(09/27/05 4:00am)
Brandeis hosted the first ever Campus Camp Wellstone social activism training seminar for New England area students this weekend. "A lot of people on campus who aren't involved in student activism got to learn about student activism," said training coordinator Daniel Castleman '06, discussing the training by the non-profit, progressive organization WellstoneAction!, which provides political development and leadership training in the U.S. The 50 undergraduate participants came primarily from Brandeis, but also from Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Wellesley College, Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern University, according to training coordinator Sam Petsonk '06, who raised approximately $4,000 to bring the trainers to campus and pay for meals. Students were charged $15 for the weekend, which included costs for training, meals and a copy of Politics the Wellstone Way. He said the Student Union Finance Board, the sociology and environmental studies departments, individual faculty members and Student Events all contributed money. "We got most of our money in early [Finance Board] marathon in May," Petsonk said. WellstoneAction! was founded by the sons of the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D- Minn) who was killed in a plane crash in 2002, in order to continue his legacy of social progressivism. In the training, "We communicated the basic skills that you need to put together a successful campaign ... and make democracy more responsive," he said. Petsonk expressed disappointment that a more politically diverse group of students had not registered. He had hoped to deliver a "post-partisan message" to students. Trainers also tended to present issues with a bias, he said. "Partisanship was creeping into it too often," Petsonk said.For trainee Hannah Ramer '08, "it felt very leftist. There was some concern expressed about that." Ramer, a member of Students for Environmental Action, had never participated in a formal training on civic activism, but said that despite the leftist leanings, the weekend was extremely successful. Trainers covered everything from "message crafting to effective ways of getting your message out and campaigning" in campus politics, she said. Sessions also covered creative strategizing and coalition building."It definitely felt like we developed a network of people who felt passionately about certain issues," said Ramer, on meeting fellow students from progressive campus groups. "There was talk about building a progressive coalition," she said. "This is about building a community that has common values ... and taking some of the cynicism out of the political process, " Petsonk said. "People are just disinterested or removed from politics. This was a meeting place for those people to voice their concerns." Petsonk decided to bring Wellstone to Brandeis after attending one of their campus trainings last spring. "This was their first presentation," Petsonk said of trainers Mattie Weiss, Meighan Davis, Ben Goldfarb and Maanov Thakore. The trainers are political and community organizers who work to implement a progressive agenda worldwide. Petsonk said he plans to stay in touch with the trainers to help them improve on their presentation for future trainings. "They struggled with trying to make a coherent Wellstone message," he said.Editor's note: Daniel Castleman '06 is a staff writer for the Justice.
(09/20/05 4:00am)
Brandeis hosted the first ever Campus Camp Wellstone social activism training seminar for New England area students this weekend. "A lot of people on campus who aren't involved in student activism got to learn about student activism," said training coordinator Daniel Castleman '06, discussing the training by the non-profit, progressive organization WellstoneAction!, which provides political development and leadership training in the U.S. The 50 undergraduate participants came primarily from Brandeis, but also from Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Wellesley College, Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern University, according to training coordinator Sam Petsonk '06, who raised approximately $4,000 to bring the trainers to campus and pay for meals. Students were charged $15 for the weekend, which included costs for training, meals and a copy of Politics the Wellstone Way. He said the Student Union Finance Board, the sociology and environmental studies departments, individual faculty members and Student Events all contributed money. "We got most of our money in early [Finance Board] marathon in May," Petsonk said. WellstoneAction! was founded by the sons of the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D- Minn) who was killed in a plane crash in 2002, in order to continue his legacy of social progressivism. In the training, "We communicated the basic skills that you need to put together a successful campaign ... and make democracy more responsive," he said. Petsonk expressed disappointment that a more politically diverse group of students had not registered. He had hoped to deliver a "post-partisan message" to students. Trainers also tended to present issues with a bias, he said. "Partisanship was creeping into it too often," Petsonk said.For trainee Hannah Ramer '08, "it felt very leftist. There was some concern expressed about that." Ramer, a member of Students for Environmental Action, had never participated in a formal training on civic activism, but said that despite the leftist leanings, the weekend was extremely successful. Trainers covered everything from "message crafting to effective ways of getting your message out and campaigning" in campus politics, she said. Sessions also covered creative strategizing and coalition building."It definitely felt like we developed a network of people who felt passionately about certain issues," said Ramer, on meeting fellow students from progressive campus groups. "There was talk about building a progressive coalition," she said. "This is about building a community that has common values ... and taking some of the cynicism out of the political process, " Petsonk said. "People are just disinterested or removed from politics. This was a meeting place for those people to voice their concerns." Petsonk decided to bring Wellstone to Brandeis after attending one of their campus trainings last spring. "This was their first presentation," Petsonk said of trainers Mattie Weiss, Meighan Davis, Ben Goldfarb and Maanov Thakore. The trainers are political and community organizers who work to implement a progressive agenda worldwide. Petsonk said he plans to stay in touch with the trainers to help them improve on their presentation for future trainings. "They struggled with trying to make a coherent Wellstone message," he said.Editor's note: Daniel Castleman '06 is a staff writer for the Justice.
(09/20/05 4:00am)
"The loss is very personal and very profound. My family members have lost their homes," said Rabbi Allan Lehmann, a native of New Orleans. For Lehmann, the Jewish chaplain on campus, the people whose lives were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina are not just images on a television screen, hundreds of miles away. Lehmann's father lost his home in the flooding and was evacuated to Houston, where he is currently staying. "My 80-year-old father is a refugee for the second time in his life now," he said. His 95-year-old cousin, a resident in a New Orleans nursing home, passed away after being placed on a bus to evacuate the city. The parents of his brother's ex-wife, whom Lehmann said his family was close to, were in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans during the immediate aftermath of the hurricane but eventually got on a bus for four days, finally reaching St. Petersburg, Fla. While his other relatives are spread out, they are fortunately safe. Lehmann's aunt is staying at his house, another aunt and uncle are staying in Austin, Texas and a handful of other relatives are in Jackson, Miss. "As a rabbi and as a Jew," he said, "concepts of exile and dispersion are very much a part of my cultural vocabulary." Being uprooted is an experience that Lehmann said he has understood for years, having come from immigrant grandparents and parents who fled Germany during WWII. Though Lehmann said he is far from finished with crying, he is doing what he can on campus to support the community. In an effort to help his fellow New Orleans natives at Brandeis feel less alone during this time, Lehmann invited the several students and faculty members over to his house during Labor Day weekend. He said he served "hurricanes, a great New Orleans drink" to the 21 and over guests. Lehmann is speaking at the community-wide teach-in about Katrina on Sept. 26. "I don't feel that I have any great political wisdom about this," he said. "Just a personal connection." He hopes during the rebuilding of his hometown in the coming weeks and months, the city does not lose its rich and vibrant culture that Lehmann said he treasures. "I have visions of corporations coming in and turning it into a theme park with New Orleans-style restaurants, jazz clubs and venues," he said. "There was something unique about New Orleans," Lehmann said, "with its rich gumbo of so many different cultures, languages, races and ethnicities." While sharing his concerns and personal losses, Lehmann reiterated that he feels extremely lucky right now. He calls the hurricane a "mythic loss" for him, while for the thousands of others who died or were trapped in the city, the losses are much more real.His family was planning to get together in New Orleans over Thanksgiving to celebrate his father's 80th birthday. Now the family reunion will be here, he said. "You feel kind of helpless and powerless at a time like this," he said. "It's therapeutic to be able to tell the story.
(09/20/05 4:00am)
Working with Hurricane Katrina evacuees will be a course requirement for some students next semester.Students who enroll this spring in Social Change in American Communities: Memory and Cultural Production in the Mississippi Delta (SOC 156A) with Profs. Mark Auslander (ANTH) and David Cunningham (SOC) will travel to the Mississippi Delta to work with evacuees and study the poor communities of Louisiana and Mississippi firsthand."We'll be working with evacuees ... in an academic context to make a difference," Auslander said.The professors plan to focus on the social and racial inequalities of the region and use the aftermath of Katrina as a model. "The costs of the disaster have been disproportionately shouldered by poorer and predominantly African-American residents," Cunningham wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. All travel expenses will be covered by the Theodore and Jane Norman fund for faculty scholarship, he said, and a brief application for interested students will be available later this month.The Mississippi Delta has been an intellectual focus for the Sustainable International Development program at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management for the last several years, Prof. Susan Holcombe (Heller) said. "Hurricane Katrina also holds many important opportunities for learning about the many failures of social policy and the lack of capacity of many agencies," Director of the SID Program Laurence Simon said.Prof. L.C. Dorsey, a leading civil rights advocate in the Mississippi Delta and the associate director of the Delta Research and Cultural Institute at Mississippi Valley State University, will teach a course on social movements this spring. Dorsey will arrive in mid to late October, Holcombe said. Prof. John Green, the faculty associate for the Institute for Community Based Research at Delta State University, has invited SID students to join his class on a trip looking at community development and rebuilding efforts in impoverished centers of Louisiana and Mississippi, she said. Brandeis students can "show them [that] people around the world really care about what they're doing," Holcombe said.Teach-inA faculty committee has formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to coordinate a community-wide teach-in to examine issues raised by the disaster.Scheduled for Sept. 26, "Understanding the Post Katrina Crisis" will include a multi-disciplinary panel of speakers and small group discussions on the racial and social inequalities in the Gulf Coast. Panelists will also address the social and ecological repercussions of Katrina and an analysis of the future of New Orleans. "Faculty and students alike would like to talk about [the issues] in a way that we can use the intellectual training [that we have] to develop a perspective for the future," Auslander said.By applying Brandeis' value of social consciousness, Holcombe said the program will engage students in discussions on the steps our nation can take to reduce the social and racial injustices taking place in New Orleans. "Because we're privileged to be in a university, how can we use our expertise and our knowledge to apply to the real world?" she said explaining the motivation for the proposed program.The panel will be moderated by Prof. Anita Hill (Heller) and will include Prof. Attila Klein (BIO), Prof. Jacqueline Jones (HIST), Prof. Mingus Mapps (AAAS), Prof. Robert Reich (Heller), Prof. Pam Cytrynbaum (JOUR) and Prof. Michael Doonan (Heller). Brandeis Chaplain Rabbi Allan Lehmann and Minor Sinclair, the director of Oxfam America, will also speak.
(09/13/05 4:00am)
Over 80 students from New Orleans have made inquiries about transferring to Brandeis for the semester, University President Jehuda Reinharz said in a meeting of the Faculty Senate Thursday afternoon. Six students are already taking classes, he said.Students from Tulane, Loyola and the University of New Orleans have inquired about transferring to Brandeis, Assistant to the President John Hose wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "Any student from an affected institution is eligible to apply to be a special student this fall," he said.Although Brandeis is not charging the visiting students tuition for the semester, "Students who want to be on a meal plan will pay the normal rates," Hose said. Reinharz said a faculty task force is coordinating the University's efforts with the New Orleans-based schools. "My main aim is to be careful that we respect the wishes of the ravaged universities," he said.Prof. Sacha Nelson (BIO) is hosting two graduate students, a post-doctorate student and a neurobiology colleague from Tulane University. Nelson said the department is providing the researchers-who will arrive this week-with space to conduct their studies.The neurobiology professor and his wife, a technician in his lab, will stay with friends in the area. The Department of Residence Life is coordinating housing for the students affected by Katrina. Residence Life Director Maggie Balch said that space is available in the Charles River graduate student apartments for those students without family in the area.Six students from Tulane are living together in a Charles River apartment that had originally been slated to house graduate students, Balch said."My priority and I think the University's priority as well is to take care of our students and [then] see what we can do from a humanitarian standpoint for the Tulane and other university students," Balch said.Balch is unsure whether further on-campus housing will be available. "We need to see if we have vacancies," she said, explaining that undergraduate housing is still being sorted out because some students have been switching rooms without permission.Balch said the department is compiling a list of residents of Waltham and Watertown who wish to host students that have contacted the University, as well."We're doing what we can," she said.
(09/13/05 4:00am)
There was always a backup plan for the Ridgewood cottages: Sell them.That's what the University's early investors planned to do if the ambitious venture failed. They probably couldn't imagine that the cottages would last to house over 5,000 students since they were built in 1950.But now, over 50 years later, there's another plan for the Ridgewood cottages: Tear them down.As soon as the necessary millions are raised and the Board of Trustees approves the project, the University will do just that: demolish the 106-bed Ridgewood residence quad and replace it with a 300-person apartment-style residence for upperclassmen, according to Director of Residence Life Maggie Balch.But the biggest question about the project-when construction will begin-still remains.Though Balch told the Justice she did not know when construction will commence, according to Dan Feldman, the associate vice president of planning, design and construction, the new hall could be complete within three years of the time funds for the project are available and the Board of Trustees gives its approval. According to Feldman, the University has planned for a total of $20 million in new long-term debt and $15 million in gifts to fund the new housing structure. Feldman would not disclose how much has been raised so far, but said that the "funds would have to be either in hand or pledged before the Board would approve start of the construction."But Feldman added that construction of the new Ridgewood is a top priority."The University's strategic plan for undergraduate housing calls for fully meeting the demand for on-campus housing," Feldman said. The Office of Capital Projects has determined that demand can be met with enough beds for 90 percent of undergraduates on campus, according to the Web site. Currently, only 80 percent of undergraduates reside on campus, according to Senator for the Class of 2007 Joshua Karpoff.Though current undergraduate enrollment exceeds 2001's target of 3,000 students by at least 185, Balch said such increases will not affect the school's original goal.However, that goal will be unattainable at least temporarily after the demolition of the Ridgewood cottages and before the completion of its larger replacement.Balch acknowledged that without Ridgewood's 106 beds, the housing lottery during that period could create problems for upperclassmen, but she said she is committed to finding the best housing solutions once construction on Ridgewood is underway. Depending on the sizes of the other classes, she said, it might be possible to house some juniors and seniors in East Quad or the Castle."We can reconfigure things so we can maximize the amount of space" available for students, she said.Balch met with several students and Feldman over the summer to discuss how the new Ridgewood should be configured. "They have said they want kitchens," she said, because by junior year, students do not want to be on the meal plan. In the past, the University has not permitted students who do not have ready access to a kitchen to go without a meal plan.Karpoff hopes the new housing resembles the suite-style living in Ziv Quad, but added that he agreed with Balch that kitchens are important. "One of the reasons people love living at Ridgewood is because it offers an alternative to the meal plan," he said.He said students should talk to the Housing Advisory Committee of the Student Union to give their input on the housing plan. Sam Siegel, a senator for the Class of 2007, suggested that Residence Life distribute a survey to the entire student body in order to obtain input on the project.He added that the University should "ask a few members of the Board [of Trustees] to attend an open forum where they can hear directly from students the ideas, complaints and suggestions that we all have." The school's strategic housing plan has been in development since 1999, according to the Office of Capital Projects' Web site. The plan included the building of the $21 million Village, which was completed in August 2003.Between summer 1999 and spring 2005, the University completed 11 other infrastructure improvement projects which had a total cost of $57 million. Among them was the construction of the $25 million Shapiro Campus Center, the $8 million International Business School Lemberg Academic Center and the $5 million Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex.
(09/06/05 4:00am)
In a victory for the Brandeis Labor Coalition and custodial workers, the University agreed last month to a new five-year contract to directly hire night-shift workers, rather than employing them through a subcontractor.The contract with the Service Employees International Union Local 615 was signed in an effort to achieve pay parity among workers and was the culmination of lobbying efforts by the Labor Coalition and a group of professors.Of the 65 custodial staff at Brandeis, twenty are hired through Hurley of America and SJD Inc. These contract custodians are paid $11.60 an hour, while Brandeis pays its own employees $14.63. With the new contract, all workers are paid at the higher rate.Brandeis will stop using subcontracted laborers in one year when the contract with Hurley expires."This settlement reflects some progress and an atmosphere of shared values," University Chief Operating Officer Peter French said. The workers were originally subcontracted because the University could not fill a newly-created third shift in the late-90s through the union, according to University Chief Operating Officer Peter French. "We wanted to get optimum impact of housekeepers when people are not in the facilities," French said. Therefore, the University turned to Hurley of America and SJD Inc., outside contractors, to bring in workers for the third shift. But "we were ready to do this right from the start," he said. "Everybody wins on this."Dan Nicolai, the representative of the contract cleaners at Local 615 said the contract Brandeis offered "covered a lot of different issues related to their wages, benefits and conditions."Above all, he looks forward to all positions at Brandeis being filled by Brandeis-hired employees."It's a very big deal for Brandeis," he said. According to Nicolai, most schools have third shift workers, some of whom are contracted from outside companies.Members of the Brandeis Labor Coalition, who Nicolai said have been "really instrumental in getting this done," think the contract between Hurley and Brandeis didn't make sense. "Brandeis has this long-standing commitment to social justice, and Hurley... its main goal is to make money," Dan Mauer '06, a member of BLC, said. The coalition launched a campaign advocating the change in pay structure last spring. They obtained Student Union support and planned to hold a rally. Members also worked with faculty members to get their cooperation. When the contract between Brandeis and Hurley ends Aug. 1, 2006, Brandeis will not renew it. Workers will only be hired by the University to ensure that all workers receive equal wages and benefits.Brandeis will begin hiring its third shift workers in July."All of [the currently contracted workers] are free to apply and when they apply they will be considered for these positions," French said.Still at issue with the union and the BLC is Brandeis' requirement that workers have a basic understanding of English-a change for workers that will come from Hurley, which had no such requirement.Nicolai said the BLC has committed to helping the outsourced workers with their English. "We're actually trying to figure out some classes," he said. However, French said the "English language requirement is not going to be an issue-it's not a threshold issue." The coalition "expected a long and arduous process," to persuade the University to agree, Mauer said. However, it found through their meetings that the Administration was supportive of student involvement and changes in labor policy.History professors Sylvia Arrom and Jacqueline Jones helped organize faculty members. The Latin American Studies faculty voted to support the efforts and later met with French, according to Arrom.Jones organized a petition drive and received approximately 59 faculty signatures. The anthropology, English, math and theater departments signed as units. The petition was published as an advertisement in the Justice last April.
(08/30/05 4:00am)
While a war over federal restrictions on funding for international studies is being waged in Congress, Brandeis and the Crown Center are staying out of the name-calling and attempting to change the field's prevailing approach to researching and teaching, all while trying to establish the center as a leader in its field.Crown Center Director Shai Feldman is aiming to change the course of Middle East studies by making the newly founded research center as objective as possible, hoping to avoid the accusations of bias that plague other such institutions, whose scholarship University President Jehuda Reinharz has called "third rate."In the inaugural conference held last April, scholars from U.S. universities and policy centers and leaders from Egypt, Palestine and Israel spoke about the most pressing issues facing the Middle East today, including the futures of Iraq, Iran and Syria, the Israeli disengagement plan and the next steps in Palestinian and Israeli relations. They also discussed the nature of the controversies that have deeply politicized Middle East scholarship in the United States."The debate about the Middle East [in the United States] has become more contentious than the debate in the Middle East itself," Feldman said at the conference.Those debates have served as an impetus for members of Congress to attempt to influence the courses of study, research and teaching at area and foreign language-study centers with their plans to reintroduce the International Studies in Higher Education Act (HR 509) this fall.Initiated first in June of 2003, the act, then HR 3077, calls on the federal government to better monitor the 118 federally funded international education and foreign language study centers, including 17 Middle East centers.Congress funds these centers through Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which started aiding universities to educate students and the public about other countries. Brandeis has not pursued Title VI funding, at least not recently, according to Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe.Paul O'Keefe, the director of sponsored programs who aids professors in applying for research grants, said that Brandeis faculty generally receive a different type of federal aid, which allows professors greater freedom in their research. "Faculty has a fair amount of flexibility in chasing the research program," O'Keefe said. Faculty avoid applying for cooperative agreement grants, which, like Title VI funding, include "a lot of interaction between the sponsor and the grantee," O'Keefe said.Columbia University receives Title VI funding for seven of its eight area-study centers, including its Middle East center. But Brandeis has strayed away from such monitored grants."Brandeis has a magnificent record of standing up for completely open inquiry and critical inquiry," said Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC), who is known for his left-leaning views that have sparked criticism from conservative scholars in the past. "I'd hate to see it move away from that record. "Israel ought to be able to be scrutinized as closely as Bosnia, Iraq, Russia, or anywhere else, with no limits on praise for it and no limits on criticisms of it."The Middle East Institute at Columbia, founded in 1954, has been placed at the forefront of the Title VI debate because of accusations in recent years that it is home to anti-American and anti-Israeli views.Rashid Khalidi, the Director of the Institute, views the act as a violation of democracy and intellectual freedom. Khalidi told the Forward, an American Jewish publication, in March 2004 that the advisory committee will be made up of "people who want to engage in a witch hunt."The bill reauthorizes funding for area-studies and foreign language centers and calls for the creation of an International Education Advisory board to advise the Secretary of Education and Congress on Title VI grants. The committee would review the educational content of centers' activities, making sure they "reflect diverse perspectives and represent the full range of views on world regions, foreign language and international affairs." The debate, which began in the House in June 2003, has focused on monitoring Middle East studies programs, which according to the bill's supporters, generally preach a one-sided viewpoint to students and the public. Feldman, who directs the Middle East center here, said he avoids making judgments on other centers."I'm not going to label other centers as anti-American or anti-Israel," he said. "[I] just focus on what I think we should be doing," he said. That is, creating "a meeting place where Israelis, Palestinians and other Arabs can meet, debate and explore together and share their different perspectives." He wants the Crown Center to "lead by example" in order to influence other, older centers. "I'm determined for the Crown Center to be able to prove that it's possible to have a center for Middle East studies, [that] if not objective, is at least balanced."Yair Fuxman, a graduate student in the NEJS department, agrees with the aim of the act, but has found no problems at Brandeis with Middle East studies professors pushing their beliefs on students. "Middle East studies has become an incredibly politicized field dominated by professors that are hostile to Israel and to the American foreign policy," he said. "This is not the case at Brandeis, which is a major reason why I came to study here. But at major centers of Middle East studies like Columbia, Harvard and Georgetown, it is very much a problem."Strong lobbying organizations advocating for the bill, including the American Jewish Committee, view it as a much needed reform to balance the anti-Israel propaganda they say is prevalent at most universities.The AJC and Brandeis have had a long-standing relationship, co-sponsoring events, such as the Summer Institute for Israel Studies held at Brandeis this summer, and partnering in "The Meaning of the American Jewish Experience," a celebration of 350 years of American Jewry, held at Brandeis in 2004. But the Crown Center has no ties to such organizations, Feldman said. And, he said, "It's possible to have a dispassionate discourse even in a university that's broadly perceived as a Jewish university." In the end, proving that may be Feldman's greatest challenge.
(08/30/05 4:00am)
Three administrators, Lori Tenser, Rich Graves and Shawn McGuirk, took jobs at other universities this summer. Tenser, formerly an assistant dean of student life, will begin her term as dean of first-year students this semester at Wellesley College. Tenser said that the training she received here over the past 16 years has allowed her make the move."Brandeis has been my home, and its students and my colleagues have been, in so many ways, my family for 16 years," Tenser said. Her decision to leave comes "because of the support and development Brandeis has provided to me that I feel prepared for this new step."Rich Graves, the former information technology administrator, worked for UNet for seven years before he left Brandeis this summer to join the technology staff at Carleton College in Minnesota.In an e-mail to the Justice, Graves wrote that his new position as a senior Unix administrator at Carleton will resemble his job at Brandeis. He said he accepted the position there in order to be closer to his relatives."My wife is from Minnesota, my brother also lives in Minnesota, and we'd been looking to move for a while," he said. "I'm sorry to miss one more Opening Sunday and one more incoming class, but it had to happen sooner or later, and Carleton is a fine place."Former Director of Student Development and Conduct Shawn McGuirk returns this semester to his alma mater, Fitchburg State College, to serve as the Director of Judicial Affairs, Mediation and Education. McGuirk said he made his decision mainly to be closer to his family."It was not an easy decision to make, but ultimately I had to put my family first," Mcguirk said. "I have a great deal of respect for people like [Dean of Student Life] Rick Sawyer and folks in that division."Sawyer, who worked with Tenser for her entire term here, said that her enthusiasm and talent contributed significantly to the efforts of the Department of Student Life."The change will be that starting the day after Lori leaves, our community in general, and our workplace specifically, will be losing a role model of ethical decision making, a guardian of standards that really mean something, a mentor to our newer staff members and a dean who listens carefully to students non-judgmentally and with an air of equality rather than importance," Sawyer said.Sawyer is currently looking for a replacement for Tenser.
(04/19/05 4:00am)
Two prominent health care policy scholars debated the policies of the Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management's fifth annual Zinner Distinguished Lecture Series on April 12.Titled "Promoting and Protecting the Public's Health: Reconciling the Perspectives of Patients, Payers, Government and Industry," the debate centered around issues involving the detection of harmful side effects of drugs, both before and after they enter the market, as well as the impacts of the pharmaceutical companies' advertising spending and U.S.'s free-market regulatory model on the drug consumers.Held in Rapaporte Treasure Hall, the debate was moderated by Stuart Altman, professor of national health policy at the Heller School. The panelists included Jerry Avorn, M.D., a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Kenneth I. Kaitin, Ph.D, director of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. Avorn suggested that the FDA implement a longer and more cautious drug approval process that would better identify the side effects of drugs before they enter the market.He also said that drug trials should incorporate larger numbers of patients, advocating for a more effective system to detect side effects not detected in drug trials. Criticizing the FDA for only initiating half of post-approval drug studies, Avorn called for the FDA to conduct more extensive research to identify and evaluate the risks of drugs already on the market."I'm unhappy with the way the FDA operates [and] the FDA's capacity to get on top of drug problems," he said, adding as an example that between 2.5 and 3 percent of approved drugs are taken off the market because they are later found to be unsafe.Kaitin agreed, but cautioned against slowing down approval processes to the detriment of innovation."My worry is that the crisis mentality may lead us down a road of requirements or regulations on the industry that will impede the flow of new products," Kaitin said. Avorn's criticism was not limited to the FDA.He also argued that pharmaceutical companies do not allocate their funds appropriately, dedicating only 11 percent of their budgets to research and developmen because, he said, the pharmaceutical industry has become a "vast marketing machine."But those advertisements do some public good, Kaitin said, praising their benefits. "There is a drug under-usage problem among Americans," he said, adding that advertisements may combat that trend. "More people are seeking prescriptions that they wouldn't have before," he said. "People who see these ads stay on their drugs more."When asked why the American market can price drugs higher than can any other country, Kaitin said that "the rest of the world has price control on prescription drugs," but the U.S. offers pharmaceutical companies an open market in which they can set prices and have greater freedom to develop new drugs."Controls hinder innovation ... the U.S. is the largest pharmaceutical marketplace in the world," Kaitlin said.Kaitin also disagreed with Avorn's view that pharmaceutical companies do not devote sufficient resources to develop new drugs.According to Avorn, most new drugs "are coming from university laboratories and biotech centers," not pharmaceutical companies.But Kaitin said that a great deal of research done in the biotech sector is actually funded by large pharmaceuticals.
(04/19/05 4:00am)
Brandeis Television began its move into a new studio in Ziv Commons this weekend, ending a three-year search for a larger area for filming.Residence Life has authorized BTV to tentatively use the space for live broadcasting. Details of the agreement were finalized on April 7 following a series of meetings with BTV's executive board and Residence Life that took place this semester. "This is going to be a trial-run," Julia Gordon '07, BTV's president, said. "It could become permanent, depending on how it goes." Assistant Dean of Student Life Alwina Bennett said BTV submitted a proposal to Residence Life in which they addressed concerns about the use of the space.Director of Residence Life Maggie Balch said that the trail-run will last until the end of the semester and that no plans have been finalized for the fall.Since BTV began moving in, Balch has not received any complaints from students living in Ziv or Ridgewood about not having that room available for activities.Amanda Daul, the director for Ziv and Ridgewood quads, said that Residence Life will be paying attention to the impact the television station will have on the immediate community. "If a student's need overrides, then we'll probably look into other options," she said. Daul said the commons is open from approximately 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.Marian Shpungin '07, BTV's vice president for communications, said the studio space would facilitate live shooting and the editing process."With the capability to broadcast and record from a designated studio space, the improvements to BTV that students have seen throughout the year will accelerate at an even greater pace," BTV wrote in a press release.Since the end of the 2001-2002 academic year, BTV has worked from an office in the Shapiro Campus Center. Instead of needing to reserve a space to film around campus, a studio gives BTV the ability to film whenever it wants, Shpungin said.According to BTV's executive vice president, Ari Schnitzer '07, "without a designated space the moving time, set up time and take down time for a half hour show can take hours and hours."Schnitzer said that with access to a semi-permanent space, the organization can spend much less time moving equipment and increase their airtime. BTV had hoped to more than double funding earlier this semester with an amendment to reallocate funding from other secured organizations, including the Justice and WBRS. That amendment required a two-thirds majority vote of the undergraduate student body to pass; it received approximately one third.BTV officials say they would have used the additional funding to refurbish the space and purchase new equipment.With the new space, "we'll be able to show the entire Brandeis community that we really have potential," Shpungin said.
(04/19/05 4:00am)
Prof. Michael Socolow (AMST), the director of Brandeis' journalism program announced his resignation from the University faculty Monday.Socolow is leaving Brandeis to teach at the University of Maine, where he is accepting a tenure-track position. He said that the tenured position, though an important feature in his new post, was not the basis for his decision to leave Brandeis."This decision had much more to do with family reasons than professional reasons," Socolow wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "I still had time left on my contract and I could have applied for the tenure-line search next year."Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he is sorry to hear about Socolow's resignation. "We are in the midst of planning to make sure that the journalism program continues to thrive during a transition next year," the dean wrote. "We will be searching next year for a longer-term replacement for the director of the program."Socolow said that he has faith in the success of the University's search process for a new program chair. He does not envision the program experiencing any major obstacles in the immediate future because of his decision."I am fully confident the American studies department will continue its recent record of hiring success," Socolow told the Justice. "The transition will be eased by the fact that I was not scheduled to be on campus this fall."Socolow initially planned on taking a leave of absence in the fall 2005 semester to write and return in January 2006. According to Socolow, the journalism program will expand next year to offer two new courses under the American studies department. "The number of courses next year should not be lowered," he said.Before joining Brandeis' faculty, Socolow was an assistant editor at CNN. At that network's Los Angeles bureau in 1994, Socolow directed coverage of the now-famous freeway chase of retired football star O.J. Simpson, who was accused of murdering his ex-wife and another man.In his career in academia, Socolow's scholarship has focused on the political, social and cultural development of early American radio networks. He has published opinion columns in The Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune.
(04/12/05 4:00am)
An online article published April 4 by a pro-Palestinian news source criticized Lester Crown, the benefactor of the $25 million Crown Center for Middle East Studies, for his role on the board of directors of General Dynamics Corporation, a defense contractor with strong ties to Israel and the U.S. military. The Web site alleges that Crown's involvement with General Dynamics will prevent unbiased scholarship at the new center, which opened last week. Shai Feldman, the Crown Center's director, declined to comment.Speaking on behalf of University President Jehuda Reinharz, Executive Assistant to the President John Hose said the president has no knowledge of Crown's affiliations and denied accusations that he would exert influence over scholarship at the center. "Mr. Crown is certainly not setting the Center's agenda," Hose wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "What is relevant is what is happening at the Crown Center, not associations that Mr. Crown may or may not have or opinions that he does or does not hold on any topic. The Crown Center should be judged only by what the Crown Center does."The article in the online magazine Electronic Intifada said General Dynamics Corporation made a major contract this year with an Israeli military technology company and said the ties may prevent the center from conducting unbiased research."There's not much financial incentive for either General Dynamics or Brandeis University to take any position which recognizes that the Israeli government must end its occupation of all the territory it illegally occupies," Bob Feldman wrote in the article. Crown is the billionaire president of the Chicago-based diversified investment firm, Henry Crown and Company. He received an honorary degree for his philanthropic work at last year's commencement ceremony.Reinharz recently accused other university centers for Middle East study of being "third rate." An official document from the Brandeis Development office reads, "Many of these centers have proved to be uneven in the quality of their research and biased in the interpretation of policy by focusing, often to the exclusion of other interests, on the Arab-Israeli conflict."The document says the Crown Center will "provide the best thought and insight on the region, free of ideological bias or preconceptions and free of politics." Reinharz has known Crown for ten years. Both served on the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. General Dynamics is a world supplier of land and amphibious combat systems and a manufacturer of armored vehicles, guns and ammunition handling systems. Crown has been on the Board of Directors of General Dynamics since 1974.In the center's opening conference on April 4 through 5, Shai Feldman said the center would "conduct research that is dispassionate and non-polemical." Shai Feldman emphasized that the center would not advocate one point of view, but rather involve a range of perspectives in its scholarship. Lester Crown's son James, the chairman of Henry Crown and Co., and Charles Goodman, the vice president of the company, also serve on the Board of Directors of General Dynamics.That board also includes advisors of the U.S. military, including former U.S. Army Chief of Staff John Keane, former Chief of Naval Operations Jay Johnson and former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Lester Lyles.
(04/05/05 4:00am)
The University's new $25 million Crown Center for Middle East Studies opened Monday with a panel discussion on the problems facing Middle East scholarship in the United States led by three distinguished scholars.Professors from Harvard, Tufts and Tel Aviv University assessed the new center's mission to reshape study of the modern Middle East, which some critics have said has become highly politicized and stagnant.The conference, which continues Tuesday with four more panel discussions, packed the Hassenfeld Conference Center Monday afternoon. Titled, "Middle East Studies in the U.S.: What Is All The Debate About," the discussion centered around the criticism that there might be something fundamentally wrong with how the modern Middle East is discussed and researched in American universities. In her opening remarks, Provost Marty Krauss said establishing this center has been a long-time vision of University President Jehuda Reinharz."The center will take on the toughest issues facing the Middle East [and] set a new standard for scholarly inquiry for the region," she said. Reinharz was in attendance but he did not address the audience. Shai Feldman, the director of the Crown Center, responded to what he said was a critical article in the Boston Globe which called him naave about controversies which have roiled American Middle East studies departments. "The debate about the Middle East [in the United States] has become more contentious than the debate in the Middle East itself," Feldman said. Martin Kramer Kramer, from Tel Aviv University's Dayan center for Middle East and African Studies, discussed the relationship between the U.S. government and academics in what the role of the Center should be in a "field ridden with controversy."Kramer said since Sept. 11, 2001 the U.S. government has increased funding for Middle East study centers. He said that because the Bush Administration has been the "greatest material benefactor of Middle East studies," centers have tended to "conform to the established model and win acceptance."Kramer posed the challenge to the Crown Center to embark on a different route and not accept the "standard answers in the Middle East debate." "The Crown Center has the opportunity to make a difference at a crucial moment," Kramer said. Other leaders in Middle East studies express the same, unoriginal perspectives, he said. Malik MuftiMufti, the director of Middle Eastern studies program at Tufts University, spoke about the "estrangement of Middle East Studies from politics" because of intimidation by the U.S. government to silence scholars in their engagement in the political discussion. He said while scholars are tempted to tailor their academic agenda to national interests, they have the obligation to use their knowledge and research to "better convey our thoughts on those who impact U.S. policy [and] participate in the political debate." Mufti addressed the necessity of being both "a good citizen and an honest scholar." He argued, "without civility, there can be no dialogue," therefore scholars have the duty to take an active role in politics as citizens and never "shy away from learning" and engaging in discussion with others. Steven Caton Caton, an anthropologist and the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, spoke about the duty of Middle Eastern studies departments and centers to provide more interdisciplinary research opportunities for resident scholars. "Many disciplines are engaged in the study of the Middle East," he said.He said "area centers" must educate students and the public through accessible formats to help people form educated positions. Canton seemed to take issue with Kramer's assessment of the lack of originality in recent Middle East scholarship. Yair Hirschfeld, a professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of Haifa, will be speaking Tuesday on a panel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. Hirschfeld was in attendance at the opening session. "The most important part of the discussion was getting heads of universities together to speak. It creates a community of interest, which is very useful," Hirschfeld said.
(04/05/05 4:00am)
This week Brandeis celebrates the opening of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies with an inaugural conference that began Monday and will continue today. The five lecture sessions, open to the Brandeis community and public, are delivered by a diverse group of scholars from Israel, the United States, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco and Palestinian territories. Crown Center Director Shai Feldman said the vision for the Crown Center is to create "a center that produces research of the highest scholarly quality, objective analysis of developments in the history, politics and economics of the Middle East." Feldman said the center will contribute to the wider discourse on the Middle East by holding conferences and producing research for the scholarly community and the public at large. "It is a center for people who seek to understand the Middle East better," he said. In addition, Feldman plans on opening a small television studio located at the center that will be able to provide up-to-date commentary and research to Boston area, national and international news networks and newspapers on events in the Middle East. "We mean to be heard beyond Waltham," Feldman said.The center's first Senior Fellows, Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestine Center for Political and Survey Research in Ramallah and Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, "will have access to the international media and the international media will have access to them."Feldman said he, Shikaki and Said will be teaching a course for students next fall entitled, "The Middle East Conflict: Competing Narratives." In addition to teaching courses, Feldman said the Senior Fellows will work with him on, "determining the research agenda of the center." Feldman said he is honored to work with Shikaki and Said, scholars he called, "the best minds in the region," for leading the Center in its research direction.After serving as the director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, where he worked for 27 years, Feldman said he looks forward to the challenging task of opening a new research center. He views the opportunity as a "chance to create something from scratch. I have the freedom to decide what avenues to take." According to Feldman, the University has already appointed two of its four university chairs. Near Eastern and Judaic Studies professors Ilan Troen and Kanan Makiya will chair Israel Studies and Islamic Studies, respectively. The other chair positions yet to be filled include Middle East economics and regional security in the Middle East. "[Chairs] will be connected to the Crown Center for the research side of their activities," Feldman said."Producing research and scholarship in a dispassionate, objective way," Feldman said, is important to do on a campus where he said, "passions run high" on the topic of the Middle East. He wants the Center to offer people a wide range of perspectives on the issues. "Arabs, Israelis, Palestinians, Iranians and Turks will all be part of the Center's activities," Feldman said. He expects the diversity of opinions to teach visitors that there are many ways to understand development in the Middle East.
(03/29/05 5:00am)
Teleservices Direct, an Indianapolis-based telemarketing firm that has been soliciting Brandeis students daily since February, told Systems Service Manager for Informational Technology Services John Turner on Wednesday that they would stop calling in light of recent complaints.Turner made the request because of the large volume of student complaints forwarded to him, but ITS Chief Information Officer Perry Hanson said he does not know how long Teleservices will stick to the agreement."We are now monitoring their calls to campus so we'll know if they resume calling," Hanson said.Teleservices Direct's database includes information on approximately eleven million college students, including their school and home contact information, according to the company's Web site.The company did not return calls for comment by press time.Turner said he created a database query that detects "top repeat callers," those who have dialed Brandeis the most number of times over a certain number of days. The query found that since February 5, two numbers called the University 13,000 times. Because of several student complaints and the findings of the query, Turner said ITS was able to identify these two as Teleservices Direct phone numbers and is now looking into blocking calls from those numbers. Sophia Yakir '07 received a brief call from Teleservices Monday, March 21, at about 9 a.m. She said a phone number with area code 317 appeared on her caller ID. The caller asked how her day was going, she responded that he had woken her, and then hung up. She did not report the call to ITS. Director of Public Safety Edward Callahan said that after three students reported being solicited last week, he forwarded the complaints to ITS to investigate the issue and find a way to block the company's calls to campus. Hanson said it is difficult and tedious to detect patterns, especially with Teleservices Direct frequently changing numbers. "It's a guess," Hanson wrote in an e-mail to the Justice, commenting on the difficulty of detecting numbers. "But it'll allow us to be proactive." Callahan said the University never divulges students' personal information and when students make calls on their room phones, only the University's main number appears on caller ID.Hanson cautioned students against speaking with telemarketers."They're annoying [and] very obnoxious, but not necessarily illegal," he said.
(03/22/05 5:00am)
The United States Senate passed the bipartisan Student Aid Reward Act last Thursday as an amendment to the 2006 fiscal year budget, increasing federal spending on direct student aid by $5.4 billion. The bill was introduced by Senators Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Representatives Tom Petri, R-Wis. and George Miller, D-Calif. During a conference call with student newspapers the day the act was introduced, Kennedy called the amendment "a win for the students, a win for the colleges and a win for the taxpayers."Direct loan programs are made with U.S. Treasury funds and are given directly to schools to support students' financial aid packages. Private loan programs are subsidized by the Federal Family Education Loan Program, through which schools receive aid from banks, credit unions and private institutions. Peter Giumette, Brandeis' director of student financial services, said the University has used direct federal loans instead of privately-funded loans for the past four or five years. He said the University receives over $10 million in direct federal loans.Giumette said the Student Aid Reward Act is preferable because it "allows us to go directly to a vendor for the federal government to provide loans." He said it is a more efficient program than the Federal Family Education Loan Program because it cuts out many of the middlemen in the loan process and features more customer service than private loan programs.Petri said he objects to the federal government subsidizing financial aid from private institutions, saying the new program "eliminates a lot of waste with helping disadvantaged students across the country." Kennedy said the less expensive and "more efficient," direct program will save the government $7 billion to $9 billion by decreasing the amount of subsidized funding to institutions.Under the Student Aid Reward Act, schools receiving direct loans will be rewarded with an increase in Pell Grant aid. As a result, the maximum Pell Grant award per student will jump to about $4,500, up from $4,050. 430 Brandeis students are Pell Grant recipients.Giumette said a school's choice between using direct federal loans over subsidized private loans is "a no-brainer." But, he said, smaller schools might opt for private loans because direct loans can create an administrative burden.Giumette said private agencies have "a lot of political clout" in Washington and the lobby for subsidized loans soliciting universities has kept schools using the subsidized program. In a statement released to colleges, Kennedy said, "Under current law, there are two parallel federal student loan programs that provide essentially the same loans and interest rates to students, but one costs billions of dollars more each year than the other.
(03/15/05 5:00am)
Students from the newly-chartered Fair Trade Brigade have been working with Aramark officials since the beginning of last semester to bring more "fair trade" coffee options to Java City and to make fair trade chocolate and tea available in the convenience store. The fair trade movement seeks to get workers living in the developing world fair payment for their products in the global economy by eliminating middlemen in the exchange between producer and exporter. In a conventional economy, the price to farmers in production exceeds the amount they are paid for the product. Farmers receive an average of 20 cents per pound of coffee, but under free trade, they receive at least $1.26 per pound because the products are sold directly from the producer to the exporter. Fair trade products are better for the environment because they are generally organically and shade grown, combating global warming and protecting the natural habitats of animals. Daniel Mauer '06, a member of the brigade, said he and the group have met with Aramark Food Service Director Richard Rubini several times this year to encourage Aramark to sell fair trade products on campus. Rubini manages Usdan Caf, the Boulevard, the convenience store and Java City.Currently, Java City offers one variety of fair trade coffee and Aramark subsidizes the coffee's extra cost. "We want as many fair trade products sold on campus as possible," Mauer said. According to brigade member Jenny Shapiro '05, "Java City has a policy that it will make any campus 100 percent fair trade if its students request."Rubini said the company must see that free trade is what the faculty, staff, and students want, though the extra cost would be passed to customers.Rubini said he is unsure whether the school will support selling all fair trade coffee because not all flavors are available in fair trade varieties, and "it will be a 20 to 25 cent" increase per cup. He is also unsure whether fair trade coffee will be offered only at Java City or at multiple places on campus.Shapiro said that in next week's Student Union election, a poll will be conducted to evaluate student opinion on selling fair trade products on campus. The brigade said it is launching a "huge education campaign" this week to show students why they should support the group's cause.Student Union President Mark Schlangel '05 said the Union will support fair trade advocacy efforts only if the poll shows that students also support the efforts. He said he looks forward to the brigade informing the campus of "what it would mean to bring fair trade to campus" so that everyone can make an informed decision in the upcoming poll.Rubini said the challenge they face is finding fair trade products through their distributor, United Foods, Inc. The fair trade coffee in Java City is currently distributed through United Food's Eco-Ground line, but Aramark said it has agreed to start selling organic and fair trade tea through United Food's Honest Tea line within the week.According to Rubini, the convenience store began selling Dagoba Organic Chocolate last week. They are also working with United Foods to purchase fair trade chocolate through the worker-owned company Equal Exchange. However, if Aramark cannot get it through its distributor, he said "we will order directly."Rubini said the store sold out of the chocolate quickly and is in the process of ordering more. "Chocolate and tea is a huge start," Mauer said.The brigade said it does not believe a higher price should be a deterrent to student support and that the benefits far outweigh the cost and variety issue. "We're not asking people to give up coffee; just to be better to the coffee growers," brigade member Lauren Abramowitz '07 said.She hopes the education campaign gets across to students that their "little bit of effort makes such a huge difference. Twenty cents more per cup makes huge changes in the lives of people in the global south.
(03/15/05 5:00am)
Staff at the Shapiro Admissions Center reported receiving a suspicious white envelope that contained what appeared to be marijuana seeds on March 4, according to a campus police report.Director of Admissions Deena Whitfield said the envelope was addressed to "A.B." and had no return address."We have no idea who it came from," Whitfield said. Director of Public Safety Edward Callahan picked up the envelope and contacted the U.S. Postal authorities."It's their prerogative to look into this concern," Callahan said. Callahan said the admissions office occasionally receives mail that violates state, federal, or municipal laws, and that he has to report such infractions to outside authorities."That's the obligation that we have," Callahan said. Callahan said he has not received further information about the envelope or the nature of its contents.
(03/15/05 5:00am)
A proposal to place students who receive a 'D' for the semester in a class on "advising alert" instead of "academic warning" will be presented to the faculty at its meeting on Thursday.The proposed change would allow students to request an "incomplete" or study abroad the semester after receiving a D on a semester grade report.Under the current system students are placed on academic warning from the time they receive a D on their transcript until they have earned "satisfactory" grades in a later semester. Administrative staff members have called those policies "overly punitive."Students on academic warning may not study abroad, depending on circumstances, and are ineligible to request "incompletes." In addition, the student's adviser and professors are informed of the student's removal from good academic standing and it is noted on the dean's certification for the student's application to graduate schools.First-Year Dean Michele Rosenthal said "internal follow-up and conversation" would still take place with the student and his or her adviser and professors, but the alert status would not remove him from good academic standing, nor would it be noted on the dean's certification. Rosenthal is a member of both the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Committee on Academic Standing.The UCC approved the recommendation, which was submitted by the Committee on Academic Standing, on March 3.Dean of Arts and SciencesAdam Jaffe who also chairs the committee wrote in an email that it has also been reviewing since the fall the policies on warning, probation and withdrawal."It was felt that removing a student from 'good standing' because of a single D is overly harsh and punitive," he said. Though the UCC ratified the the committee's proposal, English professor and UCC member John Plotz said, "the proposed change has to go before the faculty...it is not final with the UCC."The UCC oversees academic activities and regulations and is made up of seven faculty members, four staff members, four students, and Dean Jaffe. The committee is the faculty legislated committee that formally determines a student's academic standing.Plotz thinks the proposal will be well-received. Making it easier for students to be in good academic standing "is a change that needs to be made," he said.The proposal will be presented to the full faculty on Thursday and again at a later date, according to Rosenthal.
