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(02/09/21 11:00am)
Every year the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member panel, votes to award an individual or organization the Nobel Peace Prize. Part of Alfred Nobel’s legacy, the award aims to recognize the “person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses,” per the Nobel Peace Prize website. The nomination process is moderately accessible. Professors, politicians and previous Nobel Peace Prize winners can submit the name of an individual or organization that they deem worthy of the award. While hundreds of submissions are received each year, only between 20 and 30 are chosen and announced by the NNC in early February. The committee meets again multiple times between the months of April and September to review and eventually choose a winner. The award ceremony takes place in October and the winner receives a medal, 10 million Swedish crowns, the title of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and a diploma. The shortlist for 2021 was released earlier this month, and included teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and the Black Lives Matter Movement. In celebration of the BLM nomination for its work to address and combat systemic racism in the United States and abroad, the Justice compiled some of the historic anti-racism protests held on the Brandeis campus, along with the University’s latest plan to address systemic racism.
(02/09/21 11:00am)
In November, anonymous users interrupted a virtual panel discussing the oppression of the Uyghurs Muslim minority group in Xinjiang, China. One user played the Chinese national anthem and others used the annotation function of Zoom to write “Bullshit” and “Fake News” across the screen. A joint statement from the event sponsors said that just before the Nov. 13 event they were notified about “threatening emails from members of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association” urging the University to cancel the panel. The emails, according to the sponsors' statement, were sent to the President’s Office, the International Students and Scholars Office and the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
(02/09/21 11:00am)
In light of the Nov. 10 release of the University’s Draft Anti-Racism Plan, the Justice’s editorial board will be reviewing and providing feedback on prominent sections. We hope that these forthcoming editorials will serve as a resource for students to provide feedback to the administration. We also recognize, however, that our editorial board is predominantly composed of white students, and we will work to ensure that we are not taking space or attention away from the voices of the BIPOC students who are most directly affected by racism on campus. In line with this goal, we have grounded our analysis of the appendices in the demands put forward by the Black Action Plan.
(02/09/21 11:00am)
During the extended break, I went back home to Mountain View, California. For the past few years, I’ve been an avid walker, and I love taking pictures of cats, homes and landscaping that have curb appeal. I’ve recently also started listening to books as a way of using my walking time more productively. One day, while walking around my neighborhood, I was listening to “Rise of the Warrior Cop,” by Radley Balko. Suddenly, I was stopped by a lady in a gray late model Toyota Camry.
(02/09/21 11:00am)
The start of the new semester brought a new round of Student Union elections. On Jan. 25, students voted for five Union Senate seats, four Allocations Board seats and one junior representative seat to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
(02/09/21 11:00am)
The fall 2020 semester at Brandeis was unlike any other due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shift to partially remote learning. This new form of learning had many successes, but it also created some frustrations for students. In December, Jonathan Joasil ’22 and other students wrote an email to then-provost Lisa Lynch detailing their frustrations about the fall semester and provided suggestions for spring 2021. Later in December, Lynch emailed the Brandeis community about changes to the spring semester schedule, including additional break days.
(12/01/20 6:41pm)
In light of the Nov. 10 release of the University’s Draft Anti-Racism Plan, the Justice’s editorial board will be reviewing and providing feedback on each section of the plan. We hope that these forthcoming editorials will serve as a resource for students to provide feedback to the administration. We also recognize, however, that our editorial board is predominantly white, and we will work to ensure that we are not taking space or attention away from the voices of the BIPOC students who are most directly affected by racism on campus. In line with this goal, we have grounded our analysis of the appendices in the demands put forward in the Black Action Plan.
(11/17/20 11:00am)
The University and the United States at large experienced a racial reckoning this summer. The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Black and Brown communities in particular highlighted the ways that the American healthcare system was built to serve primarily white people and how other communities have been marginalized in terms of medical access. People of color with disabilities have especially faced roadblocks over the years.
(11/17/20 11:00am)
Lydia Begag ’22 had already been baking for quite some time prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the campus shutdown in early March, Begag’s passion for baking reemerged because of the additional time she had to focus on activities outside of school. “I was trying new recipes and figuring out what I liked, what was fun to bake,” she said in a Nov. 13 interview with the Justice via Zoom. The thought of making a business out of her baking didn’t occur to her at the time. “It was completely leisurely. … I saw no sort of business endeavor in it at all,” she said.
(11/17/20 11:00am)
Following the police killing of George Floyd and the subsequent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the mainstream this past May, the University made a commitment to address systemic racism on campus. After various announcements related to anti-racism, Zoom meetings with community members and guidance from the student organizers of the Black Action Plan, the University released a draft of its anti-racism plan in an email on Nov. 10. President Ron Liebowitz and Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Mark Brimhall-Vargas discussed the draft plan in a Nov. 10 joint interview with the Justice and The Brandeis Hoot.
(11/17/20 11:00am)
Angelika Bammer, an author and professor of comparative literature at Emory University, spoke virtually to the Brandeis community on Nov. 12 about her newly published book, “Born After: Reckoning with the German Past.” Bammer’s book recounts her family’s history in Nazi-era Germany, as well as her own thoughts as she grappled with processing this controversial past.
(11/17/20 11:00am)
Brandeis hosted authors Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy to talk about a new book they co-authored, “Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People,” in a virtual event on Monday, Nov. 9. In the book, Sharansky and Troy explore Sharansky’s extraordinary journey from being a dissident and a prisoner in a Soviet gulag to a public figure and leading activist in the Israeli political sphere. University President Ron Liebowitz, Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS), Prof. Shirley Idelson (DEPT) and Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Dr. Shayna Weiss joined the event and participated in the conversation with Sharansky and Troy.
(11/17/20 11:00am)
In June, during the resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests after police killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, University President Ron Liebowitz announced the administration’s intention to create an action plan to address systemic racism on campus. After six months of work, Liebowitz and Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Mark Brimhall-Vargas unveiled the University’s Draft Anti-Racism Action Plan in a Nov. 10 email to the Brandeis community. This board commends this critical step to address long-standing issues of racism on the Brandeis campus and encourages the student body to review and critique the administration’s plans, while also highlighting concerns we have about the way the University presented the action plan to the campus community.
(11/17/20 11:00am)
In his recent email about the Draft University Anti-Racism Plan, President Ron Liebowitz linked to a list of appendices that go into detail about the plan. Appendix B, “Our History of Anti-Racism Initiatives,” touches on several initiatives that the University has spearheaded, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. scholarships, the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program and the Brandeis Posse program. However, it largely focuses on the history of protests and occupations led by Black students and other students of color at the University. This board feels that the emphasis on these protests in a section titled “Our History of Anti-Racism Initiatives” incorrectly focuses on examples of the University’s commitment to social justice, rather than examples of the University’s racist systems and history.
(11/17/20 11:00am)
President-elect Joe Biden and the Democratic Party support a $15 minimum wage. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are completely against the idea. Yet, in the election Trump won with over 51% of the vote in Florida while a ballot initiative for a $15 minimum wage passed with 60.8% of the vote. To many, this would seem completely contradictory, but as someone who has grown up in Florida, it makes complete sense. Bill Clinton, the last Southern president from the Democratic Party, encapsulated this perfectly with a sign he hung in his Little Rock Campaign Headquarters that listed three messages: “The economy stupid,” “Don’t forget Healthcare” and “Change vs More of the Same.” People from the South may overwhelmingly vote Republican, but they are not against progressive ideas. Southerners want higher wages, better healthcare and socioeconomic change. This does not only apply to the South, but also for those living in the Rust Belt, a region in the midwest and any rural areas. It is the reason why Trump was so successful in the first place; he promised real change to people who felt as if they had been left behind. So, the question is, why was Biden and the rest of the Democratic Party’s performance in Florida and other Southern states so lackluster? The answer is how Democrats ran their campaigns.
(11/10/20 11:00am)
This year’s daylight saving time officially ended at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1. According to a CBS News article, approximately seven in 10 Americans “prefer not to switch back and forth to mark daylight saving time.” Although an inconvenience for many, daylight saving time was once an efficient way to save electricity. Understanding the history of daylight saving time might give you some perspective on its importance and help you adjust to standard time.
(11/10/20 11:00am)
Poets Javier Zamora and Sean Hill shared and discussed their poetry at a virtual event sponsored by the English Department on Nov. 4, titled “Javier Zamor and Sean Hill: Poets Engaging Travel and Race.”
(11/10/20 11:00am)
The transition to virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic has presented many new challenges for students and professors. This board would like to take the time to identify and address some issues we have noticed after several months of online classes.
(11/10/20 11:00am)
Last week, citizens of “the free world” cast their ballots for the 46th President of the United States. The world watched, not only because the United States has an important role in global politics, but also due to widespread recognition of the United States as one of the world’s most well-known democracies. This observation came with the realization that the world’s first draft of democracy needs major revision. In some regard, U.S. elections are conducted differently than in other democracies. These differences reveal weaknesses in American democracy.
(11/04/20 11:31am)
Massachusetts is historically a strong left-leaning state, so many experts projected a Democratic win in response to the Senate election results. As of 12:13 a.m., incumbent Democrat Ed Markey won the Massachusetts Senate seat with 66.4% of the vote, according to the Associated Press.
