(02/06/07 5:00am)
CORRECTION APPENDED (SEE BELOW)University President Jehuda Reinharz never expressed much enthusiasm for the idea of former President Jimmy Carter speaking on campus. Aside from ideological implications of hosting the author of a book critical of Israeli policy, the logistical concerns for such an event were staggering.So perhaps it came as little surprise when, two weeks after the 39th president visited Brandeis, administrators began to express their displeasure with how things had turned out.Speaking at a faculty meeting Thursday, Reinharz criticized the committee that invited Carter for leaving the University with a "huge bill" of $95,000 in security and logistical costs. And before Reinharz addressed the faculty, the University's senior administrator for fundraising acknowledged that Carter's visit has caused some donors to question their financial support. Meanwhile, at least one professor took the opportunity to criticize Reinharz's absence from the event.Carter defended his recent controversial book Jan. 23, and was rebutted shortly after by Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. The talks, and the events leading up to them, drew international attention.But the committee that invited Carter neglected to consult the administration regarding the invitation, the event's format, the extensive security and logistical costs or even the date and location of the event, Reinharz charged."Faculty members should not be allowed to invite whoever they want and leave Brandeis with a huge bill," he said. "We need to budget for these types of events." Reinharz did concede that, "on the whole, I think [the events were] good for the University."The committee that invited Carter initially had indicated that it would help pay for his visit, according to John Hose, Reinharz's executive assistant. "I don't think that at the time.they had the faintest idea of the kinds of costs involved or even the kinds of arrangements," Hose said in an interview Monday.Prof. Gordie Fellman (SOC), a member of the committee, contended that Reinharz had indicated publicly to the media including the Boston Globe that money would not be an obstacle. Fellman said he and colleagues set up a meeting with Reinharz to discuss the event, and that Reinharz rejected an offer to suggest changes to the invitation.In reporting the concerns of University donors, Nancy Winship, the senior vice president for institution advancement, said the e-mails "kept coming and coming." "We're just trying to repair the damage," she said during the faculty meeting. "The Middle East is just this trigger of emotions for our alumni and for our friends. For the most part, the donors who come to us come through the Jewish door."When you are depending on your support from non-alumni [and] friends of the University, any time you deal with the Middle East, it gets emotional," she added in an interview Monday. "It's a volatile subject." But Winship and Reinharz both firmly rejected Prof. Susan Lanser's (ENG) assertion during the meeting that intellectual discussions and debates seem to be determined by donors' wishes. "I know many, many faculty who do not feel that they can speak freely about the Middle East," Lanser said. Reinharz responded: "Donors are not the issue." Winship also denied any connection between donors and speakers. "We don't make any [academic] decisions based on donors' wishes," she said Monday.Even as Reinharz criticized the faculty, he found himself under fire. Professors complained that he had disassociated himself from the event, and were especially upset that he had not attended, insisting he should have changed his schedule. Reinharz rejected such claims."I have not disassociated myself from anything," he said. "This event was set up without any consultation with me. My role is to enable faculty and students to have people on the campus as long as it's a civil and safe debate. Reinharz was out of town on a previously scheduled fundraising trip, Hose said last month. Reinharz got in touch with Carter to request that the former President come on a different date, according to Hose."If it was important to the faculty for me to be there, they would have told me the dates beforehand," Reinharz said at the meeting. "My schedule is set a year in advance." Looking ahead, Reinharz expressed concern that, following Carter's and Dershowitz's visits, students and faculty are extending invitations to inflammatory speakers on the Middle East, referring to current efforts to bring Daniel Pipes and Norman Finkelstein to campus. "I have a fear that these people who are being invited are weapons of mass destruction," Reinharz said.Hose elaborated Monday on Reinharz's point: "These are people who tend to inflame passions, whose mission is not so much discussion and education as it is theater, a show."Hose encouraged the community to utilize the Middle East experts and scholars at Brandeis to engage the campus in discussion. "If [students] want theater, then it's best to go to Spingold," he said. "But if you want serious discussion, there's lots of resources available for that already at Brandeis."(CORRECTION: Because of an editing error, the article specified incorrectly the day of the faculty meeting at which Reinharz spoke. The meeting was Thursday, not Friday.)
(01/30/07 5:00am)
J. Larry Brown, the former director of the Center on Hunger and Poverty and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, filed a $3-million lawsuit against the University and Provost Marty Krauss earlier this month, alleging that Krauss violated the faculty handbook when she fired him and that the University tried to prevent him from accessing his research funds following his termination.In June 2000 Brown moved the Center and Institute from Tufts University, where he founded both, to the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, bringing his staff and $3 million in funding with him. He filed his complaint Jan. 18 at the Middlesex Superior Court but declined to comment on his allegations. "The University is doing everything within its legal rights and we're going to fight this vigorously," said Krauss, who was Heller's associate dean for faculty before assuming her role as provost in 2003.According to the Brown's court complaint, after he was fired the University attempted to keep control of $875,000 of the Center's grant funding and to stop Brown from establishing his Center elsewhere. Although he and the original grantors have retrieved most of that funding now, it was a struggle to get the University to release the funds, the court documents say.Brown alleges that after he was fired, Brandeis "thwarted explicit directions from corporate and private foundations" to transfer the remaining funds for the Center back to them. Krauss refutes those claims."The Center was transferred to the University," Krauss said Friday afternoon. "He doesn't own the Center; the University does." And, she said, "grants are given to institutions, not people."According to Brown's complaint, when he signed a contract to come work for Brandeis, he signed over ownership of the Institute, but not the Center, which operates alongside the National Program on Women and Aging under the auspices of the Institute.In one instance, the University "misrepresented" to a donor Brandeis' expertise in the field of domestic hunger in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the grant funding at Brandeis," according to the complaint. Brown said none of his staff remained at the Center after he left, but the University told the donor that the staff was still there.Prof. Thomas Shapiro (Heller) became the director of the Institute on Assets and Social Policy in May 2006, Kristen Stevens, a program administrator at the Institute, said.Shapiro did not return two requests for comment.Krauss said Shapiro is overseeing both the Center and the Institute, but Stevens said there is no director for the Center right now.When Brown was hired in June 2000 by Jack Shonkoff, the then-dean of Heller, he claims he was promised a faculty position "that would be commensurate with his position at Tufts," where he held a lifetime professorship.Though Shonkoff didn't specify which faculty title he would receive, Brown said he was guaranteed a teaching position at Heller. Shonkoff refused to comment for this article.Four years after he moved from Tufts, Brown became the first person to be named a distinguished scientist at Brandeis, and in that capacity he taught undergraduate and graduate courses and conducted research.Krauss maintains Brown was never a professor-a claim that Brown vigorously disputes, and one that would put his firing outside the authority of the faculty handbook. "He did not have a faculty appointment," Krauss said.Although more than 10 different teaching and research positions are mentioned in the faculty handbook, the title of distinguished scientist is never mentioned.According to the complaint, Krauss fired Brown because she thought his use of a staffer to send an e-mail regarding a potential grant instead of sending it himself was inappropriate and constituted misconduct.krauss said the University has a policy to not discuss personnel issues, so she could not comment.Brown's complaint alleges that Krauss made clear that this charge was "non-negotiable" and that she would fire him unless he signed a letter admitting to the charges and giving up his status at Brandeis, agreeing that his contract would not be renewed. The next day, when Brown refused to sign the letter, he was promptly fired, his salary and health benefits were cut, the locks on all doors were changed so he couldn't get into his office and his e-mail account was closed, according to the complaint.Locking him out of his e-mail was particularly damaging, the complaint says, because it blocked access to "thousands of e-mails relating to on-going research, and his work with student advisees on research projects was abruptly terminated."The disagreement over his title became an issue once Brown was fired. Brown said he tried to appeal to the faculty committee on rights and responsibilities, saying Krauss had violated firing procedures outlined in the faculty handbook, but was turned away. In his complaint, Brown says he heard the "real reason" he was fired was because Krauss disagreed with his style of research.She declined to comment on the firing itself. The University received word of the charges last week and has three weeks to respond. The suit seeks $1.5 million in direct monetary damages and $1.5 million for emotional distress.Once Krauss became the Provost in 2003 and Shonkoff stepped down as Heller's dean in June 2005, Brown says matters took a turn for the worse.His co-authoring of "Building a Real Ownership Society" in 2005 with Shapiro, who now heads the Institute, and Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and current editor in chief of The American Prospect, a liberal political magazine, bothered Krauss, Brown claims. She accused him of writing "a political advocacy piece" that was "non-scholarly" and "quite snide, sneering in places," according to his complaint.Brown says he felt "trapped": Shonkoff had recruited him for his commitment to social justice, but the Provost doesn't consider advocacy a scholarly pursuit."Dr. Brown felt intimidated by Defendant Krauss's attack on his scholarship," the complaint reads. "As a contract faculty member, he knew that his reappointment was at the pleasure of the Provost."Also upsetting to the Provost, according to the court document, was Brown's legal dispute with Alan Shawn-Feinstein, a Rhode Island philanthropist. The two reached a settlement last July after a three-year dispute over the Center's naming rights and funding.Feinstein, the founder of the foundation of the same name that donates millions of dollars to Rhode Island schools and other American hunger-fighting institutions, accused Brown in an August 2003 lawsuit filed in a Rhode Island District Court of breaching his contract by keeping Feinstein from tagging his name on the Center's title.Brown filed a countersuit the following month alleging that Feinstein backed out of his promise to donate $3 million to the Center.
(01/30/07 5:00am)
Following weeks of uncertainty over whether and in what format he would address the campus, former President Jimmy Carter spoke for about 20 minutes before answering preselected questions from nine students in a packed Shapiro Gymnasium Tuesday.Assistant Dean of Student Life Alwina Bennett, who worked on the logistics of the Carter event, estimated its total cost to the University to be "somewhere between $75,000 and $100,000."Carter, whose speech defended the ideas presented in his recent book, was rebutted almost immediately by Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz in an event that capped about a month of controversy over the circumstances of their visits and the contents of Carter's controversial book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."My bottom line was that the Palestinians are horribly treated, and their treatment is not known or minimally known in the United States," he said of his book. "I chose that title knowing that it would be provocative."But, Carter acknowledged, the title may have been counterproductive to initiating peaceful dialogue. "I realize this has caused great concern in the Jewish community," he said, emphasizing that he believes the word "apartheid" applies only to the conditions in the Palestinian territories and not in Israel proper.The widespread criticism of his book did not compare to snubs he received on his many campaign trails, Carter said to the crowd of about 1,700."This is the first time I've ever been called a liar, a bigot, an anti-Semite, a coward and a plagiarist. This has hurt me," Carter explained.Still, in his first major address on the book, Carter did not respond directly to the criticisms Dershowitz had made against his book. But he seemed to embrace the controversy leading up to his visit, joking that "I didn't think that Brandeis needed a Harvard professor to tell you how to" hold constructive dialogue.The former President called his invitation to speak at Brandeis "the most exciting invitation I've ever received," except for the invitation from Congress to deliver his inaugural address. Although most of the questions he was asked were critical, the audience greeted his answers with applause, and gave him a standing ovation upon both entrance and exit.Carter described his first-hand observations of the hardships faced by Palestinians living in the West Bank, accusing Israel of running the Palestinian Territories in a manner analogous to the state-sponsored system of segregation between blacks and whites in South Africa during the mid-20th century."The forced separation and domination of Arabs by Israelis," he said, is exemplified by the "dividing wall" that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories, the hundreds of checkpoints Palestinians are forced to cross to enter into Israel and the "spider web" of roads that connect the Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank. "Palestinians are not permitted to get on those roads or even to cross some of them," Carter said. "All this makes the lives of Palestinians almost intolerable."Carter expressed his hope for peace, arguing that Israel needs to withdraw completely from the West Bank and return to its 1967 borders. Carter spoke of his personal stake in Israel's security that started at the age of three when he was taught as an evangelical Christian to "protect the chosen people." In 1978, Carter helped negotiate the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, which established diplomatic relations between the two countries.Since then, however, the peace process has regressed, he said."I left office believing Israel would soon realize its dream of peace with its neighbors," he said. "The current policies are leading toward an immoral outcome . and not bringing peace to the state of Israel."Yet, he voiced optimism for the Middle East's future, an attitude he said he learned from his experience negotiating the agreement between Israel and Egypt. "The Jordanians want peace, the Egyptians want peace, the Palestinians want peace, the Israelis want peace," and it is only "a minority of Israelis" who are the "driving force" of Palestinian persecution, he said. Carter called on the University to send a group of faculty and students to the Palestinian territories to observe the situation first-hand."My suggestion is that you form a delegation of 10 people and go to the West Bank, and just spend three days," he said. "You decide if what I said is accurate. I would guess that you would be amazed at what the impact of your report would have in this nation, on members of Congress and on Israel."The former President, the first to speak at Brandeis since Harry Truman gave the commencement address in 1957, had rejected a suggestion by the University last month that he debate the points made in his book against Dershowitz, an outspoken defender of Israel. Instead, Carter accepted an invitation from a committee of students and faculty two weeks ago to take the podium alone. Dershowitz, who previously called Carter a "coward" for refusing to debate him, watched Carter's speech on a closed-circuit television in the Bernstein administrative building before he took the same stage about 30 minutes later.In response to Adam Schwartzbaum's '07 question about a passage in his book that Schwartzbaum said seemed to justify the use of terrorism as a political strategy, Carter said the sentence was worded in "a stupid way" and that it would be removed from future editions of his book. "I apologize for the wording of that sentence," he said. "It was a mistake on my part and it is being corrected."Answering a much-anticipated question, Carter acknowledged that his Atlanta-based Carter Center had accepted donations from Saudi Arabia. But, he said, all money he is given, whether from donors or as awards, is sent to the Center, whose accounting is heavily scrutinized."I receive no benefit at all from those sources, and never will."Carter sharply criticized the media's lack of coverage of Palestinian issues and the absence of a healthy debate in the United States regarding Israel's policies. "There had been a lack of concerted effort to bring peace to America's ally in the Middle East: Israel," he said. "Any debate is still practically nonexistent within the U.S. Congress."Carter called on the United State's partners in the "quartet", the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, to "take some responsibility from the U.S.'s shoulders." Greater involvement by other groups in peace negotiations will help move the process along, he said. "No longer does the United States have to be the sole negotiator," he said. Prof. Mari Fitzduff, the director of the master's program in intercommunal coexistence who moderated the event, said that 178 questions for Carter submitted online were condensed into 12 sections. Carter had not seen the selected questions prior to the event, Fitzduff said.Ido Givon '07, who asked Carter about Israel's security needs, said that as a former soldier in the Israeli army, he believes Carter's assessment of the conflict is incorrect. "Calling the situation an apartheid is completely false," Givon said, adding that Carter's answers to students' questions seemed disingenuous. "As an experienced politician, he knew exactly what to say."Students and faculty said having Carter speak was a great honor for the University, one that may spark change in the nature of the campus's discussion on the Mideast conflict."I am very, very proud of our students," said Stephen Kay, the chair of the Board of Trustees, of the questions students asked of Carter. While Kay said he doesn't "happen to agree with [Carter] at all," he praised the invitations of both Dershowitz and Carter as evidence of the strong and open intellectual environment at Brandeis. Prof. David Hackett Fischer (HIST), who introduced Carter, encouraged everyone to read his book. "It's a quick read and it took me by surprise," he said. "It's a very serious book; it's a very thoughtful book."John Hose, University President Jehuda Reinharz's Assistant, said Reinharz could not attend the events Tuesday because he was out of town on a previously scheduled fundraising trip. Reinharz wrote to Carter to find out if the former president could visit on another date, but Carter was unavailable on the dates Reinharz suggested, Hose said.Miles said the Shapiro gym was the largest campus venue that could be used during the week to host the event because of city restrictions. -Miranda Neubauer and Dan Hirschhorn contributed reporting.
(01/23/07 5:00am)
Following weeks of uncertainty over whether and in what format he would address the campus, former President Jimmy Carter spoke for about 20 minutes before answering pre-selected questions from nine students in a packed Shapiro Gymnasium Tuesday.Carter, whose speech defended the ideas presented in his recent book, was rebutted almost immediately by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz in an event that capped months of controversy over the circumstances of their visits and the contents of Carter's controversial book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."My bottom line was that the Palestinians are horribly treated, and their treatment is not known or minimally known in the United States," he said of his book. "I chose that title knowing that it would be provocative."But, Carter acknowledged, the title may have been counterproductive to initiating peaceful dialogue. "I realize this has caused great concern in the Jewish community," he said, emphasizing that he believes the word "apartheid" applies only to the conditions in the Palestinian territories and not in Israel proper.The widespread criticism of his book did not compare to snubs he received on his many campaign trails, Carter said to the crowd of about 1,700."This is the first time I've ever been called a liar, a bigot, an anti-Semite, a coward and a plagiarist. This has hurt me."Still, in his first major address on his book, Carter did not respond directly to the criticisms Dershowitz had made against his book. But he seemed to embrace the controversy leading up to his visit, joking that "I didn't think that Brandeis needed a Harvard professor to tell you how to" hold constructive dialogue.The former president called his invitation to speak at Brandeis "the most exciting invitation I've ever received" except for the invitation from Congress to deliver his inaugural address. Although most of the questions he was asked were critical, the audience largely greeted his answers with applause, and gave him a standing ovation on both entrance and exit.Carter described his first-hand observations of the hardships faced by Palestinians living in the West Bank, accusing Israel of running the Palestinian territories in a manner analogous to the state-sponsored system of segregation between blacks and whites in South Africa in the mid-20th century."The forced separation and domination of Arabs by Israelis," he said, is exemplified by the "dividing wall" that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories, the hundreds of checkpoints Palestinians are forced to cross to enter into Israel and the "spider web" of roads that connect the Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank. "Palestinians are not permitted to get on those roads or even to cross some of them," Carter said. "All this makes the lives of Palestinians almost intolerable."Carter expressed his hope for peace, arguing that Israel needs to withdraw completely from the West Bank and return to its 1967 borders. Carter spoke of his personal stake in Israel's security that started at the age of three when he was taught as an evangelical Christian to "protect the chosen people." In 1978, Carter helped negotiate the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, which established diplomatic relations between the two countries.Since then, however, the peace process has taken a downturn, he said."I left office believing Israel would soon realize its dream of peace with its neighbors," he said. "The current policies are leading toward an immoral outcome.and not bringing peace to the state of Israel."Yet he voiced optimism for the Middle East's future, which he said he learned from his experience negotiating the agreement between Israel and Egypt. "The Jordanians want peace, the Egyptians want peace, the Palestinians want peace, the Israelis want peace."And it is only "a minority of Israelis" who are the "driving force" of Palestinian persecution, he said. Carter called on the University to send a group of faculty and students to the Palestinian territories to observe the situation first-hand."My suggestion is that you form a delegation of 10 people and go to the West Bank, and just spend three days," he said. "You decide if what I said is accurate. I would guess that you would be amazed at what the impact of your report would have in this nation, on members of Congress and on Israel."The former president, the first to speak at Brandeis since Harry Truman gave the commencement address in 1957, had rejected a suggestion by the University last month that he debate the points made in his book with Dershowitz, an outspoken defender of Israel and critic of Carter's. Instead, Carter accepted an invitation from a committee of students and faculty last Wednesday to take the podium alone. Dershowitz, who called Carter a "coward" for refusing to debate him, watched Carter's speech on a closed-circuit television in the Bernstein administrative building, before he took the same stage about 30 minutes later.In response to a question from Adam Schwartzbaum '07 about a passage in his book that Schwartzbaum said seemed to justify the use of terrorism as a political tool, Carter said the sentence was worded in "a stupid way" and that it would be removed from future editions of his book. "I apologize for the wording of that sentence," he said. "It was a mistake on my part and it is being corrected.Answering a much-anticipated question, Carter acknowledged that his Atlanta-based Center had accepted donations from Saudi Arabia. But, he said, all money he is given, whether from donors or as awards, is transferred to the Center, whose accounting is heavily scrutinized."I receive no benefit at all from those sources, and never will."Carter sharply criticized the media's lack of coverage of Palestinian issues, and the absence of a healthy debate in the United States regarding Israel's policies. "There had been a lack of concerted effort to bring peace to America's ally in the Middle East; Israel," he said. "Any debate is still practically nonexistent within the U.S. Congress."Carter called on the United State's partners in the Quartet, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, to "take some responsibility from the U.S.'s shoulders." Greater involvement by other groups in peace negotiations will help move the process along, he said. "No longer does the United States have to be the sole negotiator," he said. Prof. Mari Fitzduff, the director of the master's program in intercommunal coexistence who moderated the event, said that 178 questions for Carter submitted online were condensed into 12 sections. The questions selected had not been seen by Carter prior to the event, Fitzduff said.Ido Givon '07, who asked Carter about Israel's security needs, said that as a former soldier in the Israeli army, he believes Carter's assessment of the conflict is incorrect. "Calling the situation an apartheid is completely false," Givon said, adding that Carter's answers to students' questions seemed disingenuous. "As an experienced politician, he knew exactly what to say."Students and faculty said having Carter speak was a great honor for the University, one that may spark change in the nature of the campus's discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."I am very, very proud of our students," said Stephen Kay, the chair of the Board of Trustees, of the questions students asked of Carter. While Kay said he doesn't "happen to agree with [Carter] at all," he praised the invitations of both Dershowitz and Carter as evidence of the strong and open intellectual environment at Brandeis. Prof. David Hackett Fischer (HIST), who introduced Carter, encouraged everyone to read his book. "It's a quick read and it took me by surprise," he said. "It's a very serious book; it's a very thoughtful book."John Hose, the assistant to the University President said University President Jehuda Reinharz could not attend the events today because he was out of town on a previously scheduled fundraising trip. Though Hose said Reinharz wrote to Carter to find out if he could visit on another date, Reinharz was informed that it was the only date available. Miranda Neubauer contributed reporting to this article.
(01/16/07 5:00am)
The faculty looked anxious, sitting in Olin-Sang Auditorium at last October's faculty meeting. All eyes in the room were fixed on University President Jehuda Reinharz. He took the podium, exuding a confidence echoed in the words that followed. Five months ago, Reinharz had decided to remove a student's exhibit of drawings by Palestinian children that troubled some on this campus; among the works was one depicting a Star of David in the form of a snake coil. The decision to remove the exhibit after only four days of its planned two-week stay in the Goldfarb Library was met by a rally several days later of students, faculty and others. The protesters accused the University of censoring art, inhibiting academic freedom and promoting a right-wing Israeli agenda. The controversy was heavily played out in the media and on blogs, and the University consequently received some very critical press. Moments before taking the podium, Reinharz listened intently to professors speaking candidly about their disapproval of the decision. They also discussed the suggestions made by a faculty committee for how to amend the process by which a student puts up an exhibit. Standing at the podium, Reinharz spoke clearly and concisely. "I do think we need to move on," he said. Tired and restless with the debate that had ensnared the campus since the removal last May, Reinharz took responsibility for the decision, and thanked the faculty for expressing their opinions and suggestions for how to handle similar situations in the future. The "move on" response, among others by Reinharz this year, troubled and puzzled students and faculty, who say the campus is in need of more open, balanced discourse on Israel. Prof. Gordie Fellman (SOC), a well-known liberal activist on campus, said at the faculty October meeting, "I think the real issue that was triggered is the way the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is addressed at Brandeis." He criticized Reinharz for removing the exhibit and recommended the faculty support more students with a wide range of opinions get involved in the discussion.Israel has been a hot topic on this campus for years, but in 2006, the discourse transcended its subject, and focused instead on how to have the discussion. The controversies brought to light the strong perception among outsiders, who look at Brandeis and see a Jewish university, that the administration maintains a tight hold on the Israel debate. Prof. Harry Mairson (COSI), the chair of the faculty senate, spoke at the faculty meeting in October on the exhibit's removal. He said the uproar over the exhibit was due to the fact that the artwork painted Israelis, and by extension Jews, in a negative light. "That's why this crisis, at Brandeis, attracted such public notoriety. Free speech issues at universities don't make news like this," Mairson said. Naomi Safran-Hon '07, an Israeli student, suggested that debates on Israel are one-sided, leaning to the right. "I don't think people here are ready to see these images," she said of the exhibit. The latest controversy broke in The Boston Globe, which reported last month that Reinharz would only allow former President Jimmy Carter to speak on campus about his book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, if he agreed to debate Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor and outspoken critic of Carter's book. Kevin Montgomery '07, who helps lead a faculty and student committee that is bringing Carter to campus this semester, told The Globe that most speakers brought to Brandeis to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict favor Israel. "I think there's a basic lack of debate here about Israel and Palestine . and I think it feeds a lack of understanding of the other side," he said. The Palestinian art removal was one of several controversies on campus that exploded in the media. Certainly Brandeis is no stranger to the press. Professors are used to discussing their research and awards with journalists; exhibits at the Rose Art Museum frequently meet glowing reviews. But 2006 saw a bombardment of media attention on the administration's handling of discourse related to the Middle East. The administration's commitment to objective discussion was questioned by students, faculty and other supporters. At times, lost in the sea of controversy were Brandeis' achievements. The University celebrated its best fundraising year ever, raising over $81.3 million in 2006. Brandeis also kicked off construction on a new, $154 million science quad in the fall. A student group campaigned for and won HIV testing in the Health Center. The campus honored the 150th birthday of its namesake with an array of academic and social events. The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman '75 returned to his alma mater to co-teach an economics course this past semester. Two more community members, Yehudi Wyner, a music professor who retired in 2005, and David Oshinsky '71, garnered Pulitzer Prizes-Wyner for a composition and Oshnsky for a landmark study of the polio virus in America. Profs. David Cunningham (SOC) and Karen Hansen (SOC) both received Guggenheim fellowships. In May, Brandeis students joined thousands for a rally in the nation's capital calling for an end to the genocide in Sudan.But these achievements didn't capture anyone's attention nearly as much as Reinharz's decisions to forge a partnership with Al-Quds University, a Palestinian institution in Jerusalem; to remove the exhibit of artwork by Palestinian children; to bestow the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, who is routinely accused of being anti-Israel, with an honorary degree; and to defend Khalil Shikaki, a senior fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies rumored to be connected to a terrorist group. "I think some of the media was very unfortunate and not terribly accurate," said Lorna Miles, the senior vice president of communications, who serves as a frequent spokesperson to the media.The articles about controversies at Brandeis, she said, just make her office work harder to get more positive stories out there. "We need to cut through some of the clutter," she said. While the perception that Reinharz keeps a tight grasp on the debate is strewn across the Internet, particularly on anti-Zionist blogs, at the same time, the perception that Reinharz is not doing enough to protect the debate is also expressed, particularly in the Jewish press.Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, was particularly vocal in his criticism of most of Reinharz's moves last year. Klein said on several occasions that Reinharz was allowing dangerous points of view on Israel to circulate the campus. He also said that under Reinharz's leadership, the University had abandoned the values and ideals of Louis Brandeis, the University's namesake, whom he argued was a great Zionist. "We are certain that Justice Louis Brandeis would be turning over in his grave if he know this honor was being given to Tony Kushner in the Zionist Justice's name," Klein said.Reinharz disregarded the attacks by the ZOA and others. He defended Al-Quds, Shikaki and Kushner. And he vigorously denied that censorship had anything to do with removing the Palestinian art exhibit, explaining that the exhibit had been displayed in a confusing form and "lacked sufficient explanation." A lot of questions about how to create dynamic debate on such charged topics were posed this year. In 2007, the search continues.
(11/07/06 5:00am)
The former bosses of two fired University employees who have filed age-discrimination claims against Brandeis said last week that the fired staffers were excellent employees under their supervision.Mary Sullivan, 54, a varsity softball coach for 32 years before being fired abruptly this summer, and 59-year-old Cliff Hauptman '69 M.F.A. '73, who worked in admissions and public affairs for 14 years, have said their firings were not based on their performances.Both Sullivan and Hauptman have claims pending with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. And while they both said the supervisors who fired them expressed displeasure with their work, their former bosses said they had no complaints about their performances. Jeff Cohen '64, who was Athletics Director until he was fired in 2004 (click here for sidebar), said that despite up-and-down records from season to season, Sullivan was hardworking and cared deeply for her players."I thought that her teams were generally competitive in New England," Cohen said in a phone interview. "They had some difficulty competing in the UAA."But this record never bothered Cohen. "Wins and losses were secondary," he said. "I don't believe we have our teams strictly to win." Both Athletics Director Sheryl Sousa and Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy were unavailable for comment at press time.Alumni have created informal committees in support of both Sullivan and Hauptman. The MCAD has been conducting an investigation of Hauptman's claim since last June when the organization determined the claim warranted further consideration. Hauptman worked in the Office of Admissions and later in the Office of Public Affairs as director of creative services and editor of The Brandeis Review-the alumni magazine, now called Brandeis University Magazine-for 12 years.Hauptman was hired in 1991 by a team that included Michael Kalafatas '65, who worked as the director of admissions for 35 years until he retired in 2002. "I certainly know his work with profound closeness," Kalafatas said Sunday. "In my judgment, he always fully met my expectations down the line."Hauptman was a "wonderful writer [who wrote with] crisp and imaginative prose," Kalafatas added. According to Hauptman, Senior Vice-President of Communications Lorna Miles, who came to Brandeis in 2003, felt threatened by his seniority in the office and fired him to gain more control."I was the oldest one [in the Office of Communications] besides her and I think she just needed to take charge," Hauptman said last week. "[Miles] wanted somebody younger who was not a clear, competing authority."In 1993, Hauptman moved to the Office of Public Affairs, now called the Office of Communications, and worked for Michal Regunberg '71, Miles' predecessor. Regunberg, who resigned in 2002 as the vice president for public affairs, said that under Hauptman's leadership, The Brandeis Review reached "a new level." Regunberg and Kalafatas agreed that Hauptman worked extremely well with his staff and had its respect. The Office of Human Resources would not release any information about Hauptman.
(11/07/06 5:00am)
Jeff Cohen '64, the former director of athletics for 18 years, said he was fired abruptly in January 2004 without any clear reason. At the time of his firing, Cohen told the Justice he had resigned, but would not say why.But in a phone interview Sunday, Cohen said he's still not sure why the administration fired him so suddenly. "I never really had a straight answer as to why I was fired," he said this week. "I thought it was pretty abrupt." Cohen's disclosure comes in the wake of two employees filing age-discrimination grievances against Brandeis, and their supporters criticize the University for harsh treatment of its staff.Cohen said the University is moving in a different direction, judging by its recent firings and hirings, but he would not elaborate on what that new direction is.Sullivan, Hauptman and their supporters said the firings are indicative of a trend toward what they called a "corporatization of the University," referring to an increased focus on money and callous staff management.
(10/31/06 5:00am)
Two former University employees have filed age discrimination claims against Brandeis, claiming their firings were unwarranted and handled poorly by administrators.Fifty-nine-year-old Cliff Hauptman '69, M.F.A. '73, who worked here in multiple capacities for 14 years in the Office of Admissions and the Office of Communications, said his firing last November was discriminatory and based on his age.And Mary Sullivan, 54, who was fired abruptly this summer after 32 years as the University's varsity softball coach, alleges her firing was based on her age.They have both filed complaints with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.Administrators, including University President Jehuda Reinharz and Hauptman's former boss Senior Vice President for Communications Lorna Miles, declined to comment on the firings or the discrimination claims, saying that personnel matters are confidential.Sullivan, Hauptman and their supporters say the firings are indicative of a trend toward what they called "corporatization of the University," referring to an increased focus on money and callous staff management."I was the oldest one there [in the Office of Communications] besides her and I think she just needed to take charge," Hauptman said. "[Miles] wanted somebody younger who was not a clear competing authority."An MCAD investigator decided in June that his claim was valid and worthy of further investigation, one that could take up to 18 months.Hauptman was 58 when Lorna Miles, who came to the University to become the senior vice president of communications in 2003, fired him. "Ms. Miles's hiring of an individual substantially younger than I am to perform the same duties and responsibilities gave rise to an inference of age discrimination," Hauptman wrote in an affidavit last March filed with the MCAD.Sullivan's MCAD claim is still pending."I believe I was fired because the Athletics Department is looking for younger coaches," Sullivan said. "I don't believe it was a just firing. I was not treated with any dignity or respect whatsoever."Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy, who oversees the Athletics Department, was away from campus and unavailable for comment. Director of Athletics Sherly Sousa has declined to comment for previous articles about Sullivan.Robert Weintraub '55, who formed a committee in support of Hauptman, said he was so disgusted by the firing that he sent letters to 125 alumni asking that they write Reinharz and other administrators to express their dissatisfaction. "[Hauptman] devoted his career to Brandeis and they just took that away from him, and they don't care," Weintraub said. "They don't give a damn about it. It's just beyond belief to us what is happening."A senior faculty member echoed those concerns as well as worries about a larger shift in firing practices, saying that Hauptman and others have been fired "brutally." The professor was granted anonymity for fear of administrative retaliation.Weintraub said he still loves Brandeis and hasn't withdrawn any financial support, but added that the committee may consider such action.Micah Naftalin '55 was one of about 15 alumni who wrote to Reinharz criticizing the firing, according to Weintraub. In a letter responding to Naftalin, Reinharz called Weintraub's story "seriously distorted.""I would hope you know Brandeis well enough to know that the University always considers carefully an individual's personal circumstances, years of service, contributions and accomplishments when making any personnel decision," Reinharz wrote.Hauptman said he called and e-mailed Reinharz multiple times hoping to meet with him, but was referred by Reinharz's assistant, John Hose, to the General Counsel's office. Hauptman said the office wouldn't speak with him.Sullivan reported similar problems in trying to meet with Reinharz.Hauptman said that Miles cited "poor performance" when firing him. But he insisted she felt threatened by his seniority.Hauptman joined the Office of Communications, then called the Office of Public Affairs, in 1993, and was the director of creative services and the editor of The Brandeis Review, an alumni magazine, now called The Brandeis University Magazine, for 12 years. According to Hauptman, Miles initiated a "systematic marginalization" of him in the office in order to assert her authority and gain more control in the office. "I had a very, very strong following among my staff," Hauptman said.Until Miles became his boss in 2003, Hauptman said he always received "glowing" reviews of his work. But in Miles' 2005 review, she criticized his managerial skills. "Upon receipt of the review, I was shocked at its negativity and brutality," Hauptman wrote in his affidavit.Hauptman said Miles demoted him to senior writer of the magazine last spring because she planned to cut the creative services division. However, this division still exists, and is headed by Kenneth Gornstein, 47, who Miles hired in July 2005 as a replacement, Hauptman said.Miles hired Gornstein to publish the alumni magazine and serve as director of communications in the communications and creative services division. Miles hired Theresa Pease, 60, to edit the magazine last May.Hauptman said he received a 15 percent pay cut as a senior writer, but accepted the position because he wanted to stay at Brandeis. Four months later, Miles fired Hauptman "on the spot," Hauptman said, and immediately shut him out of his e-mail account."That is such a sudden and insensitive way to get rid of somebody," Hauptman said. "It's common business practice, but it's not common Brandeis practice."Hauptman characterized the severance package Miles offered as unsatisfactory. It included one more semester of a discounted tuition for his daughter, currently a senior at Brandeis, but no salary or medical coverage. In order to receive the 75 percent tuition discount given to faculty and staff, Hauptman said he had to sign away his right to contest the firing.Sullivan, who spoke extensively with the Justice about her firing last month, again said her firing was abrupt and "heartbreaking.""This was not a job - this was my life," Sullivan said Saturday.She refused to accept her severance package, calling it "nothing to speak of." It included two months' salary and medical coverage, she said. Sullivan said it's difficult for someone of her age and experience to find a new job."Who's going to hire a 54-year-old coach that's been fired?" she said. Hauptman has taken a job as the director of communications at the Pike School, a private elementary and middle school in Andover, Mass., after seven months of unemployment.The University hired the law firm Holland and Knight to handle the case, Hauptman said. A spokesperson for the firm would not confirm any representation of the University.
(10/24/06 4:00am)
A student severely cut by glass, naked and profusely bleeding left Reitman Hall in an ambulance last Tuesday night, in what one person confirmed was a drug-related incident. Residents said the student, who is in stable condition, was cut when he threw himself toward a glass window adjacent to the bathroom on Reitman One around 8:30 p.m.The student didn't fall from the building, and much about the incident remains unclear, including whether or not the student had attempted suicide.But one person with first-hand knowledge of the incident, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, confirmed reports that the student had ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms earlier that night.Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said he did not know whether drugs were involved, but rumors about mushrooms spread around campus last week, recalling for some upperclassmen the death of Eliezer Schwartz '04, who fell from the third-story balcony of a Gloucester apartment building in November 2003. Witnesses said Schwartz had eaten mushrooms earlier that evening. The floor near the middle of Reitman One was covered in splotches of blood Tuesday where the student collapsed, after suffering severe lacerations on his left breast and armpit area. The window by the bathroom was shattered with blood splattered on the walls and the carpet.As the carpets were being shampooed late last Tuesday-just hours after police and Residence Life officials sealed off the entire hall-residents gave consistent accounts, but most acknowledged that they hadn't seen enough to know the whole story.Residents said they heard a loud crash in the bathroom before they saw the student stumbling through the hallway, naked and bleeding. Jonathan Wallace '10, who lives on the hall, said the student, looking disoriented, stumbled into his room and stood in the doorway for about 10 seconds. Wallace and his roommates led out the student, who left behind him a trail of blood on the carpet and on their door. The student then slammed into another window at the end of the hall, witnesses said, before he stumbled back to the middle of the hall and collapsed. Wallace said that it didn't seem like the student was trying to throw himself through the second window, but the person with first-hand knowledge of the incident characterized the way the student broke the first window as a likely suicide attempt.Schwartz's death in 2003 sparked visible debate about mushroom-use on campus. Schwartz's friends always maintained that his suicide didn't make sense, and that his actions must have been spurred by the mushrooms."One person's enlightenment can be another person's hell," Dawn Skop, the University's drug and alcohol counselor, told the Justice a few months after Schwartz's death. "Everyone reacts differently to these drugs. Let the buyer beware." The community advisor on Reitman One declined comment, citing Residence Life regulations. Callahan and administrators said they didn't know whether the student was attempting suicide.Public Safety received a call from a resident at 8:40 p.m., who said he saw the student bleeding in the hallway, Callahan said. A student that residents identified as the first to call Public Safety declined to comment.BEMCo arrived on scene and administered first aid. Brandeis police, Waltham Police and the Waltham Fire Dept. were also on scene.The student, who was transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, could not be reached for comment. A Medical Center spokesperson said the student was transferred to another facility Oct. 20, but added that he did not know which.-Rachel Marder, Dan Hirschhorn and Jules Levenson reported from Reitman Hall
(10/17/06 4:00am)
The Student Union's latest draft proposal to reform club sports funding calls for splitting costs between the Union and the Department of Athletics. Union President Alison Schwartzbaum '08 said the new proposal, which is seen as an addition to a proposal the administration issued in May, would create a shared funding system by which the Union would cover the more "predictable and non-changing" costs of half of the approximately 45 club sports, including coaching, tournament registration and officiating fees. Athletics would fund equipment, travel and facility costs, according to the proposal. Schwartzbaum said she expects club sports funding reforms to be finalized at a meeting with the administration Friday. But Sawyer said that will "take some kind of miracle." "If there's no movement on some very dicey items, mostly the money, that's what it'll bog down to again," Sawyer said.Giving Athletics partial oversight of club sports will give the clubs more consistent access to resources, equipment and field space, Schwartzbaum said, reflecting a change from earlier statements in which Union officials had seemed hesitant to grant Athletics control over student-run clubs."No student oversight over the Student Activities Fee . [is] an encroachment on student autonomy," Schwartzbaum said.But Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer said Athletics can't handle these additional costs without the use of money from the Student Activities Fee, which currently funds all student clubs, including club sports."I don't see any success here unless money from SAF that's been covering club sports somehow comes into the program," Sawyer said. "I think the Union would be more successful if they focused on the money that was clearly club and organization-related and not worry about equating lots of money with lots of power."The Union's proposal comes in response to Athletics' May proposal, which the Union rejected because, officials said, it allowed for too much administrative control over club sports, which are widely considered to be underfunded."I want the oversight of club sports because we can do it right," Athletics Director Sheryl Sousa told the Justice last month. "If we're heavily involved, I want to be in charge. I want this to be a cooperative effort, but I want it to be ours." Sousa and Jean Eddy, the senior vice president for students and enrollment, both did not return multiple phone and e-mail messages requesting comment.But Sawyer said the Athletics Department will need a combination of SAF money and "new-found University money" in order to help fund club sports. Allowing the administration control over club funding money has been a core issue of the negotiations, with the Union fiercely opposed to such a change.Schwartzbaum said giving the administration any oversight over SAF is "a sticking point." Rather than using SAF money, Athletics should request more funding from the Board of Trustees when the department presents its budget in the spring, Schwartzbaum said. "Athletics is going to need a bigger budget," she said, adding that exact costs to each organization haven't been worked out yet. Brian Paternostro '07, the Union's director of communications, said the autonomous nature of club sports won't change under Athletics. "We want to make sure that we don't change anything about . the culture of your club," Paternostro said, "just the administrative stuff."The administration's May proposal also called for adding another full-time employee to Athletics' payroll, who would be responsible for the administration of club sports on campus. The Union rejected this oversight, as well as the the administration's specification for a Club Sports Council, a body of student-elected members who would distribute club sports funding, because the proposal specified that all council decisions would be subject to the Athletics Director's approval. Schwartzbaum said details of the Club Sports Council were unclear and the membership of the council was "too inbreedy." She said she worried members of the council would show preference to their own clubs over others.
(10/17/06 4:00am)
As performers in AHORA!'s Breaking Borders show paraded over 25 different Latin American flags through the packed audience, the first 30 seconds of the event were a true testament to the all-inclusive message of the club's 10th annual Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. The event, held Saturday night in the Shapiro Theater, focused on removing separations between different types of Latinos and non-Latinos and between Brandeis performers and professional talents alike. Many styles of dance were featured throughout Breaking Borders, from a fusion performance of Aztec, African, Punta and Cumbia, to a graceful montage of an international dancing tour, to salsa, to tango, to hip hop and more. The progression from traditional dances to the more modern ones showed how much of contemporary dance is rooted in Latino dance styles. Notable among the dances was an expressive and emotional performance of flamenco dancing from Stephanie Spiro '10. Salseros, the Brandeis Salsa club, performed a fast-paced dance, to which the crowd responded with overwhelming applause. Ayer! Fusion was an audience favorite for the sheer variety contained in very few minutes. Mistress of Ceremonies Claudia Martinez '07 said the combination of the dances "make up who we are," and express the range of identities and cultures at Brandeis and in the world. In the first dance, a drummer kept a steady beat while two dancers moved on either side of him with startlingly accurate symmetry. Micheline Frias '07, also a Mistress of Ceremonies, performed in a fun, flowery outfit, swaying her body along with the music and showing a great amount of physical passion. The most impressive dance move of the night came in this piece, in a section in which four men lifted four women up on their shoulders as they danced in a circle.After the intermission, Adriani Le?n '08 screened a short documentary she produced, "Brake Yo' Self Foo','" in which she interviewed students about the barriers on campus that keep more people from attending cultural events. She explored the fact that events are generally sparsely attended by the community, and expressed the need to bring out more members of the campus from more diverse backgrounds. One student said many students feel they have to be of that particular culture or race to attend the events. "Of course, pluralism is a two-way street, but we can be the change that we want to see," Lein narrated. "This month is a way to showcase Latino culture [and] show what AHORA! is all about." Candis Bellamy '06, a well-known slam-poet on campus, recited a poem titled "Time," about the fast-pace of the world. "There's no way to stop it," she read. "Colossal, multi-faceted time. Time has brought me all the way from Queens. Time has raised a thoughtful woman." Constant screams and applause punctuated the show-before numbers, after numbers and during numbers. The energy was as much a feature of the evening as the dancers and poets, and this excitement truly broke down borders as it brought audience and performers closer together.The highlight of the night's professional performers was the "Nuyorican"-Puerto Rican and New Yorker-poet Jo-Jo, more formally known as Johanna NuSez. Her heightened emotion, proficiency and clear comfort with the audience made the approximately 250 people who squeezed into the theater feel like a group of her closest friends. She read three poems about her identity as a Nuyorican woman and her troubled life growing up in Queens, New York. In one particularly powerful poem, "She, I mean her," Jo-Jo talked openly about her mental anguish: "So she sat there with a gun, a bottle of pills and pen and paper. She cried anger, hate and love." In the same poem, Jo-Jo expressed the difficulty of explaining her "not quite black, not quite Latino" looks. "At the end of the road, it's all about being who you are as a human being," she said. "We are all humans, just with different seasonings."Anthony Morales, another Nuyorican poet, who has been featured on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, recited a poem about his family and Puerto Rican culture in the Bronx, New york, where he was raised. His mother "struggled to see a greater good" as she raised the family, he said, while his father worked two jobs at minimum wage.Ernesto Lopez '08, a co-coordinator of Hispanic Heritage Month, said the month's events aimed to show Brandeis that "we're here on campus" and to discuss the barriers that separate people culturally, politically and socially. Coming to Brandeis from his home in East Los Angeles was a big culture shock, Lopez said, but Intercultural Center and AHORA! events helped him find community. "So maybe this year there might be a student who feels the way I felt my first year," Lopez said, "and hopefully we were able to help him out, make him feel more comfortable."-Rachel Marder and Michelle Minkoff
(10/10/06 4:00am)
University President Jehuda Reinharz said that it's time for Brandeis to "move on" from the debate over the administration's removal of a controversial Palestinian art exhibit last spring.Reinharz's comments came during Thursday's faculty meeting, in response to faculty criticism and a faculty committee's assessment that the administration has generally promoted more open dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the decision to remove the exhibit was an uncharacteristic error. Reinharz said faculty members on both sides of the debate have raised "valid issues" regarding the exhibit. But, he added, "I do think we need to move on.""We all learned a lot from the experience and as a result of these events and the many conversations, including the faculty meeting yesterday, we'll be more prepared to deal with situations that can and will arise in the future," Reinharz elaborated in an e-mail to the Justice Friday.Reinharz would not respond directly to the committee's assessment of the decision as "uncharacteristic." The University's removal of "Voices of Palestine," an exhibit of 17 paintings by Palestinian children that were displayed in the Goldfarb Library for only four days of a planned two-week exhibition, was sharply criticized both on campus and in the national press. It also led to a protest May 4 in front of the library. The exhibit was moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where it ran from May 4 to 11.The paintings, assembled by Lior Halperin, a 27-year-old Israeli undergraduate no longer at the University, included a painting of a map of Israel with a snake wrapped around it and a Star of David formed by a coiled-up snake."We felt [the removal] was a departure from the administration's own record of promoting and fostering discussion and dialogue [on] the Middle East and in other matters," said Prof. Paul Jankowski (HIST), the chair of the Exhibitions and Expressions Committee.Provost Marty Krauss, who impaneled the faculty committee, declined to comment on whether her perspective has changed since reading the report."I read the committee's analysis of it and I accept that that's their judgment about it," Krauss said.Jankowski cited several examples of the administration's efforts to foster healthy discussion, including the University's recent, hotly criticized decisions to hire the Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, who has been accused of having ties to terrorism, as well as the decision to partner with the Palestinian Al-Quds University and to present the playwright Tony Kushner-who has been criticized for his views on Israel-with an honorary degree. Harry Mairson, chair of the Faculty Senate, who was not a member of the committee, said he spoke only for himself, as he addressed the faculty first Thursday.Mairson said the administration's "move on" stance is an insufficient response to the controversy, which occurred because the exhibit made Israelis and by extension Jews, "look bad.""That's why this crisis, at Brandeis, attracted such public notoriety-free speech issues at universities don't make news like this," he said.Mairson also criticized the committee's recommendation that a faculty grievance committee and faculty advisors assist students in putting up exhibits and addressing their concerns."More policy creates bureaucracy and implicit censorship, negating the intent to support free speech," Mairson said. "The room for students to do even stupid things-and answer for them-needs to exist even at universities which espouse academic excellence, because we all learn from our mistakes," he added.Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC), who was also not on the committee, echoed Mairson's position against creating hurdles for students in putting up exhibits."Why insert a new level of mistrust between the student and the University?" Fellman asked. "I think the real issue that was triggered is the way the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is addressed at Brandeis," he said, calling on the faculty to open up the discussion to students on the issues raised by the exhibit. Naomi Safran-Hon '08, an Israeli student who was in the class for which Halperin brought the exhibit to campus, said their professor, Cynthia Cohen, executive director of coexistence research and international collaborations for the Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence, approved each student's project proposal, so in essence, Halperin worked with a faculty advisor."It just sounds like nothing new," Safran-Hon said of the committee's recommendation.Although Safran-Hon disagreed with the removal, she doesn't think the exhibit should go back up."I don't think people here are ready to see these images," she said.Safran-Hon said it was disappointing not to see the University reach out to Halperin after the exhibit was taken down to discuss it with her."[The University] doesn't support you when something goes wrong," she said. "Her voice was not heard."Prof. Jacob Cohen (AMST), who was not on the committee, said at the faculty meeting that he has "serious reservations" about the committee's report, including that it did not explore the exhibit's connection to the Alrowwad Cultural Center, a Palestinian children's arts organization in the Aida Refugee camp in the West Bank, where Halperin obtained the drawings."There was something more to that providence," Cohen said. In an e-mail to the Justice Friday, Reinharz wrote that he was not aware of the Alrowwad Cultural Center until Cohen spoke about it Thursday. The Director of the Alrowwad Center could not be reached for comment.Jason Brodsky '07, the Student Union's director of academic affairs, urged members of the faculty and administration to meet with students on any proposed action, as it directly affects "the core principles of student autonomy at this University." "Student input legitimizes further action on the part of the University," he said. In a letter to the community in May, Reinharz wrote that the exhibit "lacked sufficient explanation." Though the exhibit included the name and age of each artist, the artist's hobbies and dreams, and the artist's "word to the world." Other administrators said the decision was based on student reports that the exhibit was "confusing and upsetting," given its placement in the library during finals period. Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS), who supported removing the "incendiary display," called it an act of "courage." "Art that we compel our students to view, by placing it in the library and other frequented public areas.must adhere to a much higher standard of community acceptance," Sarna wrote in a letter to the president last May.Cohen said last week that the committee's report reflects an "incurious and rather one-dimensional treatment" of the exhibit."I find it very interesting how little was done by the people who were most fervently attacking the University for taking it down to get it back up, perhaps in another venue last spring or this fall," he said.An earlier version of this article was first posted on the Justice's Web site Wednesday.
(09/19/06 4:00am)
Prof. Trenery Dolbear (IBS) was named interim dean of the International Business School until a new dean is appointed, University Provost Marty Krauss said Friday. Dolbear, who is also an undergraduate professor in economics, assumed the post Sept. 1, and has been with IBS since it opened in 1994."I'm happy to do what I can to keep the school going until we get a new dean," Dolbear said, adding that his years of administrative experience, including serving as the director of IBS admissions, the director of the master's program in international economics and finance and the chair of the undergraduate economics department "off and on," make him a suitable interim dean.Prof. Peter Petri (IBS), the founding IBS dean, resigned at the end of August, and is currently on sabbatical in Europe.Prof. Benjamin Gomes Casseres (IBS), who chairs the IBS dean search committee, declined to comment on the search. Dolbear said while the timetable for his temporary position is unclear, he certainly doesn't intend for it to be permanent."I'm hopeful that we'll get somebody sooner rather than later," he said. "I'm just doing the best I can until we do something differently.
(09/19/06 4:00am)
Two homeless men were found living on University property two weeks ago, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said. Campus police issued the men trespassing orders after they discovered them living in the University-owned woods off Edgewater Drive by the Charles River Apartments, Callahan said. The men's presence "sparked a concern" when Waltham residents complained to the Waltham Police that the men started a campfire, Callahan said. The Waltham police referred the case to the Brandeis police.Callahan said the University periodically finds homeless individuals living in these woods."It's an unfortunate situation that these gentlemen are homeless, but it's a safety concern," Callahan said.Detective Sgt. Tim King said once the Waltham police notified Brandeis police of the situation, campus police asked the men to vacate the area and remove their belongings, including a tent, several chairs and a cooler.
(09/12/06 4:00am)
The 2005-2006 Archon yearbook will be late due to complications in obtaining graduates' addresses, Rebecca Gedalius '06, the yearbook's former editor-in-chief, said. After completing production on the book July 21, an "early" finishing time for Archon (the 2004-2005 edition arrived in March of this year), Gedalius said she planned for graduates to receive yearbooks by early October. However, she said that's an impossible deadline now because of a federal act allowing students to keep their contact information private. If students opt to keep their phone number, mailing address and e-mail address private under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the University is prohibited from sharing that information. Gedalius said obtaining the private addresses of graduates to send them yearbooks is a challenge.The Office of the University Registrar can release the addresses, but only to Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes, the Archon advisor, Gedalius said.But Grimes said she doesn't know if she'll even receive the FERPA protected addresses from the registrar. "We don't know that at this point," Grimes said.University Registrar Mark Hewitt did not return a call and an e-mail Monday afternoon. Gedalius said she is frustrated because she has been waiting for Grimes to get the addresses since she finished the book over the summer. "This is a time-sensitive manner, and she's well aware of that," Gedalius said.Grimes said Friday she had not yet connected with the registrar's office, but had been working on getting the addresses for "a while."Although she's unsure when she'll get a hold of the addresses, Grimes said she expects the yearbook to be out by the end of October. Gedalius said it takes six weeks once they get the addresses for yearbooks to be mailed out by the Jostens Publishing Company.Gedalius said it is taking longer than usual to get addresses because instead of asking seniors for their addresses during finals week as was done in the past, she decided to wait until after graduation to e-mail graduates. Many seniors didn't know before graduation where they would be living next year, Gedalius said. But Gedalius said it should not be this difficult. "I just don't understand why it's taken this long to begin with."The Archon received tremendous criticism for being late last year, Gedalius said, and she purposely tried to avoid that by finishing early."I didn't want to have to deal with the criticisms again or have next year's editor deal with the criticism because I think it's not fair," Gedalius said.Though the Archon faced numerous challenges this past year, including staff members and the photos editor quitting early on in the year, Gedalius said they overcame these setbacks."All other issues were solved. The only thing that holds up the book is this," she said.
(09/05/06 4:00am)
For at least the third time since last fall, Waltham and Brandeis police have failed to catch a man allegedly seen masturbating by the tennis courts.Michael Vulfovich '07, who plays for the men's varsity tennis team, said he saw a man two weeks ago sitting on the staircase behind the tennis courts masturbating. Vulfovich was preparing to give a tennis lesson to a young boy who is a friend of his family's. "I was just like, 'that guy is definitely sitting there and jacking off,'" Vulfovich said, adding that luckily the boy hadn't arrived yet. He immediately and "nonchalantly" called the Waltham Police on his cell phone. However, just as the police cruiser pulled up, the man fled, and the police arrived just in time to see him run away. This is the third time Vulfovich said he has seen this man, including once when he saw him sitting on the railroad tracks behind the courts. The man shows up every couple months, Vulfovich said. "I'm sure he's been there a lot more times," Vulfovich said. Messages left for Detective Sgt. Tim King of the Waltham Police during the holiday weekend were not returned.Vulfovich told the officers the man is around six feet tall, is in his 30s or 40s and wore tight, gray cross-country running shorts and no shirt.no shirt.Each time, Vulfovich said he has called the Waltham Police, who show up and either chase the man down the railroad tracks behind the tennis courts or miss him completely."The way they keep showing up makes it easy for him to get away," Vulfovich said. The man escapes by running across the railroad tracks and then running through a nearby cemetery, Vulfovich said. Chris Hersel (GRAD), a former player and assistant coach, said he saw the man last fall masturbating while he and several other players practiced. "It was rather disturbing because we were trying to play tennis," Hersel said.Players on another court called the Brandeis Police, who notified the Waltham Police, he said.Officers chased the man down the railroad tracks but never caught up with him, Hersel said. Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said Waltham officers "checked all pertinent areas," but the man was gone. Callahan said he personally responded to the situation last fall and campus police stopped someone who fit the suspect's description, though it turned out to be the wrong man. Ana Katz '08, a player on the women's tennis team, said the man showed up during a team practice last fall. The man stood against the fence behind the bushes watching them, Katz said."I didn't personally see what he was doing, but we saw that his pants were down and that's when we freaked out and told our coach," she said. Amanda Cuiffo, the former women's coach, left to call campus police, who showed up after the man had run away.Ben Lamanna, the men's and women's tennis coach who said has never seen the alleged perpetrator, said, "we have crazy fans, I guess.
(08/29/06 4:00am)
The suicide of a young Brandeis alum last month in New York has sparked a discussion over how the Jewish community addresses mental illness and whether young Orthodox Jews feel excessive communal pressure to get married.Sarah Adelman '04, 25, an Orthodox Jew from St. Louis, jumped from her eighth floor Upper West Side apartment July 24 around 1:30 p.m. and died from injuries sustained, according to the medial examiner's office. Just before she jumped, Adelman spoke on the phone with Steven Green, an ex-boyfriend who tried to persuade her not to go through with it.Green told the New York Post that Adelman had been depressed for a while and was feeling low after breaking up with her boyfriend the day before. "I guess that was the tipping point," he said.After completing her undergraduate studies in Sociology at Brandeis in Jan. 2004, Adelman received an MBA in Healthcare Management from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management in Aug. 2005. She had lived in New York for one year and managed a dental office in Rockefeller Center, her father, Ed, said in a phone interview.Ed said he stayed in close touch with his daughter and spoke with her up to three times a week.The last time they spoke, the day before she died, Ed said Sarah expressed disappointment over the relationship that just ended. "[She] wanted to know 'is it really worth doing it again just to get hurt?'" he said.A July 28 article in The New York Sun highlighted Adelman's suicide in a story exploring the overwhelming pressure in the Orthodox Community to get married young.Julie Berg '07, a B'yachad coordinator who is also from St. Louis, said she danced with Adelman's sister throughout high school, but didn't meet Adelman until they danced together in B'yachad at Brandeis. Though Berg said she never thought Adelman worried about settling down, she said Adelman's mother brought the issue up at her funeral. "Sarah was so excited when all of her friends got engaged and got married and had children and she would call her friends' children 'her babies," Berg said of Adelman's mother's speech. "I think it just got to the point where maybe she just felt like there was something wrong with herself," Berg said. But Ed Adelman disagreed with the assessment that such pressure drove his daughter to suicide. "We never put any pressure on her," he said. "I don't think her friends or her family members put pressure on her."Rather, he said, she was probably frustrated with dating in the Orthodox community in general.Adelman struggled with clinical depression since she was a teenager and had been on medication for several years, her father said. Her illness "absolutely" contributed to her suicide.Most had no idea she was depressed though, Ed said. "That's the way she wanted it, so everyone treated her like she was normal even though she wasn't."Berg said Adelman's depression was never apparent. "She was so concerned with everybody else and making sure everybody else was so happy and she always wanted to know what was going on in your life and what you were up to." Adelman's parents spoke openly about their daughter's illness at the funeral, Berg said. "They talked about how she would kind of go to other people to avoid herself." Friends and family remembered Adelman as a warm and vivacious person, loyal to loved ones and giving to those around her."She was definitely an extrovert," her father said. Berg remembered Adelman's commitment to the dance group, her approachable nature and easy smile.Stephanie Gould '08, who met Adelman at B'yachad tryouts her freshman year, spent the year with her in the dance group."She was caring and warm, helping people with whatever they needed whenever they needed it," Gould wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. Gould said Adelman helped her learn the dance moves at the B'yachad tryouts."She touched so many people on campus, myself included, and Brandeis is a very different place without her."She enjoyed her years at Brandeis and made many close friends, said Ed, who is grateful to the University for her experience. "The fact that Sarah was able to have such strong friendships was good not only for the normal person, but for her, and probably lengthened her years," he said.University Rabbi Allan Lehmann said he barely knew Adelman, and did not know whether she felt pressured by her community in dating. "I don't have a sense of there being a great deal of pressure in part of the Brandeis culture," said Lehmann. "I haven't had people come talk to me about that."In response to Adelman's suicide, Orthodox Jews in the Upper West Side gathered for a series of "Safe Space" discussions at Congregation Ohab Zedek and the Jewish Center in the days following her death.Laura Freiman, the clinical director of the social and organizational leadership training at Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future, helped facilitate the discussions between mental health professionals and community members."This is a safe space for you and your peers to express any thoughts or feelings you may be experiencing," an advertisement for the program said. Freiman said in a phone interview that it's unhealthy and useless to focus on exactly why Adelman committed suicide, but it's important that her community examine ways to bring mental health to the forefront. Discussions generated a host of ideas for ways synagogues can be more welcoming, including a monthly Safe Space meeting, regular guest speakers on mental health topics, family hosts for singles during the Sabbath, dating support groups and mental health referral lists at synagogues. "We do not intend for all of these ideas to remain as only ideas; but rather, to find ways to implement at least some of them," Freiman wrote in an e-mail to Safe Space participants.An Orthodox single woman in her late-thirties from the Upper West Side started a blog soon after Adelman's suicide to address issues she thinks the suicide raises. She writes under the pseudonym "Ayelet."Ayelet, who suffers from bipolar disorder, discusses the pressures and loneliness of being single, Orthodox and mentally ill in New York City on her blog. "It's hard to be Orthodox and single, because Judaism is a very family-oriented religion. If you don't have a spouse, you're always scrambling to find a place to have Shabbos meals or you're stuck at home alone," Ayelet wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. Ayelet was granted anonymity by the Justice as she keeps her illness private."There's a general stigma attached to seeking psychiatric help in American society, but I do think it's a little worse in the Orthodox World," she said. Though the stigma attached to mental illness is not unique to the Jewish community, Freiman said, there's more that society as a whole can do to be more accepting. Adelman echoed Freiman's sentiment: "I think society in general doesn't talk enough about disabled people, handicapped people, [or] people with special needs," he said. Assistant Dean of Student Life Alwina Bennett said the University will hold a memorial service for Adelman in early October following the High Holidays, so that her family can attend. Bennett said some of Adelman's classmates at Heller and friends in B'yachad have expressed interest in participating.Berg said they may perform at the service or do something special at their show this year to honor her, but nothing has been finalized.The funeral was held July 26 at Berger Memorial Chapel in St. Louis. "Someone told me it was the biggest crowd they ever saw at a funeral parlor," Adelman's father Ed said. "She touched a lot of people.
(08/29/06 4:00am)
Although Richard DeCapua used to dream of being on ESPN, he seems satisfied with where he ended up instead. As a student at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., DeCapua, the University's newly hired director of residence life, became interested in pursuing a career in student life. So he decided to switch his majors to Communications and Psychology and obtained a Masters in Student Personnel Administration at Springfield College. "Everything just kind of fell into place," Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer said of hiring DeCapua, who started the first week of July. He served as the assistant director of residential life at Wesleyan University prior to coming to Brandeis. DeCapua said he's excited about working on a campus that values collaboration between faculty, staff and students who are "active and willing to be part of a solution based agenda." "That was the big pull for me," he said.DeCapua replaces Assistant Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch, who was promoted to her current position last fall after serving in as director of Residence Life for almost four years. The search process was made less stressful with Balch still at Brandeis, Sawyer said. "It afforded us the ability to do a thoughtful search and to have the search scheduled run into the normal season . for doing searches for directors, especially directors of high-stress areas like residence life," he said.Sawyer said though Balch officially had a new post, she was essentially still doing both jobs until July, a "trying" situation for one person to manage."She was really ready to get someone on board," Sawyer said. "And it isn't one of those things where you just turn over the keys and say, 'God, I'm glad you're here.'" Sawyer said Balch is working closely with DeCapua to make the transition a smooth one.Sawyer added: "I think it was just a good connection and a good combination for him and for us. He's known in New England. We're known in New England so he wasn't really a big mystery to us once he became a candidate," Sawyer said.It's a mistake to start a new job and immediately try to make changes in CA training or the way housing is done, DeCapua said, so he's ready to do a lot of learning and getting to know the campus first. Going through a full year is critical to understanding a campus, Sawyer said. "He's watching, he's perceptive, he has good suggestions, he's a quick learner, so the things that are fairly standard in the business he's right on top of," Sawyer said. "The things that are very 'Brandeis' he's watching quite closely and learning."Along with DeCapua, four new quad directors joined the Department of Residence Life this semester, including Bill Huff in North Quad, Andrew Roberts at the Charles River Apartments, Jerome Holland at Ziv Quad and Ridgewood Cottages and Colleen Johnston in the Castle. "It's really shaping up very nicely," said Sawyer, who said he was initially concerned when the University lost four quad directors last year. "I think we're right back on it," he said.
(05/23/06 4:00am)
The University has had its share of press this year, taking repeated criticism for its various attempts at Arab-Israeli dialogue. But the administration says it's not stirring under the pressure, despite a recent report to the contrary.The Boston Globe reported this week that Brandeis hired a New York-based public relations firm "to showcase its efforts at even-handedness" in Arab-Israeli dialogue.But Lorna Miles, the senior vice president of communications, downplayed the University's relationship with Dukas Public Relations, a firm which she said has been "filling in" the void the last couple months left by former spokesperson David Nathan's move to the office of development in March.The Globe article, "A question of culture," focused primarily on the debate sparked by a column published in the Justice last month by forum editor Matt Brown '08, who asserted that Brandeis is "too Jewish."The article also pointed to the media attention the University has seen recently for removing artwork by Palestinian youths from the Goldfarb Library and presenting playwright Tony Kushner, who has been accused of expressing anti-Israel sentiments, with an honorary degree at commencement. The University "went on the counteroffensive," when it hired the firm, the article said, suggesting that the extra publicity would improve the University's image in the media.But Miles disputed that account. "It wasn't represented in exactly the way that was accurate," she said. It made it seem as though "we had gone out and hired a New York PR firm to do damage control . and that's not what happened." Miles said the University hired Dukas when Nathan's departure freed up funds. It also helps that Dukas has a toehold in New York media, she said. Nathan now serves as the director of communications in the office of development. "We had a big hole in our organization, so I said, 'why don't you guys fill in the work that [Nathan] would have been handling, and they've done a good job," she said. "They've basically acted like another pair of hands for us."Miles said Dukas won't be as "involved" now that a full-time staff member, Marsha MacEachern, was hired two weeks ago. "I like some of the things that [Dukas is] doing, but I probably don't have the budget to keep them, to tell you the truth," Miles said. "If they did stay on it would be in a very specific capacity, not in the day-to-day kinds of things they've been doing with us."Richard Dukas, the President of Dukas Public Relations, said the firm became involved with the University when his client, Michael Steinhardt, a major Brandeis benefactor, donated $12 million to establish the Steinhardt Social Research Institute in Fall 2005.Dukas said his firm works on publicity "placements" for the University in major newspapers, specifically on publicizing its Jewish and Middle Eastern programs. "The idea of the program is to help make the larger public aware of many of the tremendous programs and activities that the University has in relation to the Jewish community [and] in relation to the Middle East," Dukas said. The firm works closely with the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, he said. Crown Center Director Shai Feldman was "prominently quoted" on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle this week, an example of one of their placements.
(05/23/06 4:00am)
It is difficult keeping up with Tony Kushner. A quick-witted and fast-paced speaker, Kushner is widely acknowledged as one of the most prestigious contemporary American playwrights, known best for his Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and his Academy Award-nominated screenplay for the film Munich.The University's decision to present Kushner with an honorary degree this year generated widespread media attention and criticism from Zionist student groups and outside organizations, who say Kushner called Israel's founding "a mistake." They say former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the University's namesake and a major American Zionist figure, would not have approved.Kushner spoke at the Spingold Theater Sunday afternoon, entertaining graduates and their guests at the creative arts graduation ceremony and frequently throwing them into fits of hysterics."If you've been reading the papers, you know I was not invited here because of my political opinions, but my art," he said, to applause. "I always make art about my opinions, which is not to say that my art merely conveys my opinions. . It conveys my opinions, and also my qualms about my opinions, and also my opinions about my qualms."He warned that those who "are here today hoping or praying I'm going to address specifically the issues that have engendered the controversy that has trailed me over the past several months and long last has taught me to be cranky as a wet cat on your doorstep," would be disappointed not to hear him share his political views.Instead, Kushner talked about jobs. "Employment possibilities for creative arts majors are always a good subject to generate calamity," he said. "You're all young, so you don't really need nice, clean apartments or food."A self-described "lazy, shy loudmouth with manners," Kushner said he loves graduation ceremonies, because they celebrate summer, freedom and intelligence. "Graduations are about the conclusion of work, and I, who hate doing work . never feel more like celebrating than when work is done."Art, Kushner said, makes people uncomfortable, because of the truth it reveals. "The truths we tell as artists can cause controversy," he said. "I stand here a controversial artist, and is that a good thing or a bad thing? Something you want to be, or something you try to avoid in coming?"People are afraid of art, "even of works by Palestinian children," he said, referring to the exhibit of drawings by Palestinian children the University removed from the Goldfarb Library last month.Kushner encouraged graduates to "make trouble," be courageous in their work and embrace controversy as an inextricable component of art.He said artists must scandalize and shock the audience with controversy. In his own work, Kushner is known for continually challenging America's notions of religion, sex, politics and disease.Genuine shock strips individuals bare and makes them tingle, Kushner said."The artist should aspire to be what Emerson aspired to be: a remaker of what man had made, a renouncer of lies, a restorer of truth and good," he said.He warned the graduates not to allow fierce ambition or desire for fame-the "I'm-gonna-live-forever" type of fame-to consume them."You don't need to live forever, which is a good thing, because you aren't going to," he saidAmbition must humble itself enough in order for the artist to contribute, he said. If not, "then who are you?" he asked. "Hollow, an apparition, George W. Bush."Kushner ended with a quote from one of his favorite poets, Stanley Kunitz, a poet in residence at Brandeis in 1958, who passed away last week at the age of 100 (see obituary, page 2), to illustrate his point: "Immortality is not anything I lose sleep over."Kushner said his art depends on "an astonishing faith in my audience's attention span." Audience members agreed that his talk required tremendous focus on their part."He speaks 100 miles a minute. I'm exhausted," one parent joked following the address.
