steering students toward a certain program for the University's gain and said Brandeis has never been offered travel or financial incentives. "Any type of directing and advising that we're doing is more based on the student's criteria than any agenda that we have," Van Der Meid said.Some of the University's larger programs, however, provide students studying abroad with $50,000 in scholarship money, Van Der Meid said. The scholarships, ranging from $250 to $1,000 each, wouldn't be enough to sell a program, he said. "No student's going to pick a program over another over $1,000," he said. "This is a $25,000 expense."The Times reported that students often feel restricted to travel through the programs their study abroad offices approve. But at Brandeis, programs aren't approved by the Study Abroad Office, but by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, a group made up of faculty members, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe, and undergraduate and graduate student representatives.Students said they don't feel restricted even though they cannot apply to unapproved programs or to certain universities abroad and still receive credit. Still, applying directly to an unaproved university can be a cheaper option."You might not have every option in the world, but I wouldn't be able to choose if I did," said Holly Sarkissian '08 said, who studied in Cameroon last semester through the School for International Training.Students can't apply directly to most universities in Africa, Asia or Latin America, Van Der Meid said.If a program isn't approved by the UCC, Van Der Meid said students can petition him for approval. Though the UCC considers student services when choosing to approve a program, Sarkissian's experience suggests the Committee may want to revisit SIT.One night, Sarkissian said she and a few friends were attacked at a train station. "I feel like the program should have had someone traveling with us," she said. Jenna Fernandes (GRAD), who worked as a graduate assistant in the study abroad office over the summer, studied in Melbourne, Australia, through Butler's study abroad program in spring 2006.Fernandes said Butler is one of Brandeis' "top-10 [study abroad] providers." She added that the UCC is flexible and fair in its approval decisions, and that the Study Abroad Office and has no incentive to encourage one program over another. In deciding whether to approve a program, Van Der Meid said the UCC judges the academic rigor of the institution abroad, the student services provided by the program and whether Brandeis' peer institutions in New England were satisfied with the program.The institution must also be accredited, match Brandeis' liberal arts curriculum and offer foreign language courses. Students must also be eligible to receive credit for their majors or minors at the university. The UCC has approved roughly 250 programs in 69 countries. Without these various partnerships, students wouldn't have such a vast array of study abroad choices, Van Der Meid said. "We couldn't do what we do and offer as many opportunities for Brandeis students if we didn't work in collaboration with third-party program providers, other [U.S.] universities and overseas universities," he said. Fernandes said the University's Study Abroad Office oversees its approved programs to make sure they meet Brandeis' standards. Van Der Meid and faculty visit programs, meet with officials, sit in on classes and meet with students to evaluate programs every semester. Van Der Meid said the University pays for these trips, not program providers.Van Der Meid criticized The Times' report about the investigation of study abroad programs, saying it was full of "misinformation and misfacts."Both The Times and other publications are drawing parallels between these accusations and recent scandals in the student loan industry, but Van Der Meid said these industries are nothing alike. "It's comparing apples and oranges," he said of the two industries. In study abroad, students have many options, but when it comes to financial aid, students have only a few choices, he said.Brandeis stands out for its exceptional "quality control," Van Der Meid said, because the UCC, not the study abroad office, is charged with approving programs. Van Der Meid helped establish the Forum on Education Abroad, an organization that tries to set national standards for study abroad programs. In response to the Times article, Van Der Meid said he will serve on a Forum committee this month to examine the field's business practices."We are taking [the subpoenas] seriously in the sense that Brandeis is playing a role in the national conversation," he said, adding, "Study abroad hasn't had any national oversight. It's really left it up to every institution and what they do." Van Der Meid doesn't deny that unethical practices exist in the field. Study abroad has grown tenfold in the last decade, he said, and with that rapid growth, there's bound to be some unscrupulous practices on the way. Perhaps employing greater "checks and balances" on programs is the answer, he said. Michael Kerns contributed reporting.
(09/25/07 4:00am)
The University Registrar reported Friday that 84 percent of undergraduates have posted their cell phone numbers on SAGE as part of a new security initiative that allows administrators to send students, faculty and staff text messages in emergency situations. In the wake of April's shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the University has begun implementing several new emergency communications procedures. Aside from text messaging, alert sirens have been placed around campus and administrators can send voice and text messages to campus phones. The new systems cost "well over $100,000," Mark Collins, vice president of campus operations, said last month.Seventy-two percent of graduate students, 21 percent of faculty and 27 percent of staff have listed their cell phone numbers as well, according to Perry Hanson, vice president and head of Library and Technology Services. Students cited convenience as a reason to join the list."It's convenient if there's an emergency, to be notified about it, instead of having to ask about it. or having to wait for an official e-mail from the University," Rachel Kincad '10 said.The Registrar's data as of Friday show that 1,494 female undergraduates and 1,246 male undergraduates added their cell phone numbers on SAGE, 82 percent and 86 percent, respectively."I have been very impressed with the community response to add this mode of communication," Hanson wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "I didn't have a clue what the response would be."LTS is using Connect-Ed, an academically based emergency communications company, to organize the phone numbers. Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of New Mexico, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Cincinnati are just a few of the schools that have recently implemented similar text messaging notification systems. Princeton also works with Connect-Ed.No tests of the text messaging system are currently scheduled, Hanson said.
(09/11/07 4:00am)
An annual cash prize given to one faculty member will double in size next year, University President Jehuda Reinharz announced during Thursday afternoon's faculty meeting.Since 1995, the Wellington Prize, a $1,000 gift, has been presented to a tenure-track assistant professor chosen by lottery at the May faculty meeting. Starting next year, however, the winning professor will receive $2,000. "$1,000 is no longer enough," Reinharz said. "I decided to double it."The recipient must spend the money on something non-academic and then present how he or she spent the money at the September faculty meeting. The donor for the prize wishes to remain anonymous, Provost Marty Krauss wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. Reinharz announced the change immediately after prize winner Prof. Adrianne Krstansky (THA) told the faculty how she spent her prize. "Deciding how to spend this money really threw me into a crisis in a great way," said Krstansky, who ultimately decided to purchase a "very regular, unremarkable, great bike."She explained that as a child, riding her bike was one of her favorite activities next to playing piano. With her leftover money, Krstansky said she bought two paintings by Prof. Susan Dibble (THA), whose first gallery show was held last summer in Great Barrington, Mass. "[The paintings] have the spirit of Susan," she said. A tenure-track professor aims to receive eventual tenure, a more senior position and job security, from the University. The professor comes up for tenure review after six or seven years of teaching at Brandeis.
(09/04/07 4:00am)
For those of you still mourning the end of "Arrested Development" in 2006, there's a little-known show on the Internet that's bound to cheer you up. Clarkandmichael.com features all the deliciously uncomfortable, clever humor of the cancelled Fox series and stars real-life best friends Michael Cera (Evan, Superbad and George Michael, "Arrested") and Clark Duke, whose brand of comedy both resembles pioneers such as Andy Kaufman, and treads new waters in its depth. The Web site's 10 episodes, which last between eight and 12 minutes apiece, are completely hysterical. Cera, 19, and Duke, 22, play aspiring scriptwriters on their own reality show. The show chronicles their attempts to sell their script in Los Angeles (no network execs ever like it), pass driver's education class and make friends. Episodes are punctuated by their catfights, blank stares into the camera and drunken, emotional outbursts. Awkward doesn't begin to describe Cera in this role. In episode five, Cera's crush, a single mom in his driver's ed class, tells an endearing story about her four-year-old daughter. In perfect comedic timing, less than a second after she finishes the story, Cera turns to her and asks loudly, "Did you breast-feed her?" No one moves, the camera stays still on Cera's grinning face for a few uncomfortable seconds and then cuts immediately to the next scene. Equally funny is a later scene where the two wander into a video store. Cera calmly asks the clerk if they carry episodes of "Touched by Angel," but when the clerk responds in the negative, Cera breaks into a tantrum and knocks down a video rack. Duke comforts him as they leave.During a meeting with their agent in episode four, the agent tells them their script is offensive to Chinese people. Cera responds, deadpan, "Chinese people love controversy. We know that. Pearl Harbor." This scene is priceless for Duke. As the agent continues to call him "Michael," Duke makes agitated eye contact with the camera. Duke also particularly shines in episode five, when he discovers that a network stole his idea for a television show, "D.A. Dad." He loses his temper and storms into his lawyer's office, demanding retribution.According to the Web site, Cera and Duke co-wrote the episodes, and Duke directed the first one for his senior thesis at Loyola Marymount University. CBS then financed the shows online. The Internet is crawling with series like this one. More and more networks-ABC, NBC, MTV-are putting their shows online these days. But Cera and Duke stand out for their fantastically irreverant and offbeat performances.
(08/28/07 4:00am)
For those of you still mourning the end of "Arrested Development" in 2006, there's a little-known show on the Internet that's bound to cheer you up. Clarkandmichael.com features all the deliciously uncomfortable, clever humor of the cancelled Fox series and stars real-life best friends Michael Cera (Evan, Superbad and George Michael, "Arrested") and Clark Duke, whose brand of comedy both resembles pioneers such as Andy Kaufman, and treads new waters in its depth. The Web site's 10 episodes, which last between eight and 12 minutes apiece, are completely hysterical. Cera, 19, and Duke, 22, play aspiring scriptwriters on their own reality show. The show chronicles their attempts to sell their script in Los Angeles (no network execs ever like it), pass driver's education class and make friends. Episodes are punctuated by their catfights, blank stares into the camera and drunken, emotional outbursts. Awkward doesn't begin to describe Cera in this role. In episode five, Cera's crush, a single mom in his driver's ed class, tells an endearing story about her four-year-old daughter. In perfect comedic timing, less than a second after she finishes the story, Cera turns to her and asks loudly, "Did you breast-feed her?" No one moves, the camera stays still on Cera's grinning face for a few uncomfortable seconds and then cuts immediately to the next scene. Equally funny is a later scene where the two wander into a video store. Cera calmly asks the clerk if they carry episodes of "Touched by Angel," but when the clerk responds in the negative, Cera breaks into a tantrum and knocks down a video rack. Duke comforts him as they leave.During a meeting with their agent in episode four, the agent tells them their script is offensive to Chinese people. Cera responds, deadpan, "Chinese people love controversy. We know that. Pearl Harbor." This scene is priceless for Duke. As the agent continues to call him "Michael," Duke makes agitated eye contact with the camera. Duke also particularly shines in episode five, when he discovers that a network stole his idea for a television show, "D.A. Dad." He loses his temper and storms into his lawyer's office, demanding retribution.According to the Web site, Cera and Duke co-wrote the episodes, and Duke directed the first one for his senior thesis at Loyola Marymount University. CBS then financed the shows online. The Internet is crawling with series like this one. More and more networks-ABC, NBC, MTV-are putting their shows online these days. But Cera and Duke stand out for their fantastically irreverant and offbeat performances.
